The Island School — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Pe fet) { 4, Its Ah: ay ab es P) omy ty fone he * 4 t ete . Ne a. aN Hain bidet alls Naas a he Ae 7 ny - i ‘\ Si AD fee ye Ps =. a Pieminiate: which he crossed, and Found F his: way to an inner room, called the council chamber. | asa ‘Here the council had made provision for rugged . Neto during their deliberations. ae Inthe centre was a table, roughly made, as were _ the requisite number of chairs. These conveniences a were the result of overtime labour of the amateur carpenters. | a Probably, if they had eee offered for sale in any _ anetion-room in England, the bidding would have , ee very slow, and stopped at.a very small sum per if article, but they served the purpose of the youngsters, a eight of whom were already seated. They ranged in age from fourteen to seventeen, the iu Dest being Robert Morse, aged seventeen, a grave- ~ a chemistry ; ; and Sam Whifter, who was in the tailor’s | i: _ shop, the youngest. _ In addition to those already named, we may enu- a n merate Adam Steene, carpenter ; Joe Ganthony, ' painter and plumber; Nicodemus Hillyard, boot- ay _ maker ; Dave Felton, the eernepesy De and con- Shy, working in a vineyard. — Tenin all, including the sentinel. Jim advanced to _ the head of the table and took his seat in a chair that _ differed from the rest in the back being slightly higher. ‘There was no preternatural gravity exhibited by the eouncillors. Most of them were talking in a light- a oY hearted manner until Jim was seated. Then they _ turned their faces to him and were silent. “You may wonder at this summons,” he said, “ Ee ally as we met only a few cae ago, but "matters of moment have arisen since then. The school 1s in danger.” os He then went into the events of the day, Boderibins the attempt to run the “Swallow” down, and the _ subsequent trouble which the letter with the Minorca postmark had brought the chief. sion, “T shall be glad to learn from you if there is EE aivihing peculiar that has come under your notice.” They had all noticed the depression of Mr. Farrell _ for some time past, but had no theory concerning it ‘ that offered a likely solution of the matter. “J don’t think it is anything much,’ said Joe se _ gets into a blue funk. Perhaps he hasn’t paid the yeu rent of the island, and the Perish Government 1s _ threatening to put ane bailiffs in,” _ “ That's one of Joe’s ideas,” remarked Dave Felton. ee Pip their euhes they put a dagger in, somewhere near Ay the ribs.” | | my Ak her a) : nen , faced » lad, with an inborn love for the study of | a whose occupation, apart cas that of the school, was . ISLAND SCH OOL. sap See ee “ Having told you this much,” said Jim, in conclu-— Ganthony ; “Nap—his name notwithstanding—soon. : Teh Nis ‘i A, stone. not dream of,’ said Morse, who had been listening Sera: ia ite 1 } bWEe OS aN i) 4 ; wy ~ y Moe) ) Bit ’ “ gh ; 4 v7 \ a iV). ani bye Ay a he ey i ae te » or uy ie 6 The PSNR iah gt i i $ ats SEPA TIL aM » st) AL al a 4 ih ae is, & ~\ eas! aut My At te h + A WOE a se Seriously, teh Tita ehecking a tendency ‘toma ke fun of the tne ‘1 I am sure we are on. the © founded. re is the fad of Napoleon Farrell, th and he he Re is a rich man—rich enough, anyway, to pay ‘diets com- ‘ paratively small sum demanded as rent for this, to. a | the Spaniards, useless island. He the. he - Payse iin af “How do you know that?” skied Robett Moras Aly ho had a head for figures, and was the champion calculator of the school. , ae, me Bs “It must,” said Jim, “ th the fees we pay—orour uv parents and friends pay—the low rents, cheapness of | ae im a is ta oF at = Vy a _all necessaries of life, and our own productions, “ib can do nothing but pay. No; it is something more serious than that which has upset Nap’s catia ie hi and I think it has something to do with the peoples, ie who formerly lived on thisisland.” MS “ A good-for-nothing lot,” said Adam Steene. B® a : “All the more likely to give trouble,” continued es Jim. “They had a sort of chief of their clan, see Espardo Reonardo, who was barely twenty when he > left, against his will, and must be a very young man still. This is only the fifth yeas of a schoo. on the > island.” Ki) rea “ Where did he go to?” inquired George Rain- | , ~ y ue ae » ~~ f > hes ™“s “ wa , “There is no record of it, that I site of, ” oad Jim, “but if he went to Minorca, I believe that. he gis) the cause of the trouble.” mm ? Mase “In what way?” ~ | fev a “He is threatening Farrell fe turn him ont which 4 a means the disruption of the school altogether. Tp. can’t be carried on at home on its present lines. - -Be-- sides, it was established to take boys right away from — home to make men of them, fit to peers with the | world.” “ See prospectus,” suggested Terry. fet why “See what you like,” retorted Jim. “It has done good to many of us. You were a very poor specimen of the young Britisher, Terry, when you first came, here.” “ Well, suppose this Rapanator onnethineenas , “ Reonardo.” | ey “Reonardo intends to try to turn Nap out, how will he set to work about it? It takes somekhiacs to shift a dozen men and two hundred boys.” . “There are ways ‘of worrying a man that you may. wn -. ~. 4 a attentively to Jim. dynamite.” “ There spoke the chemist,” nee ‘Ganthony. | “ Bob is always poking about in the laboratory, and, I dae his “Ss Bees: on to ones ap Aes and 3 ee Rae ~~ “For eapance, there is the Mean