The Complete Novels of H. G. Wells - H. G. Wells

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still leave you above Wedderburn. Deduct only the marks! Preposterous! The Departmental Regulations distinctly say——"

      "But it's my own admission, sir."

      "The Regulations say nothing whatever of the manner in which the matter comes to light. They simply provide——"

      "It will ruin me. If I fail this examination, they won't renew my scholarship."

      "You should have thought of that before."

      "But, sir, consider all my circumstances——"

      "I cannot consider anything. Professors in this College are machines. The Regulations will not even let us recommend our students for appointments. I am a machine, and you have worked me. I have to do——"

      "It's very hard, sir."

      "Possibly it is."

      "If I am to be failed this examination, I might as well go home at once."

      "That is as you think proper." Bindon's voice softened a little; he perceived he had been unjust, and, provided he did not contradict himself, he was disposed to amelioration. "As a private person," he said, "I think this confession of yours goes far to mitigate your offence. But you have set the machinery in motion, and now it must take its course. I—I am really sorry you gave way."

      A wave of emotion prevented Hill from answering. Suddenly, very vividly, he saw the heavily-lined face of the old Landport cobbler, his father. "Good God! What a fool I have been!" he said hotly and abruptly.

      "I hope," said Bindon, "that it will be a lesson to you."

      But, curiously enough, they were not thinking of quite the same indiscretion.

      There was a pause.

      "I would like a day to think, sir, and then I will let you know—about going home, I mean," said Hill, moving towards the door.

      The next day Hill's place was vacant. The spectacled girl in green was, as usual, first with the news. Wedderburn and Miss Haysman were talking of a performance of The Meistersingers when she came up to them.

      "Have you heard?" she said.

      "Heard what?"

      "There was cheating in the examination."

      "Cheating!" said Wedderburn, with his face suddenly hot. "How?"

      "That slide—"

      "Moved? Never!"

      "It was. That slide that we weren't to move—"

      "Nonsense!" said Wedderburn. "Why! How could they find out? Who do they say—?"

      "It was Mr. Hill."

      Hill!"

      "Mr. Hill!"

      "Not—surely not the immaculate Hill?" said Wedderburn, recovering.

      "I don't believe it," said Miss Haysman. "How do you know?"

      "I didn't," said the girl in spectacles. "But I know it now for a fact. Mr. Hill went and confessed to Professor Bindon himself."

      "By Jove!" said Wedderburn. "Hill of all people. But I am always inclined to distrust these philanthropists-on-principle—"

      "Are you quite sure?" said Miss Haysman, with a catch in her breath.

      "Quite. It's dreadful, isn't it? But, you know, what can you expect? His father is a cobbler."

      Then Miss Haysman astonished the girl in spectacles.

      "I don't care. I will not believe it," she said, flushing darkly under her warm-tinted skin. "I will not believe it until he has told me so himself— face to face. I would scarcely believe it then," and abruptly she turned her back on the girl in spectacles, and walked to her own place.

      "It's true, all the same," said the girl in spectacles, peering and smiling at Wedderburn.

      But Wedderburn did not answer her. She was indeed one of those people who seemed destined to make unanswered remarks.

      In the Avu Observatory

      H. G. Wells

       Published: 1894 Categorie(s): Fiction, Short Stories

      The observatory at Avu, in Borneo, stands on the spur of the mountain. To the north rises the old crater, black at night against the unfathomable blue of the sky. From the little circular building, with its mushroom dome, the slopes plunge steeply downward into the black mysteries of the tropical forest beneath. The little house in which the observer and his assistant live is about fifty yards from the observatory, and beyond this are the huts of their native attendants.

      Thaddy, the chief observer, was down with a slight fever. His assistant, Woodhouse, paused for a moment in silent contemplation of the tropical night before commencing his solitary vigil. The night was very still. Now and then voices and laughter came from the native huts, or the cry of some strange animal was heard from the midst of the mystery of the forest. Nocturnal insects appeared in ghostly fashion out of the darkness, and fluttered round his light. He thought, perhaps, of all the possibilities of discovery that still lay in the black tangle beneath him; for to the naturalist the virgin forests of Borneo are still a wonderland full of strange questions and half-suspected discoveries. Woodhouse carried a small lantern in his hand, and its yellow glow contrasted vividly with the infinite series of tints between lavender-blue and black in which the landscape was painted. His hands and face were smeared with ointment against the attacks of the mosquitoes.

      Even in these days of celestial photography, work done in a purely temporary erection, and with only the most primitive appliances in addition to the telescope, still involves a very large amount of cramped and motionless watching. He sighed as he thought of the physical fatigues before him, stretched himself, and entered the observatory.

      The reader is probably familiar with the structure of an ordinary astronomical observatory. The building is usually cylindrical in shape, with a very light hemispherical roof capable of being turned round from the interior. The telescope is supported upon a stone pillar in the centre, and a clockwork arrangement compensates for the earth's rotation, and allows a star once found to be continuously observed. Besides this, there is a compact tracery of wheels and screws about its point of support, by which the astronomer adjusts it. There is, of course, a slit in the movable roof which follows the eye of the telescope in its survey of the heavens. The observer sits or lies on a sloping wooden arrangement, which he can wheel to any part of the observatory as the position of the telescope may require. Within it is advisable to have things as dark as possible, in order to enhance the brilliance of the stars observed.

      The lantern flared as Woodhouse entered his circular den, and the general darkness fled into black shadows behind the big machine, from which it presently seemed to creep back over the whole place again as the light waned. The slit was a profound transparent blue, in which six stars shone with tropical brilliance, and their light lay, a pallid gleam, along the black tube of the instrument. Woodhouse shifted the roof, and then proceeding to the telescope, turned first one wheel and then another, the great cylinder slowly swinging into a new position. Then he glanced through the finder, the little companion telescope, moved the roof a little more, made some further adjustments, and set the clockwork in motion. He took off his jacket, for the night was very hot, and pushed into position the uncomfortable seat to which he was condemned for the next four hours. Then with a sigh he resigned himself to his watch upon the mysteries of space.

      There was no sound now in the observatory, and the lantern waned steadily. Outside there was the occasional cry of some animal in alarm or pain, or calling to its mate, and the intermittent sounds of the Malay and Dyak servants. Presently one of the men began a queer chanting song, in which the others joined at intervals. After this it would seem that they turned in for the night, for no further sound came from their direction, and the whispering stillness became more and more profound.

      The clockwork ticked steadily. The

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