Dick was called out and faced the men, firm-lipped and with unconquerable resolution in the set of his face and the gleam of his eye.

‘’Bout this job o’ goat-stealin’?’ said Cann, with a grave judicial air.

‘They stole my billy.  I went to fetch him back, an’ all the other goats come too,’ Dick answered.

‘Who helped?’

‘Just a dog—­a sheep an’ cattle dog.’

‘What boys?’

‘Dunno !’

The examination might as well have ended there.  It is a point of honour amongst all schoolboys never to ‘split’ on mates.  The boy who tells is everywhere regarded as a sneak—­at Waddy he speedily became a pariah—­and Dick was a stickler for points of honour.  To be caned was bad, but nothing to the gnawing shame of long weeks following upon a cowardly breach of faith.  To all the questions Cann or Peterson could put with the object of eliciting the names of the participators in the big raid, Dick returned only a distressing and wofully stupid ’Dunno!

Peterson scratched his head helplessly, and turned an eye of appeal upon the master.

‘Very well,’ said Cann, ‘we’ll just have to guess at the other boys, an’ their fathers’ll be prevailed on to deal with ’em; but this boy what’s been the ring leader ain’t got no father, an’ it don’t seem fair to the others to leave his punishment to a weak woman, does it?’

Peterson’s eye appealed to the master again.  ‘Not fair an’ square to the other boys,’ he added philosophically.

Joel Ham shook his head.

‘I teach your children,’ he said.  ’I neither hang nor flagellate your criminals.’

‘No, no, a-course not,’ said Peterson.

‘Might you be able to spare us this boy fer the rest o’ the afternoon, in the name o’ the committee?’ asked Cann.  ‘We’ll go an’ argue with his mother to leave the lickin’ of him to the committee.’

‘As a question o’ public interest,’ said Peterson.

The master consented to this, and Dick was led away between the two men.  The interview with Mrs. Haddon took place in the widow’s garden.  Mrs. Haddon quite understood what it meant when Peterson entered with Dick in custody.

‘Good day, Mrs. Haddon,’ said the big man gingerly.  ‘O’ course you know all ‘bout the trouble o’ those goats.’

‘Made by you stupid men, mostly,’ said Mrs. Haddon.

Peterson stammered and appealed to Cann—­he had not expected argument.

‘What we men did, ma’am,’ said Cann, ’was to protect our property.  If the goats hadn’t bin brought here there wouldn’t ‘a’ bin any need fer that.  Not to mention garden robbin’ before, an’ broken fences an’ such.’

‘The School Committee, ma’am,’ said Peterson, ’has drawed up a list of suspects, an’ the fathers of the boys named will lambaste ’em all thorough.  Now it occurred to the committee that your boy, bein’ the worst o’ the pack, an’ havin’ confessed, oughter get a fair share o’ the hammerin’.’