Railsford

“ The long hill seemed interminable; there was no glimmer of a light anywhere to cheer him; no clatter of a horse’s hoofs to ring hope into his heart. All was black, and wet, and dreary. What if he should find the abbey deserted, and have to walk home—alone! He had nearly reached the ruin when he stumbled against two men conversing in the middle of the road. To his inexpressible relief one of them was Railsford.
“Mr Railsford!” gasped the boy, springing upon the master with a suddenness which made both men start, “is that you? Where’s Arthur? Have you found him?” ”

“ But as a general rule they grieved their friends by an eccentric habit of “mugging,” which, as anybody knows, is a most uncomfortable and alarming symptom in a boy of a house such as Railsford’s. True, there were among them a few noble spirits who never did a stroke of work unless under compulsion; but as a rule the Fifth-form fellows in Railsford’s lay under the imputation of being studious, and took very little trouble to clear their characters. Only when the school sports came round, or the house matches, their detractors used to forgive them. ”

“ Yet boys will be boys, and who can gauge the depths of a nature below the smiles that ripple on the surface?
It was little incidents like these which occasionally suggested to Railsford, far more forcibly than the lugubrious warnings of his officious friends, that the task before him at Grandcourt would tax his powers considerably. But, on the whole, he rejoiced that all would not be plain-sailing at first, and that there was no chance of his relapsing immediately into the condition of a humdrum pedagogue.
The Christmas holidays slipped away only too fast for Arthur and for Daisy. ”

“ The baronet for instance, was called upon to enter for the second class of kicking the football contest, and Arthur was moved from the quarter-mile to the half-mile, because a good man was wanted there to beat Smythe, of the School-House, whereas Sherriff could very well be trusted to take care of the quarter-mile for Railsford’s house.
Mr Railsford presently arrived on the scene, and went into the whole programme enthusiastically, and in a way which won him friends among the boys, more even than his reputed authorship of the Bickers outrage had lately done. ”

“ Such were the hopeful materials which Railsford was expected to inspire with a noble zeal in the pursuit of classics, history, and divinity. It would have bets as easy—at least, so it seemed to the master—to instruct he monkey-house at the Zoological Gardens. The few workers (scarcely one of whom, by the way, was in his own house) formed a little coterie apart, and grabbed up whatever morsels of wisdom and learning their master could afford to let drop in the midst of his hand-to-hand combat with the forces of anarchy and lethargy. ”

“ Railsford was forced to consent. It would have been obviously risky for a heavy man to ascend that rickety ladder. Dig rarely felt so proud and happy as when he skipped lightly up the rungs and reached the ivy-covered masonry of the arch. ”

“ It is melancholy to have to record failure, in whatever sphere or form; but truth compels us to state that at this particular moment Mark Railsford blundered grievously. Instead of deciding definitely there and then on his own authority whether dogs were or were not en règle in Railsford’s house, he halted and hesitated.
“That’s against rules, isn’t it?” said he.
“Against rules!” said Arthur, crimson in the face—“against rules! Why, Dig and I had one a year ago, only he died, poor beast; he had a mill with a rat, and the rat got on to his nose, and punished him before—”
“Yes,” said the master ”

“ Still, the race had been a pretty one while it lasted, and both competitors had handled the ribbons well. They would be the sort of boys to take to him—an old ’Varsity Blue; and he would meet them half-way. Railsford’s house should get a name for pluck and esprit de corps; and Railsford and his boys should show the way to Grandcourt! How Dr Ponsford and the “session of masters” would follow their lead it did not at present enter into the head of the vain young man to settle.
A knock came at his door as he stood lost in these pleasing reflections, and Grover entered. ”

“ Strangely enough, from the same cause, Railsford himself leapt into sudden popularity with his juniors. For if he, argued they, was the man who paid out Bickers for them, then, although it put them to a little inconvenience, they were resolved as one man to back their hero up, and cover his retreat to the best of their ability. The master himself was considerably surprised at the sudden outburst of affection towards himself. ”

“ Our School sports will go all to pieces without Ainger and Barnworth and some of their fellows.”
“You must see they do not go to pieces, Smedley,” said the doctor; “it would be unworthy of the school if they did. As for Mr Railsford’s boys, I have said what I had to say to them, and have nothing more to add.”
“But Mr Railsford himself, sir,” began the captain, desperately playing his last card; “we hoped he—”
“It is a most unfortunate thing for everyone,” said the doctor—“I include myself and you and Mr Railsford. ”

“ That’s why I left.”
“At any rate, I have one friend among the masters—Grover.”
“Oh, poor Grover. He is the only master who can get on at all, and he does so by effacing himself on every possible occasion, and agreeing with everybody.”
“Not a very noble character to hear of one’s friend,” said Railsford, who was beginning to get tired of this jeremiad.
“I don’t blame him; he can stand more than you or I can.” ”

“ After a while Grover hastened away to his own house, leaving Railsford somewhat uneasy in his mind.
If Dr Ponsford were to question him on the subject of the chariot race, he felt that he would be seriously compromised at the outset of his career. He knew at least the nickname of one of the delinquents; and had actually, by standing and watching the contest without protest, been an accessory to the offence. He busied himself forthwith in his unpacking, and studiously avoided the window until daylight departed, and the court below became silent and deserted. ”

“ He is an enemy to the order of our house, and, as you know, our house just now cannot afford to have more enemies than it has.”
“Your enemies are those of your own house,” said the doctor sternly. “I had expected long before this that it would have been possible to restore it to the ordinary rights of Grandcourt. An impenetrable mystery is a bad thing for a school.”
“It is,” said Railsford, feeling uncomfortable. And here the conservation ended.
Railsford had not been long in his room that evening when Sir Digby Oakshott knocked at the door and entered with a long face. ”

“ He will never be happy till he has it off his mind; and it surely wouldn’t be necessary for me to take any notice of his rhodomontades.”
“I’m glad you are so little concerned about them. I was afraid they might be worrying you.”
Railsford smiled.
“I’ve plenty in my own house to do that, thanks. No, all I ask is to keep the peace with Bickers, and have nothing to do with him. He may then say anything he likes. Well, I suppose I had better go over to the doctor’s now and report myself.” ”

“ They had beaten all the records but three, and, without being specially conceited, Railsford took to himself the credit of having done a good deal to bring about this satisfactory result.
“Curious,” said he to himself, “that in all probability, if that affair of Bickers’s had not happened, we might never have risen as a house; indeed, it’s almost a mercy the culprit has never been discovered, for we should have then been plunged back into the current, and the work of pulling ourselves together might never have been done. ”

“ The boy, of course, knew nothing of Railsford’s candidature.
“Such a flare-up!” wrote the youth. “Moss has got kicked out! He’s jacked it up, and is going at Christmas. Jolly good job! He shouldn’t have stopped the roast potatoes in the dormitories. Bickers’s fellows have them; they can do what they like! Dig and I did the two mile spin in 11.19, but there was too much slush to put it on. All I can say is, I hope we’ll get a fellow who is not a cad after Moss, especially as he will be Master of the Shell, and I’ll get a dose of him both ways after Christmas. ”

“ I would advise you to relieve them of their office as soon as you can.”
“Thank you for your advice,” said Railsford, whose blood was getting up. “I will make my own arrangements in my own house.”
“Of course, my dear fellow,” replied Bickers, blandly, “but you should really find two better men than those. There was no attempt to stop the disorder (which had been going on for half an hour) when I arrived. I had to castigate one of the ringleaders myself—Herapath by name, claiming kinship with you, by the way. I’m not sure that you ought not to report him to Dr Ponsford.” ”

“ The petition was short and business-like:
“To Dr Ponsford. Sir,—We, the boys of Mr Railsford’s house, have heard with great sorrow that he is to leave Grandcourt. We consider he has done more for our house than any other master, and feel it would be the greatest loss to all of us if he were to go. He does not know we are sending this. We hope it will have your favourable consideration, and make it possible for him to stay among us.”
In two days this document received the signature of every boy in the house except Felgate and Munger, who contrived to evade it. ”

“ Arthur and the Baronet settle down for the Term.
The reader is not to imagine that Railsford’s house contained nobody but the four prefects of the Sixth-form and the sedate tenants of the study immediately over the master’s head, who belonged to the Shell. On the contrary, the fifty boys who made up the little community were fully representative of all grades and classes of Grandcourt life. There was a considerable substratum of “Babies” belonging to the junior forms, who herded together noisily and buzzed like midges in every hole and corner of the house. ”

“ Ainger and all the lot were tucking in. The beef was just going in, so they’ve only just started.”
“Jolly shame!” said someone who overheard this announcement; “we never get feasts in our house! I suppose Railsford thinks he’ll get his chaps in a good-humour by it. It’s not fair unless everybody does it.”
“It’ll be hall-time before they’ve done. We’d better not wait,” said one of the Sixth. “I wonder what it all means?”
“I heard Ponsford had been down rowing them about something this morning—something some of them had been doing to Bickers, I believe.” ”

“ Here Mr Bickers was beginning to get aggressive, and the backs of one or two of Railsford’s friends, particularly monsieur’s back, went up.
“That same morning, gentlemen, the doctor came and challenged the house to produce the offender or offenders. Every boy in the house was called over and questioned separately; said each one denied not only that he had done it himself, but that he had any knowledge of who had. Every member of the house, except the master of the house, was thus questioned. The master was not challenged. ”

“ Dig departed, and Railsford weakly fell in with the arrangement of the junior, and allowed him to remain and deliver the rest of his domestic messages.
“Now, look here, Arthur,” said the master, closing the door and facing his unabashed future kinsman, “we must come to an understanding at once. During term time I forbid you to mention Daisy’s name, either to me or anybody else, unless I wish it—”
The boy whistled. “What, have you had a row, then? Is it all broken off? My eye, what will—”
“Rubbish!” said Mark, scarcely able to keep grave; “it’s neither one nor the other. ”

“ If I get the Swift Scholarship I shall have £20 a-year for three years—something to start with. I wish you’d come down and give me a leg-up. I’m afraid that cad Smedley’s got his eye on her. His father’s only a doctor. We’re better off than that, besides being chummy with a baronet. Hullo! there’s the bell for cubicles. Ta, ta. Je suis très miserable. Your aff. A.H.”
Little dreaming of the sad blight which had come over his future young kinsman’s life, Railsford was sitting in his room that Sunday evening, feeling rather more than usually comfortable. ”

“ Oh, I say, Marky, we shall be awfully up a tree without you here. Why ever are you going? Can’t it all be squared?”
“No, old fellow, I fear not. But I am not going for a week yet. Let’s make the most of the time, and get ahead with our work; for, remember, you’ve that Swift Exhibition coming near ahead.”
“Work!” exclaimed Arthur, in disgust. “I’ll not do a stroke of work more. I tell you what, if you leave, Marky, I shall leave too, and so will Dig, there!”
“My dear old fellow,” said Railsford kindly, “you are talking like a little donkey. ”

“ Number 4.—Francis Herapath, Esquire, Merchant, to James Blake, Esquire, Solicitor.
“Private and Confidential.
“Dear Blake,—Being detained here owing to a miscarriage of some of our luggage, I write this instead of waiting till I see you, as it may be another week before we are home.
“During our travels my daughter has become engaged to a Mr Mark Railsford, apparently a very desirable and respectable young man. You will wonder why I trouble you about such a very domestic detail. ”

“ Rainsford’s eyes saw only blackness, and then, as the general pressed a button, far out to sea Rainsford saw the flash of lights.
The general chuckled. “They indicate a channel,” he said, “where there’s none; giant rocks with razor edges crouch like a sea monster with wide-open jaws. They can crush a ship as easily as I crush this nut.” He dropped a walnut on the hardwood floor and brought his heel grinding down on it. “Oh, yes,” he said, casually, as if in answer to a question, “I have electricity. We try to be civilized here.”
“Civilized? And you shoot down men?” ”