Darkness Visible by William Golding Read Free Book Online

just as if this were something on the films or television. It was at this point that the headmaster brought in the solicitor who acted for the school. So the inspector went away for a while and the two men interviewed Matty. He was understood to say that the shoe had been cast, to which the headmaster said in an irritated way that it had been thrown, not cast, it wasn’t a horseshoe. The solicitor explained about confidentiality and truth and how they were protecting him.
    “When it happened, you were there? You were on the fire-escape?”
    Matty shook his head.
    “Where were you then?”
    They would have known, if they had seen more of the boy, whythe sun shone once more, positively ennobling the good side of his face.
    “Mr Pedigree.”
    “ He was there?”
    “No, sir!”
    “Look boy—”
    “Sir, he was in his room with me, sir!”
    “In the middle of the night?”
    “Sir, he’d asked me to do a map—”
    “Don’t be silly. He wouldn’t ask you to bring a map to him in the middle of the night!”
    The nobility in Matty’s face diminished.
    “You might as well tell us the truth,” said the solicitor. “It’ll come out in the end you know. You’ve nothing to fear. Now. What about this shoe?”
    Still looking down, and plain rather than noble, Matty muttered back.
    The solicitor pressed him.
    “I couldn’t hear that. Eden? What’s Eden got to do with a gymshoe?”
    Matty muttered again.
    “This is getting us nowhere,” said the headmaster. “Look, er, Wildwort. What was poor young Henderson doing up that fire-escape?”
    Matty stared passionately up under his brows and the one word burst from his lips.
    “Evil!”
    So they put Matty by and sent for Mr Pedigree. He came, feeble, grey-faced and fainting. The headmaster viewed him with disgusted pity and offered him a chair into which he collapsed. The solicitor explained the probable course of events and how a heavier charge might be abandoned in favour of a lesser if the defendant pleaded guilty to render unnecessary the cross-examination of minors. Mr Pedigree sat huddled and shivering. They were kind to him but he only showed one spark of animation during the whole interview. When the headmaster explained kindly that he had a friend, for little Matty Windwood had tried to give him an alibi, Mr Pedigree’s face went white then red then white again.
    “That horrible, ugly boy! I wouldn’t touch him if he were the last one left on earth!”
    His arrest was arranged as privately as possible in view of his agreement to plead guilty. Nevertheless, he did come down the stairs from his room with policemen in attendance; and nevertheless, his shadow, that dog of his steps was there to see him go in his shame and terror. So Mr Pedigree screamed at him in the great hall.
    “You horrible, horrible boy! It’s all your fault!”
    Curiously enough the rest of the school seemed to agree with Mr Pedigree. Poor old Pedders was now even more popular among the boys than he had been in the sunny days when he gave them slices of cake and was quite amiably ready to be their butt so long as they liked him. No one, not the headmaster nor the solicitor, nor the judge ever knew the real story of that night; how Henderson had begged to be let in and been denied and gone reeling on the leads to slip and fall, for now Henderson was dead and could no longer reveal to anyone his furious passion. But the upshot was that Matty was sent to Coventry and fell into deep grief. It was plain to the staff that he was one of those cases for early relief from school and a simple, not too brainy job was the only palliative if not remedy. So the headmaster, who had an account at Frankley’s the Ironmongers at the other end of the High Street down by the Old Bridge, contrived to get him a job there; and like 109732 Pedigree the school knew him no more.
    Nor did it know the headmaster much longer. The fact that Henderson had come to see him and been turned away could not be condoned. He