Tom, Dick and Harry | Page 3

in my appearance must have attracted his attention, for he
looked at me again, and said, "What makes you look so jolly fishy, eh,
youngster?"
"Oh," said I, a little flattered to have my looks remarked upon, "I had a
nightmare or something."
"Comes of eating such a supper as you did," replied the Dux.
"Wouldn't he open his eyes," thought I, "if I told him what the
nightmare was! But I won't do it."
I therefore relapsed into my toilet, and, as time was nearly up, left the
unconscious sleep-walker to finish his in silence.
Dr Hummer's "select young gentlemen" only numbered thirty, all told--
chiefly sons of the trading community, who received at the
establishment at Hampstead all the advantages of a good commercial
education, combined with some of the elegances of a high-class
preparatory school. Tipton's father, who was an extensive draper in an
adjoining suburb, was rather fond, I believe, of telling his friends that
he had a boy at Dangerfield College. It sounded well, especially when
it was possible to add that "my boy and his particular chum, young
Tempest, son of the late Colonel Tempest, you know, of the Guards,
did this and that together, and might perhaps spend their next holidays
together at Tempest Hall, in Lincolnshire, if he could spare the boy

from home," and so on.
It was an awful fascination for some of us to speculate what the "Dux"
would have to say if he could hear this sort of talk. We trembled for
Tipton's father, and his shop, and the whole neighbourhood in which he
flourished.
Tempest's presence at the "College" did, however, add quite a little
prestige to the place. No one seemed to suppose that it had anything to
do with the fact that the terms were exceptionally moderate, and that
his gallant father had left very slender means behind him. Even Dr
Plummer had a habit, so people said, of dragging his aristocratic head
pupil's name into his conversation with possible clients, while we boys
mingled a little awe with the esteem in which we held our
broad-backed and well-dressed comrade.
Within the last few weeks especially the school had had reason to be
proud of him. He had taken an exhibition at Low Heath, one of the
crack public schools, and was going up there at Midsummer. This was
an event in the annals of Plummer's which had never happened before
and in all probability would never happen again.
To do the Dux justice, he set no special store by himself. He believed in
the Tempests as a race, but did not care a snap whether anybody else
believed in them or not. Any boy who liked him he usually liked back,
and showed his affection, as he did in my case, by frequent lickings.
Boys he did not like he left severely alone, and there were a good many
such at Dangerfield.
As to the exhibition, that had been entirely his own idea. He had not
said a word about it to Plummer or any of us, and it was not till after he
had got it, and Plummer in the fulness of his heart gave us a holiday in
celebration of the event, that we had any of us known that the Dux had
been in for it.
The second bell had already sounded before I had completed my toilet,
the finishing touches of which, consequently, I was left to add in
solitude.

When I descended to the refectory I was struck at once by an unusual
air of gloom and mystery about the place. Something unpleasant must
have occurred, but what it was nobody appeared exactly to know,
unless it was the principal himself. Dr Plummer was just about to make
a communication when I made my belated entry.
"Jones," said he, as much in sorrow as in anger, "this is not the first
time this term that you have been late."
It certainly was not.
"What is the reason?"
"Please, sir," said I, stammering out my stereotyped excuse, "I think I
can't have heard the first bell."
"Perhaps the first six sums of compound proportion written out ten
times will enable you to hear it more distinctly in future. We will try it,
if you please, Jones."
Then turning sternly to the assembled school, he said, "I was about to
say something to you, boys, when this disturbance interrupted me. A
shameful act has been done by some one in the night, in which I
sincerely hope no one here has had a hand. The dog has been killed."
A whistle of consternation went round the room. What? Hector
killed?-- Hector the collie--the beast--the brute--the sneak--the
traitor--the arch-enemy of every boy at Plummer's? Hector, who was
reported to be worth thirty guineas? Hector,