Part 11 (1/2)

Whatever noise the master might have heard, it would be impossible to fix it on any of the sleepers.

So at the top of the stairs stood little Wright, shoeless, and s.h.i.+vering in his night-gown, but keenly entering into the fun, and not unconscious of the dignity of his position. Meanwhile the rest were getting up a scenic representation of Bombastes Furioso, arranging a stage, piling a lot of beds together for a theatre, and dressing up the actors in the most fantastic apparel.

The impromptu Bombastes excited universal applause, and just at the end Wright ran in through the lavatory.

”I say,” said the little fellow, ”it's jolly cold standing at the top of the stairs. Won't some one relieve guard?”

”Oh, I will,” answered Eric good-naturedly; ”it's a shame that one fellow should have all the bother and none of the fun,” and he ran to take Wright's post.

After watching a minute or two, he felt sure that there was no danger, and therefore ran up to Upton's study for a change.

”Well, what's up?” said the study-boy approvingly, as he glanced at Eric's laughing eyes.

”Oh, we've been having leap-frog, and then Bombastes Furioso. But I'm keeping 'cave' now; only it's so cold that I thought I'd run up to your study.”

”Little traitor; we'll shoot you for a deserting sentinel.”

”Oh no!” said Eric, ”it's all serene; Rowley's out, and dear old Rose'd never dream of supposing us elsewhere than in the arms of Morpheus.

Besides, the fellows are making less row now.”

”Well, look here! let's go and look on, and I'll tell you a dodge; put one of the tin was.h.i.+ng-basins against the iron door of the lavatory, and then if any one comes he'll make clang enough to wake the dead; and while he's amusing himself with this, there'll be lots of time to 'extinguish the superfluous abundance of the nocturnal illuminators.'

Eh?”

”Capital!” said Eric; ”come along.”

They went down and arranged the signal very artistically, leaving the iron door ajar a little, and then neatly poising the large tin-basin on its edge, so as to lean against it. Having extremely enjoyed this part of the proceedings, they went to look at the theatricals again, the boys being highly delighted at Upton's appearance among them.

They at once made Eric take a part in some very distant reminiscences of Macbeth, and corked his cheeks with whiskers and mustachios to make him resemble Banquo, his costume being completed by a girdle round his night-s.h.i.+rt, consisting of a very fine crimson silk handkerchief, richly broidered with gold, which had been brought to him from India, and which at first, in the innocence of his heart, he used to wear on Sundays, until it acquired the soubriquet of ”the Dragon.” Duncan made a superb Macbeth.

They were doing the dagger-scene, which was put on the stage in a most novel manner. A sheet had been pinned from the top of the room, on one side of which stood a boy with a broken dinner-knife, the handle end of which he was pus.h.i.+ng through a hole in the middle of the sheet at the shadow of Duncan on the other side.

Duncan himself in an att.i.tude of intensely-affected melodrama, was spouting--

”Is this a dagger which I see before me?

The handle towards me now? come, let me clutch thee.”

And he s.n.a.t.c.hed convulsively at the handle of the protruded knife; but as soon as he nearly touched it, this end was immediately withdrawn and the blade end subst.i.tuted, which made the comic Macbeth instantly draw back again, and recommence his apostrophe. This scene had tickled the audience immensely, and Duncan, amid shouts of laughter, was just drawing the somewhat unwarrantable conclusion that it was:

”A dagger of the mind, a false creation.”

when a sudden grating, followed by a reverberated clang, produced a dead silence.

”Cave,” shouted Eric, and took a flying leap into his bed. Instantly there was a bolt in different directions; the sheet was torn down, the candles dashed out, the beds shoved aside, and the dormitories at once plunged in profound silence, only broken by the heavy breathing of sleepers, when in strode--not Mr Rose or any of the under-masters--but Dr Rowlands himself!

He stood for a moment to survey the scene. All the dormitory doors were wide open; the sheet which had formed the stage curtain lay torn on the floor of Number 7; the beds in all the adjoining rooms were in the strangest positions; and half-extinguished wicks still smouldered in several of the sconces. Every boy was in bed, but the extraordinary way in which the bed-clothes were huddled about told an unmistakable tale.

He glanced quickly round, but the moment he had pa.s.sed into Number 8 he heard a run, and, turning, just caught sight of Upton's figure vanis.h.i.+ng into the darkness of the lavatory, towards the study stairs.

He said not a word, but stalked hastily through all the dormitories, again stopping at Number 7 on his return. He heard nothing but the deep snores of Duncan, and instantly fixed on him as a chief culprit.