Mr Appleyards meeting with the five prefects took place that evening once all the younger boys were in bed. They sat on the variety of chairs that the prefects study contained and sipped at the mugs of cocoa his wife had provided, since the kitchen staff had long since gone home.
"First of all," he said, "Id like to hear from you what you think of this school."
They looked at each other, almost embarrassed at the question. How did you answer such an inquiry.
"Well, sir," started Pattinson, the head prefect. "Its all right, I suppose."
"And that is good enough for you, is it? All right. It doesnt sound very good if thats the best you can say about it."
"Its the only school weve known, sir," said Woodman, probably the cleverest boy in the bunch. "So weve nothing to compare it with."
"Yes, of course," said Mr Appleyard. "But how could it be improved, do you think? You must have some ideas about that."
"Some of the younger lads have got terribly gyppy last year." It was Sawyer, known in the junior dorms as a ferocious beater. "I think they need a firmer hand all round."
"And yet," Mr Appleyard said, "there seems to be no shortage of corporal punishment."
"No, sir, but were going too easy on them," said Sawyer. "I think we should have a month with the cane as the only punishment. I bet wed see an improvement then."
"And do you all think that?"
"No, sir," said Clemence, a wiry boy with curly blond hair and twinkling eyes. "I only gave two whackings last year, but they seem to behave for me all right."
"Thats because youre always chumming up to them," said Sawyer. "Were supposed to be keeping discipline, not making friends with them."
Boys started talking across each other, not heatedly, but clearly in disagreement. Mr Appleyard let it go on for about thirty seconds and then he spoke out.
"Gentlemen, I believe I see what the problem is, and I have a suggestion forming in the back of my mind. But first, would I be right in thinking that each of you applies discipline as you think fit? You decide what kind of behaviour merits punishment and then dish out whatever you think is appropriate?"
There was a muted chorus of agreement.
"And sometimes that might be lines, or a detention of some sort, and other times its a whacking with a gym slipper or its a caning."
"Yes, sir."
"So one day a boy will – oh, lets say have a fight with another boy – and hell get two hundred lines to write, but another day for the same thing he could get a caning on his bare backside. Am I right?"
They nodded.
"Well, it wont do, gentlemen, will it? We shall never have a decently disciplined school until we have some kind of system. Can I hear your views on that?"
"I think thats right," said Pattinson. "We should all be acting in unison, otherwise the little chaps dont know where they are. Remember, we did try it last year, but we didnt stick together like we should."
"I see," said Mr Appleyard. "Then here is what I want." And they could all tell that his mere wanting it was enough to make it so. Natural authority oozed from the man.
"Firstly – and no doubt you will see this as bad news – I want to restrict your beating rights. Only the head prefect will be able to cane. The rest of you will use a gym slipper. And none of you, in any circumstances, will beat a boy on his bare bottom. That is not negotiable. You yourselves are not above the law, gentlemen, and anyone who breaks these rules will earn a most severe thrashing and will be in danger of losing his prefectship." Here he looked at Johnson, who managed to return his look with some courage. "Do I make myself clear?"
There was a murmured chorus of agreement.
"But sir," said Sawyer. "What if we find boys ragging in the showers? Can we whack them with nothing on then, since they were naked when the offence took place?"
"No. You must make them put shorts on. If I hear that you have beaten a boy improperly then Im prepared to thrash the backside off you, prefect or not. And I shall demonstrate this later when I beat Johnson whom I prevented from delivering a most unjust caning to Dornan."
"Sir –" It was Pattinson. "I must speak up for Dan. He was only doing what weve been used to doing occasionally. And Dornan is a frightful little tick. It was no less than he deserved. And your new rules werent really in force then, were they?"
"I agree that Dornan deserved a beating and he is no doubt showing off his stripes as we speak. But what Johnson was about to do was wrong no matter what rules were in place. He was abusing his authority as a prefect, and I suspect he knows it. Johnson?"
"Yes, sir."
"Do you think I would be right to beat you? Your presence here suggests that you do."
"Yes, sir," he said, and then: "I do," when the others looked incredulous. There was an awkward silence.
"Im grateful to you Johnson," said Mr Appleyard and a flicker of mutual understanding and respect passed between them. "Will you cut away and prepare yourself, please. Wait for me outside my study. You may put your dressing gown on."
Johnson rose and left the room. The others watched him and there was a sudden chill in the room.
"Now," Mr Appleyard went on, "what I propose is that we should have a list of offences and the penalties that they will attract. I suspect that a list of ten or a dozen offences that will always and in all circumstances mean a beating should not take you long to draw up. I will leave that to you. But it does mean that whenever you apprehend someone committing those offences you are going to have to be prepared to wallop them, no matter what your personal view might be.
"There are a number of offences that I believe only I can deliver a sufficiently severe punishment. I would include bullying in that and any senior boy who caught bullying juniors can expect a thrashing on his bare backside, and I would expect all of you to send bullies to me immediately.
"For less serious matters I propose the introduction of a system of work. Half an hours work at some useful task for trivial offences and an hour or two hours for more serious ones. Does that seem a good plan to you?"
"What kind of work, sir?" asked Sawyer.
"Anything that needs doing. Sweeping up leaves, weeding the garden, cleaning games equipment. Any of those unpleasant little jobs that there always seem to be lurking around."
"And what about those boys who earn so many hours of work that they couldnt possibly work them off?" asked Woodman.
"If that should happen, I dare say a couple of strokes of Pattinsons cane per half hour would sort it out. Once again, punishments would be laid down in the code for each offence and you would have to give the appropriate punishment without variation so that everyone knew what they would get for any given offence." He stopped and looked round the group of boys.
"I think its an excellent plan," said Pattinson.
"You would," said Sawyer. You keep your cane."
"I resent that," Pattinson shot back at him. "Ive got the interests of the school at heart even if you havent."
"All right." Sawyer held both hands up, palms towards Pattinson. "It was a joke, all right?"
"I think its a good plan too," said Clemence, and soon all of them had signed up to what the new headmaster wanted.
"I still think though," said Sawyer, "we should be allowed to whack on the bare backside. We all know that theres nothing as effective as a few swishes with nothing on, and making a boy drop his pants underlines the seriousness of what hes done."
"Im sorry," said Mr Appleyard. "It is essential that we keep a long scale of seriousness in our punishments. Half an hours work at one end; a thrashing like the one you are about to witness on Johnson at the other. I am at the top end of the scale. You are at the lower end and in the middle range. Ive no doubt whatsoever that if you give a boy six solid whacks with a gym slipper across his trousers, or his pyjamas or whatever he happens to be wearing, he will consider himself adequately punished. Is that reasonable?"
"Yes, sir," Sawyer conceded.
"Then that will be that. You have work to do. We need a list of all the offences you can think of with the punishments you think necessary alongside. Dont go above a hundred in total, and I would have thought not more than ten of them requiring corporal punishment, plus four or five that will be referred to me. I suspect the junior dormitories have been without supervision for long enough – but I want no whacking until the new system is in place. Do we understand each other? Good. But first, gentlemen, you will accompany me, please, to witness Johnsons punishment. And be under no illusions that I will not hesitate to repeat it should any of you give me cause. And remember please that Johnson himself chose to be whipped rather than leave the school under a cloud."
As they walked down the corridor together Mr Appleyard asked the head boy what his assessment of Johnson was. Pattinson had been friends with Johnson all through school but he was quite prepared to give a candid opinion. He said that the other boy was basically sound but with some weaknesses that he had been aware of.
"As I thought," said the headmaster. "And do you think he will respond well to my whipping him?"
"Oh yes, sir," said Pattinson immediately, though privately he thought the word whipping sounded alarming. "Weve taken plenty of whackings together and he always manages to see the thing positively."
"Good."
Johnson was waiting for them outside the study, his fellow prefects gathered around him, offering what support they could. Mr Appleyard ushered them all inside, instructing Johnson to stay where he was. Mr Appleyard set out the chairs as he had done for Dornans caning and invited the four prefects to stand or sit near the fireplace. Then he strode to the door and said, "Come in, Johnson."
Johnsons dressing gown was the same one that had been bought new for him when he first entered the school five years ago. Now it barely covered him decently. It was less than eighteen months since he had last attended the headmasters study for a beating, but then he had also been wearing pyjamas. Mr Appleyard had seated himself behind the desk and now the boy placed himself in front of it, where he stood with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Now, Johnson, you understand, I hope, that I will not tolerate what you were about to do this afternoon, and that this caning is the price of your remaining a prefect?"
"Yes, sir," said the boy.
"And you understand that if you wish you can renounce your prefects position and I will take no further action, but that if you choose to be caned I shall administer a most severe whipping."
"Yes, sir."
"Then it is your own choice that I should cane you."
"Yes, sir."
"Very well. Do you wish to say anything more?"
"Yes, sir. Im very sorry that your first impression of me should have been so bad and I hope that I can regain your good opinion as soon as possible."
"Thank you, Johnson. That is the very thing I hoped to hear from you. But Im afraid it will make no difference to your beating."
"No, sir."
"Then remove your dressing gown please, and kneel on the chair there and bend over on to your folded arms. Pattinson, will you assist him please."
Johnson went to the pair of chairs, untying the cord of his dressing gown as he went. Rather self-consciously he took it off and handed it to Pattinson. He was naked. He climbed on to the chair and stretched over it. He was a tall but well-built boy, without a trace of fat on his body. His backside was compact and tightly muscled and pulled apart slightly by his position. On the insides of his thighs were a few dark curls of hair, but the buttocks themselves were smooth and creamy white.
Mr Appleyard crossed to the stand that contained the canes, selected one and whipped it through the air, making it sing. He took up position just in front of his desk, fully ten feet away from the chairs where the naked boy was stretched, ready for punishment.
"I intended to give you a dozen strokes, Johnson, but I have reconsidered that in the light of what I have heard since. You will now receive eight strokes. Pattinson, Id like you to place your hands on his shoulders so that you are ready to support him."
He stood poised, the cane held at arms length, pointing straight at Johnsons bottom. Suddenly he danced in, swinging the cane back behind his shoulder, then forward, through horizontally, till the last foot connected perfectly with the helpless flesh. Instantly, a scarlet line appeared across the white skin. All the watching prefects flinched at the power of the stroke. Johnson cried out, a sharp yell of surprise and pain. And then, as Mr Appleyard stepped back to the desk, three or four beads of blood appeared along the line of the weal.
The boy took the next four strokes in silence, but each of them drew more blood, On the sixth he yelled again as the cane cut into him low down across the most tender spot. The six weals, they were all impressed to notice, were exactly parallel with barely any clear skin between them.
Mr Appleyard took up his position again, but now a full step to his left. Once again he danced in swinging the cane hard from behind his shoulder. This time it lashed into Johnson at a shallow angle to the first six, crossing each of the weals and now seriously breaking the skin. Johnsons feet kicked and a yell of real pain escaped his lips: "Oh no, please." But there was another stroke to come and it was delivered with the headmasters full strength and at every intersection there was more blood. A scarlet dribble began to slide down the boys right thigh. It was savage, intolerable, but the boy knew that he had no grounds for complaint, no matter how badly lacerated his backside was.
"Thank you, Johnson. You may get up."
With Pattinsons help the boy climbed down, his fce racked with the pain he was feeling, not daring to touch his bottom as though he knew already how nadly his skin had been cut.
"You will oblige me, gentlemen, by ensuring that I never have to do such a thing again. It gave me no pleasure whatsoever, but I hope you will have gained some idea of how seriously I mean you to take your duties as prefects. Ill wish you good night."
Pattinson helped Johnson on with his dressing gown and led him away hobbling, still not daring to touch his wounded rear end. The other prefects got up to follow them.
"Pattinson. Id be grateful if youd see that he is all right. And well talk tomorrow. I wish to consult you at some length. Good night."
"Good night, sir," they all muttered as they left the study. They went out into the corridor, silently wondering whether they respected his new headmaster, or whether they were terrified of him.