Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School and Billy Bunter's ... Read Online Free PDF

his head?”
“Ha, ha, ha!”
“You can cackle,” said Bunter, warmly. “I call it insulting. I know you fellows
ain’t so particular as I am in things like that, but did you ever know me tell
a lie? I ask you!”
“Ha, ha, ha!”
“Hallo, hallo, hallo! Here comes Henry!” murmured Bob.
Mr. Quelch appeared at the corner of the corridor. He gave the assembled
juniors a sharp glance, and Bob wondered, for a dismayed moment, whether his
keen ears had caught the word “Henry”. However, the Remove master rustled up
the passage to the door on the form-room, and unlocked the same to admit his
form. The Remove marched in and took their places. Mr. Quelch went to his high
desk.
The blackboard, which had been used in second school, stood on its easel facing
the form. What was chalked on it was, therefore, visible to all the Remove, but
not, for the moment, to their form-master.
All eyes turned on the blackboard. Then there was a sudden gust of laughter.
The Removites really could not help it. After what Bunter had said, they
expected to see something chalked on the blackboard which was calculated to
make Quelch “wild”, What they saw was an inscription in large capital letters:
    QUELCH IS A BEEST!
    “Ha, ha, ha!” woke the echoes of the form-room. Billy Bunter grinned—a wide
grin. Bunter was quite pleased by this tribute. All the Remove were
laughing—that inscription on the blackboard seemed to have taken them by storm.
But Quelch wouldn’t laugh when he saw it—Quelch would be in a fearful rage—all
the more because there was no clue to the writer!
“Ha, ha, ha!” roared the Remove.
“He, he, he!” cachinnated Bunter.
Mr. Quelch stared at his form, with knitting brows. That outburst of merriment
took him by surprise, and did not please him.
“Silence!” he thundered. “What is the meaning of this? What—?” He realised at
once that the blackboard was the cynosure of all eyes, and guessed that there
must be something unusual on it. He whisked round the blackboard to see what
had caused that burst of hilarity.
The laughter died away quite suddenly. Quelch’s expression, as he looked at the
chalked words on the blackboard, did not encourage merriment. For a moment, Mr.
Quelch stared at it: then he turned to his class.
“Bunter!” His eyes fixed on the Owl of the Remove.
“Oh, crikey!” gasped Bunter, in alarm.
Why Quelch picked on him was an absolute mystery to the Owl of the Remove.
There was nothing, so far as Bunter knew, to give the remotest clue to the writer
of that inscription. He had not expected for a moment that the gimlet-eyes
would fix on him. But they did.
“Bunter! You have done this!”
“I—I wouldn’t, sir! I—I don’t think you’re a beast, sir, like the other
fellows—.”
“Bunter!” thundered Mr. Quelch. “You wrote this! It was you, Bunter, who
chalked this—this unexampled impertinence on the blackboard! Bunter, you
entered the form-room surreptitiously during break—by the window—.”
“Oh, lor’! I—I never knew you saw me, sir!” groaned Bunter. “I—I thought you
were in your study—oh, scissors!”
“I did not see you, Bunter.”
“Oh! Then—then I didn’t do it, sir! I—I was in the tuck-shop at the time—Mrs.
Mimble was serving me with a jam-tart, sir, at the very minute I was chalking
on the blackboard—I mean when I—I wasn’t chalking on the blackboard—.”
“I shall not cane you again, Bunter,” said Mr. Quelch, breathing hard. “You
will be detained for the half-holiday this afternoon. I shall set you a
detention task, and you will remain in the form-room until you have finished
it—.”
“But—but I never—!”
“Silence!” almost roared Mr. Quelch.
Billy Bunter quaked into silence. Mr. Quelch took a duster and wiped the
blackboard. Third lesson began in the Remove in rather an electric atmosphere.
Billy Bunter sat with a fat face of woe. He was booked for the afternoon—and he
knew, from experience, what Quelch’s