"You ask him if he's not stopped our river-play.

Ah five of us! Mayn't go on at all for a week, and then we've got to get your permit.

Isn't that what he said, you chaps ?" "Yes," chimed in the "chaps," in injured voices.
"Well, then," said Riddell, "as that is so, I think you can--that is, I wish just to tell you--you--it mustn't occur again." "Oh, all right," said Parson, making for the door.
"And I hope," began Riddell-- But what it was he hoped, his youthful audience did not remain to hear.
They had vanished with amazing celerity, and the captain, as he walked pensively up to the door and shut it, could hear them marching jauntily down the passage shouting and laughing over their morning's adventures.
A moment's reflection satisfied Riddell that he had been "done" by these unscrupulous youngsters.

He had let them off on their own representations, and without taking due care to verify their story.

And now it would go out to all Willoughby that the new captain was a fool, and that any one who liked could be late for call-over if only he had the ingenuity to concoct a plausible story when he was reported.