A Very Special School

But all was not well, as the eagle eyed Mr. Cass quickly divined, for he realized that three senior boys of one of his groups arrived back at the end of the run, looking as fresh and sweat-free as they had departed. His suspicions aroused, he watched the three boys for several weeks and then saw that as they arrived back, always in the middle of the pack, their running shoes were never caked with mud in the way those of the other boys were. Now this was impossibility, as one part of the course forced the boys to run through some very marshy ground, of which there was plenty available in the fens. And so came the moment of reckoning for these three tearaway idlers.

Bearded, as they arrived back at the school, by Mr. Cass, they finally admitted that they were skivers, boys who had slipped away once out of sight of the school and spent the afternoon lounging around doing exactly nothing, whilst awaiting the return of their schoolmates. What these latter thought of them, we shall never know, but we shall learn of the wider "blood-bath" which developed out of this misdemeanour by three senior boys. As the saying goes: "It never rains but what it pours"; well in this case the delinquency of three boys led to some quite unexpected revelations and dire consequences.

Mr. Cass made all the boys of the pack wait together in the school yard until everyone was present, for he had already decided to make an immediate example of the three idlers in front of their classmates. Cane in hand, as ever, he ordered the three lads to drop their shorts in front of the assembly, intending to give them an immediate beating for their actions. To his surprise, he discovered that these three lads were wearing their underpants beneath their running shorts, a practice strictly forbidden; all boys were forbidden to wear any type of normal clothing whilst involved in any athletic activity as it was considered unsanitary; cleanliness was next to godliness, if not ahead of it, in the Commander's eyes.

Mr. Cass was astounded and shocked with what he had discovered and decided to take the matter further. So, now addressing the entire pack he said, "Step forward all boys who are wearing their underpants under their running shorts at this moment."

There was a hush over the assembly and gradually some eight boys stepped slowly forward.

"Is that the lot of you who are breaking the rules? Come on now; are there any more of you?"

There was another pause and three more boys shuffled forwards to join their errant classmates.

"Let me tell you now boys, if there are any other boys who should have come forwards but have chosen not to do so, then the punishment they will receive will be very severe. So, the rest of you who are "purer than Caesar's wife" drop your running shorts here and now and let me see that you are not wearing any forbidden garment."

There was a vague murmuring among the remaining lads, among whom Mr. Cass went on to discover two more who had chosen not the step forward and who were disobeying the rules. He now had a group of no less than sixteen boys whom he decided to punish there and then in front of the others, all of whom stood there in the yard shivering, wondering what was going to happen.

"You sixteen boys, line up, one behind the other, drop your shorts and your underpants, bend over and hold your ankles." Mr. Cass then walked calmly along the impressive line of tightly presented arses and gave each one six good cuts with the cane he always carried. There was dead silence from onlookers as they watched the carnage with horror, thanking their lucky stars that they were not included as the cane descended with sharp cracks across the row naked buttocks.

"Now, those of you who came forward and admitted the error of their ways, together with the rest of you boys, may go and shower and get dressed. However, as for the three of you who cheated on the cross country course and you two boys who were deceitful and did not come forward when asked, well you five kindly follow me to the punishment room, for I have more, much more, in store for you."

Once in the dreaded room with its beating stools and two birching horses, the five miscreants really began to feel very sorry for themselves indeed. One by one, they were made to bend, arse naked, across the beating stool and Mr. Cass took considerable pleasure in giving each lad twelve good hard cuts with the pickle rod. And there, ended the saga of the cross-country run, which had ended in a series of beatings, hitherto unprecedented at Moulton-Midmarsh; it really had been a totally unexpected bloodbath.

Over dinner that evening, the Commander said: "I hear, Mr. Cass, that you rooted out the rot in today's cross-country team; well let me congratulate you on your perspicacity in seeing the matter through to its end; the lads certainly deserved to suffer the pain of the cane for their disobedience; an excellent performance! It is precisely the attitude we need to foster here in the school! You are an excellent example to your colleagues, sir!"

Chapter 16

It was the cross-country run which led to the undoing of our two miscreants, Lodge and Parry. Lodge had a big mouth and on his first day had badmouthed the Commander in his hearing which had landed him with a dozen stinging cuts of the pickle rod across his naked backside. It was a beating which served as a sort of "hors d'oeuvre" to the main "event" of the day which had been the eighteen stroke birching, the first of the four bouts of severe corporal punishment prescribed by the magistrate in his sentence on the two lads. And it was that same evening, lying in agony in bed, that Lodge had told Parry that he was going to get out of Moulton-Midmarsh at the first opportunity. There was no way he was going to allow anyone to beat his arse to pulp on three more occasions. The opportunity to abscond from the school presented itself more quickly than either of them could have anticipated, for in their second week at the school they found themselves part of a forty-strong cross-country turn out, supervised by Mr. Cass.

So, of course, they decided that they would leave the pack as soon as it was out of sight of the school, with no thought at all as to what they were going to do once they were alone. Had they studied the location of the school, stuck as it was in the middle of soggy marshland, riddled with waterways, with the nearest big town, five miles distant, they might have had second thoughts; but they did not; their sole aim was to escape from the clutches of authority in the form of the staff of Moulton-Midmarsh school. And so, wearing only their running singlets and shorts they took off from the pack as soon as it was out of sight of the school. They had no idea where they were heading or what they were going to do with themselves, but they were free; or so they thought.

Of course, once free of the pack, things immediately began to look different, for the two runaways had no clear plan of what they intended to do or where they should go. They found themselves in the rather bleak landscape of the fens with little at all to give them any direction; and remember, to leave Moulton-Midmarsh, there was but one paved road in and out of the town itself. The boys saw a group of small buildings, which turned out to be the bothies, where the grounds men, gardeners and other outdoor workers lived and there they found shelter in an outhouse. Already, what had seemed a good idea just a brief hour or so ago was fast turning into a nightmare; the two lads had not the slightest idea what they should do with their "freedom".

The pack of cross-country runners straggled back to the school, where the diligent Mr. Cass carefully checked them off in his register, to find that the two boys, Lodge and Parry were missing. He immediately questioned the boys, one of whom volunteered that fact that he had seen the two miscreants drop out of the run soon after they had left the school premises, but he had no idea where they had gone. It was clear that they could not have gone very far and Mr. Cass promptly organised a search party of the grounds men and a couple of gardeners, who, of course, quickly found the two runaways hiding in the outhouse and hauled them back to the school. So freedom for Lodge and Parry had lasted all of two brief hours and they were now face to face with the Commander in his study.

"What were you two boys thinking of, trying to escape? Where on earth did you imagine that you could go? This place is totally isolated, especially chosen by the Ministry of Education, precisely to avoid inmates absconding as you have just tried to do. Well, boys, I have to tell you that your actions are very, very serious and cannot be allowed to pass without appropriate correction and I am sure, after your birching of just a few days ago that you know what that means. I have asked Mr. Cass to join us and he will be here in a moment, for I propose to allow him to assist me in the painful corrective action which you have brought upon yourselves."

Lodge and Parry listened in silence to the Commander, wondering what exactly he had in store for them, but they did not have long to wait before the full horror of their punishment was revealed to them.

"Mr. Cass, I am once again indebted to you for keeping order and supervising an orderly cross-country run, and today, especially, when, thanks to your vigilance, you have prevented these two miscreants from absconding from the school, which would have led to a police search for them as they are here under court sentence under the SCP scheme."

"You will doubtless recall that under this scheme these two boys were sentenced to three months confinement at Moulton Midmarsh during which time they would on four separate occasions receive mandatory severe corporal punishment as prescribed by the court. I have already told these two runaways that they have committed a very serious offence for which they are now to be punished and I thought that as you had been the leading light in the whole matter, it was right and proper that you should assist me in administering their punishment. What I propose is that I thrash Lodge and you deal with Parry, so, if you are agreeable let us adjourn next door where the accoutrements of punishment are waiting and teach these two boys yet another lesson, which I hope they will take to heart, though I have to say in the case of Lodge, I have severe doubts."

"Commander," said Mr.Cass, "You have my fullest support in this matter, I agree that the boys cannot be allowed to escape unscathed from this ridiculous venture on which they started; but what, sir, do you have in mind by way of punishment?"

"I have consulted the school regulations concerning corporal punishment, which, as I am sure you are aware, is the only recourse we have to tame boys such as these and to make them toe the line and obey the rules. Severe infractions such as this one can be corrected by up to twenty-four strokes of the cane, applied to the naked buttocks of the offender. And so, in view of the extreme nature of their offence, I think that the full allocation is well called for in this cane. So, there, Mr. Cass, you have it; we will give each of these two lads twenty-four cuts of the cane. Shall we begin?"

He now turned his attention to the two lads: "Well, you have just heard what I have said to Mr. Cass. We are going to correct you with two dozen cuts of the cane across your naked arses; is that clear?"

Lodge tried to protest saying that it was not fair that they should be caned for what they had just done as in barely two weeks time they would again have to bend for the cane, when the second of their mandatory punishments became due.

"Lodge, and you too Parry, although I can see that you Lodge are the focus of most of the problems, need to understand that the canings you will receive under your SCP sentence relate to your actions in the past. Any punishable offences which you commit whilst in this school, where you are meant to obey the rules, will be punished as such. Now, let us be clear, the caning you are now about to receive, is unrelated to your past misdemeanours; you are to be punished, as would be any other boy who breaks the rules. So, the pair of you, kindly step into the room next door where your needs will be fully catered for! Let me say, you will perhaps now realize that the cane reigns supreme in this establishment and long may it so remain."

The boys eyed the punishment equipment with unconcealed fear.

"Take of your shorts and singlets, both of you and stand to attention in front of us with your hands on your heads."

"But sir, we shall be completely naked; it's not decent, sir." said Lodge.

"Boy, do not argue with me, or I shall lose my temper. Just do as I say and hold your tongue. You are already in very deep trouble, the pair of you, and you Lodge, with your big mouth, seem to have an aptitude for making matters worse for yourself; so button up your lip, boy, and do as I say. Now, we are fortunate in having two beating stools available, so you do not have to jostle for a place; there is one for each of you. So, kindly each of you go to one of the two stools and bend across it so that Mr. Cass and I can adjust the height to ensure that your arses are in the perfect position for beating. And once in the right position, neither of you dare to move until the full two dozen cuts have been administered. Do I make myself clear? I would like to think that when we do things at Moulton-Midmarsh, we do them properly and I would hate the two of you to go away and tell people that you had had a second rate beating, for believe me, the beating you are about to receive will be first rate!"

You can imagine how the two miscreants must have felt, listening to all this rhetoric,, wondering when the first stroke of what promised to be a very unpleasant experience, would land.

"Mr. Cass, if you would like to select a pickle rod, we can perhaps begin our unpleasant task." In fact, the Commander was being his usual hypocritical self, for as we all know, he loved beating butt, as too did Mr. Cass; so there was little doubt that the boys were going to enjoy a terrific arse roasting.

"Mr Cass, what I suggest is that you position yourself over Parry and I over Lodge and that we attempt to synchronize our strokes so that the two boys are punished together." This was typical of the Commander, who loved to heighten the tension of any occasion when the cane was being wielded. "So, Mr Cass, if you are ready, on my count, apply your rod with vigour immediately after I call out the number of the stroke."

Mr. Cass, like the Commander, was in seventh heaven, truly enjoying what was for him a novel theatrical experience, and he handled the cane as a true professional; he had some difficulty in disguising the fact that he had already become hard, even before the first stroke was laid, and as the beating progressed, he was well into the pre-cum stage, with a stain beginning to appear in the crotch of his trousers. The Commander was similarly aroused, and was secretly revelling in the frightening homoerotic scenario he had orchestrated.

Both boys had recently undergone their first birching and traces of that event still showed on their buttocks, but Lodge, whose big mouth had earned him, on arrival, an immediate caning by the Commander, still had clear traces of the furrows produced by the cane. The Commander, ever the artist, tried his best to place the strokes close together across the full width of Lodge's rump so that his whole arse was inflamed and painful. Mr. Cass, who was no slouch either when it came to beating arse, produced a pictorial image of criss-crossed stroked across Parry's arse.

It is, perhaps, difficult for us today to envisage how ferociously canings were administered at the turn of the century. The pickle rod was, without any doubt, the most painful of all canes and its application produced immediate angry stripes on the buttocks and howls of pain from the unfortunate receiver of the punishment. The two men brought down their canes with great precision and the crack of the cane against the naked flesh was a frightening sound. As the punishment was very severe, two dozen cuts, the Commander called a pause after the first twelve cuts and let the boys stay there, bent over the stools in utter agony, for some ten minutes. He and Mr. Cass then switched places and completed the punishment, by which time both lads were in tears and hardly able to support the agonizing pain in their arses.

"Get up, the pair of you and go to the showers, clean up and get dressed. Now, let that be a lesson to you; in this school you will obey the rules and any infraction will be punished."

You might be tempted to think, in view of the extreme punishments practised at that time, that the old maxim, "once bitten, twice shy" would have conditioned the later behaviour of boys who had once experienced a painful beating. But it is surprising how many boys systematically continued breaking the rules and attracting further beatings; it was as if some boys actually enjoyed being beaten, which, of course, knowing the foibles of human nature, may, in some cases be true. Of course as you have divined, it was Lodge whose awful behaviour, incited both of his housemasters and the Commander himself to address his arse with the cane on a very regular basis.

Parry now started to realize that his association with his friend and partner-in- crime, Lodge, was going from bad to worse. Lodge's ill conceived idea to escape had already earned both of them an additional thrashing and he knew he still had three more encounters with the cane and the birch before he could really be free again. So he very wisely decided to distance himself from his erstwhile friend, whom he increasingly saw as a trouble maker.

"Lodge can take as many canings as he wishes," thought Parry, "But as of now, I shall toe the line and include myself out of his schemes. My god, what we both still have to undergo is bad enough and this idiot still seems to wants to heap more upon himself self; well, no longer with me in tow!"

Parry now totally accepted the sentence and waited, with fear for the three other thrashings he would have to suffer before finally being released into the world again; not so our friend Lodge, whose persistent loud mouth continued to bring regular additional punishment his way.

As Mr. Selby remarked laughingly to his assistant Mr Summers, "You know, Lodge's arse is akin to the British Empire, on which we are taught that the sun never sets, except that his arse is a globe on which the cane never rests. I reckon I could identify Lodge from his naked arse awaiting punishment, without ever seeing his face; it's become like an old friend, easily recognisable and inviting what we might call a dose of percussive therapy."

The three month's sentence of the two miscreants was up and they both suffered the final statutory birching ordered by the magistrate the day before they were to leave Moulton-Midmarsh. The Commander and Mr Selby saw them in the Commander's study the morning they were to leave the school.

The Commander started to address the boys only to be interrupted by a torrent of abuse from the very foulmouthed Lodge, who said to him:, "Now that we are free of this place, let me tell you that you have wasted your time on me, you old fart and you can go to hell as far as I am concerned, now that I am out of here; So just fuck off and that goes for you too Mr Selby."

The Commander looked at Lodge and said: "You, boy, are a example of the very worst type of modern youth; you have no respect for anyone and think that you can do as you wish, for which, as you have seen during your brief stay in this school you have been severely punished. Well, just for the record, allow me to tell you that your sentence does not end until noon today and that it is now precisely eleven thirty. So, you young tearaway, still have thirty minutes of your sentence left to serve, for which period you are still under my care and will obey the school rules. Your foulmouthed remarks are totally in character with what we have come to see as the norm with you boy and are totally inexcusable. So, if you would kindly step into the room next door, Mr Selby and I will have the greatest pleasure in acquainting your backside with the pickle rod for one last time; shall we say "for old time's sake"? Get in there, boy, drop your pants and underwear and prepare for one last beating. As you so rightly observe, we seem to have wasted our time in trying to reform you, but we shall at least have the satisfaction of leaving you with one last painful - indeed, very painful souvenir of your time at Moulton-Midmarsh."