Time went by in Odminster Grammar School. The end of the Autumn term was approaching and, for the first form boys, there was to be a change. The Games master had been away since the beginning of term following a serious accident, from which he was now completely recovered. An agency man had filled his place but now he was back.
Mr Carr, for that was his name, came to Simon Parry, Leonard Brown and Trevor Pratt with high testimonials. He was recommended by Trevor's brothers as being strict but fair and he would always listen to an explanation although he was liable to get annoyed with mere excuses.
However, before they were to meet him, Simon had another appointment. He had been summoned to the headmaster's study after his lunch. It was not until he stood in front of the great man's desk that he discovered why.
"You get off your train at Lenton Parva, don't you?"
"Yes, sir."
"Was there anyone else from this school disembarking there last night?"
"I don't think so, sir."
"Then, if I received a report of a boy from this school, on the platform at Lenton Parva station, without his school cap, that boy would be you?"
"I suppose so, sir."
"I suppose so as well. A prefect on the train has reported the facts to me. Can you think of any reasonable explanation for your state of undress?"
"Just that I might have lost my cap altogether if I'd been wearing it, sir. Some bigger boys from Lenton Magna School were on the train as well and they were waiting for the chance to grab it and they would have started kicking it around."
"That's ridiculous. You are to be proud of your school in front of such louts and it's your responsibility to defend its honour. I have no alternative. I have to beat you. Get a chair ready."
Simon knew there was no escape, unfair though this was. He knew the routine and collected an appropriately sized chair. He pulled his shirt tail clear and bent forward, reaching well down. Then he grasped the chair leg. This might be grossly unfair but he could not escape. He was going to take it with dignity. He waited.
The headmaster had another boy in shorts bent over before him and he was going to enjoy the next few moments. He collected his cane, went across to the waiting figure and ran his hand over his shorts. He would have liked to have checked visually for padding but he thought it unlikely that Parry would have done so and he did not want to get a reputation for having the boys' trousers down. He stepped back and aimed carefully.
CRACKK!
The cane drove firmly into the waiting seat. The headmaster saw the taut muscles give slightly as the cane struck. He watched the boy jump and saw him tighten his grip.
CRACKK!
A second stroke was driven in. He was relishing every stroke and was rejoicing inwardly that Colonel Gillespie and the Foundation actually required that every effort should be taken to enforce uniform regulations and the Colonel had congratulated him on the number he had dealt with.
CRACKK!
Reluctantly, the headmaster had to concede that he could go no further.
"Get up and put the chair away."
His posterior was aching for a rub by Simon was not going to let the headmaster have confirmation that he had been hurt. He stood and returned the chair to its place by the wall.
"Now come here. Check the punishment book and sign it when you're satisfied that it's right."
Simon went over, taking his fountain pen from his blazer pocket.
He looked at the book, glanced at his own entry and then his eye slipped to the entry above. Earlier that day, Raymond White had been caned. The relevant entry read stated that he had received four strokes of the cane for cheating.
Simon signed the record and was dismissed.
There was the inevitable inspection in the toilet before he broke the news.
"White got four this morning for cheating."
Trevor said, "What sort of cheating?"
"It didn't say. Just cheating. That was all that was in the book."
Leonard said, "I can guess. He was craning his neck to see my answers in that history test. He must be nuts to have copied in a test for the beak. I got three wrong. If he copied my wrong answers as well as my right ones, it would have been obvious there's been cheating and I couldn't see his paper so it must have been him."
Simon said, "He's double nuts to have copied your paper. There's no way he could have done as well as you. If he was going to copy, he should have chosen somebody closer to his standard."
Trevor said, "He's too thick to work that out. He kept it quiet, though. Let 's see if we can see his arse when we're changing for gym, this afternoon."
Their aim for seeing the damage the headmaster had produced was foiled by Raymond. He had taken the precaution of putting his gym shorts on under his trousers and so they were in place when he removed his trousers in the changing room and it was likely that he would follow the reverse procedure when the lesson was over. In those distant days, boys were not pressured into having a shower after gym and most of them, at least in the lower school, avoided unnecessary contact with water.
It was clear that drastic measures were called for. At the end of the lesson, as apparatus was being returned and Mr Carr was in the storeroom, the three boys moved quietly behind Raymond White. Equally quietly, Trevor Pratt crouched and took the hem at each side of his gym shorts. One quick pull and they were at his ankles.
Immediately, Simon called out, "Look! White's had the whack again! He's been cheating."
Raymond bent down and dragged his shorts back into place but it was too late for two reasons. One was that his own attempts to keep his discomfort quiet had lamentably failed. The other was that the gym master returned before he was decent.
He walked over to the group.
"What's going on here?"
Raymond replied, "One of that lot pulled my shorts down, sir."
Immediately, Trevor said, "To save him splitting any more, sir. It was me. He was trying to hide the fact that he's been whacked for cheating. He deserves another dose for splitting as well. In any case, you saw him and you knew he wouldn't have pulled them down himself. It must have been one of us. He didn't have to say anything."
Mr Carr replied, "I tend to agree, but we don't have forcible stripteases in lessons, do we?"
"No, sir. I'm not sorry I did it, though. He's a nasty creep. If he's going to copy other people's work, he ought to know that they might be suspected."
"Was anyone else suspected this time?"
Simon answered, "No, sir. Not as far as we know."
"How did you know he'd been caned for cheating, then?"
Simon replied, "I got it for not having my cap on and I saw his entry before mine in the punishment book, sir."
"How would you react if somebody pulled your shorts down to display your stripes?"
"I wouldn't mind all that much, sir. I haven't got anything except what they 've got apart from a striped bottom. Besides, I let my mates see the stripes. Nearly everybody except that creep does that, sir and if any other decent lad had asked if he could see, I'd have tried to let him."
"Well, something needs to be done to remind you that you don't pull boys' shorts down in lessons."
Trevor replied, "That's fair, sir. I said it was me and I'd have said so without that creep splitting, especially if it looked as though somebody else might get whacked when it ought to be me."
Mr Carr said, "Do I take it that the three of you were in a conspiracy?"
Trevor said, "Not exactly, sir. We all knew that he's had the whack, but there's no reason why Parry should have kept quiet about that. It's not confidential. It was my idea to pull his shorts down and the others didn't even know I was going to do it."
"Very well. You seem to be as honest and open as your brothers were, Pratt. Keep it up. Unfortunately, it looks as though you need a lesson. As you're the first, the form can wait and watch. Go to my room and bring the gym shoe. It'll be on the shelf above my desk."
He ran out and quickly returned. One of his brothers had clearly briefed him about what was required. He went to the wall bars, grasped a lower one and placed himself, backside sticking up tightly encased in his shorts.
The master took his gym shoe back and smashed it firmly across the waiting target. Trevor jumped. It smashed into him a second time and a third.
"Get up and try to be sensible, Pratt."
Trevor stood, turned to him, grinned and said, "I'll try, sir. That gym shoe hurts."
"It's intended to. As you thought it was right to display White's stripes, shouldn't you display your red seat?"
"I was going to, in the changing room, for the decent lads, sir, but not for White. He didn't show us his."