“Some of us suggested it to Doe, sir.”

“Very well, you will have the punishment of seeing him suffer for it.”

And thereupon, without waiting to be told, Doe left his desk, and came and stood by me.  It was a theatrical action, such as only he would have done, and our master concealed his surprise, if he felt any, by an impassive face.

“I shall now cane these two boys,” he said with cold-blooded directness.

“Certainly,” whispered Penny.

Both corners of my mouth went down in a grim resignation.  Doe’s lips pressed themselves firmly together, and his eyelids trembled.  Mr. Caesar, ever generous, looked through the window over green lawns and flower-beds.  Radley went to his cupboard, and took out a cane.

“Bend over, Ray.”

“Certainly,” muttered Penny again.  “Bend over.”

I bent over, resting my hands on my knees.  Radley was a cricketer with a big reputation for cutting and driving; and three drives, right in the middle of the cane, convinced me what a first-class hitter he was.  At the fourth, an especially resounding one, Penny whistled a soft and prolonged whistle of amazement, and murmured:  “Well, that’s a boundary, anyway.”  And I heard suppressed giggles, and knew that my class-fellows were enjoying the exquisite agony of forcing back their laughter.

When my performance was over, the second victim, Edgar Doe, with the steel calm of a French aristocrat, which he affected under punishment, walked to the spot where I had been operated on.  He bent over (again without being told to do so), and only spoiled his proud submission by telegraphing to Radley one uncontrolled look of pathetic appeal like the glance of a faithful dog.  Radley, not noticing these unnerving actions, or possibly a little annoyed by them, administered justice severely enough for Doe, proud as he was, to wince slightly at every cut.  Then he put his cane away, and issued, as before, his little ration of gentleness.

“You’re two plucky boys,” he said.

Sec.4

That night I measured my barefoot height against the dormitory wall, and made a deep pencil-mark thereon:  which done, I reached up to a great height, and made a mark to represent Radley.  After these preliminaries there was nothing to do but to wait developments.  One practice which aided growth was to lie full-length in bed instead of curled up.  So, after I had cut with nail-scissors the few fair hairs from my breast and calves, in an endeavour to encourage a plentiful crop like that which added manliness to Pennybet’s darker form—­after this delicate, operation, I got between the sheets, and straightened out my limbs with a considerable effort of the will.  Later on I forced them down again, when I found that my knees had once more strayed up to my chin.

Our dormitory at Bramhall House was a long many-windowed room, containing thirty beds, Edgar Doe’s being on my left.  He suddenly made reference to our punishment of the morning.