Here two or three of the smaller boys implicated began to snivel. The whole lot would be swished, of course, they thought, and, indeed, such was the opinion of the whole school. It was precious hard lines, for they had no more hand in the affair than anybody else in the room; but such was the Doctor's way. "As for you, Haviland," he continued, "it is simply lamentable how you have time after time betrayed your trust and shirked your responsibilities--in short, gone from bad to worse. I had hoped you would have taken warning when I was obliged to suspend you from your office, and have behaved in such wise as to justify me in shortly reinstating you; but, so far from this, you seem to have become utterly reckless and abandoned. You are nearly grown up now, and should be setting an example; but, instead of that, you are using the influence which your age and strength give you in the eyes of your schoolfellows, to lead your juniors into mischief and wrong-doing. It is clear, therefore, that there is no further place for you among us. Yet I am reluctant, very reluctant, to proceed to such an extreme measure as your public expulsion--" Now the excitement had reached its height. Haviland was going to be swished, not expelled, decided the spectators, but--would he take it? Haviland standing there, his lips compressed, a set frown on his brow, was of the same opinion, except that he himself, and he only, held the answer to the question. He would not take it--no, decidedly not. They might expel him and welcome, he did not care, he was past caring; but submit to the indignity of a flogging at his age he would not. "Therefore," continued the Doctor, "I shall take time to consider so grave and painful a matter; and, meanwhile, you will be withdrawn from all intercourse or contact with the rest of the school. Anthony I shall, of course, soundly flog. I shall also flog Smithson minor and Mcmurdo; and, as for the other boys in the dormitory, on this occasion I shall confine myself to severely warning them." There was a sort of audible sensation among the listeners, but it was nothing to what followed. For now Haviland lifted up his voice:-- "Please, sir, Smithson and Mcmurdo had no more to do with it than the man in the moon." The Doctor frowned as he gazed sternly at the speaker. "Keep silence," he said, in a curt tone. Haviland obeyed. He had made his protest in the name of fair play. He was not concerned to take any further risks. But those who saw--those who heard--was ever such a thing witnessed before at Saint Kirwin's? The Doctor--the awful, the dreaded Doctor--expostulated with, and that before the whole school! Why did not the very heavens fall?