In Search of Treasure

Dr. Musgrave was so occupied with thoughts of the punishment that he proposed to inflict on the poor boy whom he had captured that he did not notice the visitors, who stood at one side of the path leading to his office.

Simon brought up the wagon in front of the gate.

Dr. Musgrave jumped out, and then extended his hand to Vivian Bell.

“Give me your hand!” he said gruffly.

The poor boy tremblingly held out his hand, which was grasped roughly by the tyrant. He was jerked out with no gentle motion.

“Now, Simon, give me the whip!”

Dr. Musgrave grasped it, and seizing Vivian by the collar, began to push him before him up the path.

Guy and August Locke looked on in disgust and anger.

“Speak to him, Mr. Locke,” whispered Guy.

“Dr. Musgrave!” said August, in a clear, cold voice.

Then for the first time the head master turned his attention to the newcomers.

“I will be at your service in a few moments,” he said, waving his hand.

He thought that August Locke wished to enter Guy at his school.

“That will not do, Dr. Musgrave. I wish your attention now!”

Dr. Musgrave, whose temper was none of the best, took umbrage at this.

“You will have to wait!” he said, sharply. “I have to mete out justice to this young rascal, who had the audacity to run away from me. I have just recovered him, and I intend to flog him in the presence of the school. You can be present, if you like.”

“Dr. Musgrave,” said Locke, sternly, “this flogging shall not take place!”

“What!” exclaimed the head master, with blazing eyes. “Do you come here to interfere with my discipline?”

“I do; or rather we do.”

“I never heard of such audacity!” exclaimed Dr. Musgrave, fairly aghast.

“Is not this boy Vivian Bell?”

“Yes.”

“Then you shall not flog him!”

Dr. Musgrave was exasperated beyond endurance. He had been accustomed to move among his pupils like an Eastern despot, with no one bold enough to oppose him.

“This is my answer,” he said, grasping the whip, and lashing Vivian across the legs, eliciting a cry of pain.

“And this is mine!” said August Locke.

He snatched the whip from the head master, grasped him by the collar, and with all the strength he possessed rained down blows across the teacher’s legs.

Dr. Musgrave shrieked with anger and dismay. As he did so he let go of Vivian Bell.

Guy instantly drew the trembling boy to his side.

“What do you mean by this outrage?” demanded Dr. Musgrave. “Give me back that whip!”

“You cannot be trusted with it,” said Locke, coolly.

Dr. Musgrave, fairly boiling with passion, made a spring for Vivian, but August Locke anticipated the movement, and brought down the whip over the head master’s shoulders.

“Boys, come to the help of your teacher!” shrieked Musgrave.

Not a boy stirred except Simon.

He ran forward, and tried to attack Vivian Bell.

Guy let go of Vivian, and with a well-directed blow stretched Simon on the ground.

“What do you mean by this outrage? Who are you?” asked the head master, pale and agitated.

“I, sir, am August Locke, once your pupil,” replied Locke. “I am paying you off for some of your former brutality.”

“I will have you arrested—yes, and you, too!” shaking his head at Guy.

“Let me introduce my young companion, Dr. Musgrave,” went on Locke. “He is Master Guy Fenwick. He comes here as the agent of Mr. John Saunders, of Bombay, the guardian of Vivian Bell.”

“Is this true?” asked the head master, bewildered and incredulous.

“Yes, sir,” answered Guy. “I came here to find out how the boy was treated, but I have seen for myself. I withdraw him from your school. He is no longer a pupil of yours!”

Vivian Bell’s expression changed at once. He looked overjoyed.

“Oh!” he said, “is this true?”

“Yes,” answered Guy, putting his hand caressingly on the boy’s shoulder. “I shall take you away with me.”

Dr. Musgrave, though still shaking with anger, was not wholly destitute of prudence.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “before anything is decided upon, I wish to explain that this boy has committed a daring act of rebellion, an act which merits summary punishment.”

Vivian looked up nervously into Guy’s face, but the expression he saw there reassured him.

“Yes, sir; he ran away,” said August Locke, “and any boy would be justified in running away under the circumstances.”

“Sir,” said Dr. Musgrave, striving to recover some of his lost dignity, “in a school like this there must be discipline.”