When Jack had left them the younger boys talked the whole affair over again in their own fashion and according to their own lights--the result being that the following morning, with the aggravation of a whoop and a cry, Carlo defiantly jumped the bar on his way to chapel for prayers.
"When Jack came to hear of it, as he speedily did, he was at first very angry, then genuinely distressed.
"'You will only get what you deserve if he does report you,' he said to Carlo in his vexation, and when Carlo replied that he didn't see that he need give up what he had always done 'for a cad like that,' Jack retorted that if he thought Sawyer a cad he should have acted accordingly, and not trusted to _his_ good feeling or good nature.

But in his heart of hearts Jack did not believe the threat would be carried out, and, unknown to Carlo, he did for his brother what he would never have done for himself.
As soon as morning school was over he went to Mr.Sawyer to beg him to reconsider his intention, explaining to the best of his ability the extenuating circumstances of the case--the tacit indulgence so long accorded to the boys, Carlo's innocence, in the first place, of any intentional disobedience.
"Mr.Sawyer heard him patiently; whether his arguments would have had any effect, Jack, at that time at least, had not the satisfaction of knowing, for when he left off speaking Mr.Sawyer replied quietly, "'I am very sorry to seem severe to your brother, Berkeley, but what I have done I believed to be my duty.

I have _already_ reported him.' "Jack turned on his heel and left the room without speaking.

Only as he crossed the threshold one word of unutterable contempt fell from between his teeth.

'_Cad_,' he muttered, careless whether Sawyer heard him or not.
"And from that moment Jack's championship of the obnoxious master was over; and throughout the school he was never spoken of among the boys, big and little, but as 'that cad Sawyer.' "Though, after all, the 'reporting' turned out less terrible than was expected.