"To what?" asked Mr. Galloway, for the master stopped short.

"Never mind, just yet. I have my strong suspicions as to the guilty
boy, and I am doing what I can to convert them into proofs. If it be as
I suspect now, I shall expel him."

"But what could it have been done for?" debated Mr. Galloway. "There's
no point in the thing, that I can see, to ink and damage a surplice. If
the boy to whom it belonged had been inked, one might not have wondered
so much."

"I'll 'point him,'" cried the master, "if I catch the right one."

"Could it have been one of the seniors?" returned the proctor, all his
strong interest awakened.

"It was one who ought to have known better," evasively returned the
master. "I can't stop to talk now, Galloway. I have an errand to do,
and must be back to duty at ten."

He marched off quickly, and Mr. Galloway came indoors again. "Is that
the way you get on with your business, Mr. Yorke?"

Yorke clattered to his desk. "I'll get on with it, sir. I was listening
to what the master said."

"It does not concern you, what he said. It was not one of your brothers
who did it, I suppose?"