"Let them," said he, with a laugh which was anything but merry. I was longing to hear what had happened to him last night, but he did not volunteer any information, and I did not care to question him. Horribly uneasy, I was about to seek the questionable consolations of my comrades, when the school messenger entered with a long face. "Master Tempest, the head master wants to see you at once." "All right," said Tempest. "He said I was to bring you." "If you want to carry me, you may," said Tempest, with a short laugh; "if not, wait a moment and I'll come. Jones, tell Pridgin I want to speak to him--wait, I'll go to him." The school messenger looked as if he felt it his duty to take the senior at his word. Had Tempest been a smaller boy, he might have done so. As it was, he repeated,-- "At once, please, sir." Tempest took no notice, but went across the passage to his friend's room. When he reappeared in a minute or two, Pridgin was with him, and without taking further notice of the messenger's presence the two walked arm-in- arm out of the house and across the quadrangle. The news of the summons spread like wildfire. The Philosophers, when in due time they mustered in the faggery after their inspection of the scene of the outrage, were not slow in taking in the seriousness of the situation. "Of course he's suspected. It's all your fault, you ass, for being such a muff and letting Jarman catch you. You can't do a thing without making a mess of it." "How could I help it?" I pleaded. "Couldn't you have fetched his blazer for him without running into that cad's way?" "What I can't make out," said Langrish, "is how Tempest knew about the guy and was able to let it off." "I don't believe he did," said I. "I'm sure he didn't." "You'd believe anything. Things like that don't go off by themselves, do they?" I was bound to admit they did not, but persisted in my belief that Tempest had nothing to do with it. But the logic of the Philosophers was irresistible. "Didn't we see him go over and come back? and didn't it blow up the moment he got into the house?" said Trimble. "And didn't he go over on purpose to have it out with Jarman?" said Coxhead. "And hadn't he got his blazer with him when he came back?--so he must have been in the gym.," said Warminster. "Who else was likely to do it?" said Langrish. "I suppose you'll try to make out Jarman tried to blow himself up?" "I never said so. All I said was that I'm positive Tempest never did it." "And all we say is that you're about as big an ass as you look, and that's saving a good deal," chimed in the Philosophers. How long the wrangle might have gone on I cannot say. For just then the school messenger appeared on the scene once more--this time in quest of me. "Young Master Jones iv., you're to go to the head master at once." "What for?" said I, feeling a cold shudder go down my spine.