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Updated: June 4, 2025
Presently, however, after remaining there awhile, staring at nothing, the Captain's favourite maxim occurred to his mind "What's done can't be helped"; and coming to the conclusion that there was no use in his stopping on the pier any longer, since the steamer had left, and there was no possibility of his being able to join the others, he determined to bend his steps in the direction of the coastguard-station, with the hope of finding Hellyer there to cheer his drooping spirits.
To tell the strict truth, these quarterly reports of Dr Hellyer in respect of my conduct were not wholly undeserved; for, with the exception of displaying a marked partiality for mathematics, which, fortunately for my subsequent knowledge of navigation, Mr Smallpage kindly fostered and encouraged to the best of his ability, my studies were terribly irksome to me, and my lessons being consequently neglected, led to my having impositions without number.
Hence, his bark, alarming though it might have sounded at the first go off to Nell and her aunt, was found now to have been a bark of recognition and joy and not one of warning. Mrs Gilmour felt such a sensation of relief at the sight of Hellyer that her feelings prevented her from speaking.
When things had arrived at this happy stage, the Captain, who had been put in a fidget by the crowd clustering round `a pack of star-gazing fools' as he whispered pretty audibly to Mrs Gilmour thought it was time to make a move. "Hellyer, you and your shipmate had better call round at my house in the morning," he said to his old coxswain, the elder of the two coastguardsmen.
By and by, when the Captain declared he couldn't eat another morsel, and Bob and Nellie also had had enough, Mrs Gilmour heaped up a couple of plates with the remains of the veal-and-ham pie for Hellyer and Dick, who had all this time been busily employed ministering to their various wants, and now retired some little distance off to enjoy their well- earned meal. Then came Bob's turn for action.
The personal rows, too, that I got into with Dr Hellyer were innumerable; and I really think he wore out three flat rulers while I was a member of the school, in inflicting his dearly-loved "pandies" on my suffering palms.
This ended, the boys, with much shuffling of feet on the bare boards composing the floor of the apartment, were about to rush out en masse, when Dr Hellyer arrested the movement. "Stop!" he cried in stentorian tones, drowning the clatter of feet and whispering of voices; "the pupils will remain in for punishment!"
Poof crack bang, went off another explosion; and up bounced Old Hellyer, as if a catapult had been applied below his seat. You never saw such a commotion as now ensued. Tom and I were the only ones who preserved their composure out of the whole lot in the room, although Dr Hellyer soon showed that, if startled at first, he had not quite lost his senses.
This was some satisfaction, and put a little more pluck into me as I faced my judge. I trembled no longer. "Boy Slodgers, what's the matter with your eyes?" asked Dr Hellyer of the fresh culprit, in the same searching way in which he had interrogated me.
Our diabolical scheme was more than a thoughtless one. It might, besides, jeopardising the life of Dr Hellyer, have set fire to the house, when, perhaps, many of our schoolfellows might have been burnt to death.
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