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diff --git a/6877.txt b/6877.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a5c631 --- /dev/null +++ b/6877.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5769 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Head of Kay's, by P. G. Wodehouse + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Head of Kay's + +Author: P. G. Wodehouse + +Posting Date: August 26, 2012 [EBook #6877] +Release Date: November, 2004 +First Posted: February 6, 2003 +Last Updated: April 22, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEAD OF KAY'S *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne L. Shell, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + +THE HEAD OF KAY'S + + +by P. G. Wodehouse + +1905 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Chapter + +I MAINLY ABOUT FENN + +II AN EVENING AT KAY'S + +III THE FINAL HOUSE-MATCH + +IV HARMONY AND DISCORD + +V CAMP + +VI THE RAID ON THE GUARD-TENT + +VII A CLUE + +VIII A NIGHT ADVENTURE--THE DETHRONEMENT OF FENN + +IX THE SENSATIONS OF AN EXILE + +X FURTHER EXPERIENCES OF AN EXILE + +XI THE SENIOR DAYROOM OPENS FIRE + +XII KENNEDY INTERVIEWS WALTON + +XIII THE FIGHT IN THE DORMITORY + +XIV FENN RECEIVES A LETTER + +XV DOWN TOWN + +XVI WHAT HAPPENED TO FENN + +XVII FENN HUNTS FOR HIMSELF + +XVIII A VAIN QUEST + +XIX THE GUILE OF WREN + +XX JIMMY THE PEACEMAKER + +XXI IN WHICH AN EPISODE IS CLOSED + +XXII KAY'S CHANGES ITS NAME + +XXIII THE HOUSE-MATCHES + +XXIV THE SPORTS + + + + +I + +MAINLY ABOUT FENN + + +"When we get licked tomorrow by half-a-dozen wickets," said Jimmy +Silver, tilting his chair until the back touched the wall, "don't say +I didn't warn you. If you fellows take down what I say from time to +time in note-books, as you ought to do, you'll remember that I offered +to give anyone odds that Kay's would out us in the final. I always +said that a really hot man like Fenn was more good to a side than +half-a-dozen ordinary men. He can do all the bowling and all the +batting. All the fielding, too, in the slips." + +Tea was just over at Blackburn's, and the bulk of the house had gone +across to preparation in the school buildings. The prefects, as was +their custom, lingered on to finish the meal at their leisure. These +after-tea conversations were quite an institution at Blackburn's. The +labours of the day were over, and the time for preparation for the +morrow had not yet come. It would be time to be thinking of that in +another hour. Meanwhile, a little relaxation might be enjoyed. +Especially so as this was the last day but two of the summer term, and +all necessity for working after tea had ceased with the arrival of the +last lap of the examinations. + +Silver was head of the house, and captain of its cricket team, which +was nearing the end of its last match, the final for the inter-house +cup, and--on paper--getting decidedly the worst of it. After riding in +triumph over the School House, Bedell's, and Mulholland's, Blackburn's +had met its next door neighbour, Kay's, in the final, and, to the +surprise of the great majority of the school, was showing up badly. +The match was affording one more example of how a team of average +merit all through may sometimes fall before a one-man side. +Blackburn's had the three last men on the list of the first eleven, +Silver, Kennedy, and Challis, and at least nine of its representatives +had the reputation of being able to knock up a useful twenty or thirty +at any time. Kay's, on the other hand, had one man, Fenn. After him +the tail started. But Fenn was such an exceptional all-round man that, +as Silver had said, he was as good as half-a-dozen of the Blackburn's +team, equally formidable whether batting or bowling--he headed the +school averages at both. He was one of those batsmen who seem to know +exactly what sort of ball you are going to bowl before it leaves your +hand, and he could hit like another Jessop. As for his bowling, he +bowled left hand--always a puzzling eccentricity to an undeveloped +batsman--and could send them down very fast or very slow, as he +thought best, and it was hard to see which particular brand he was +going to serve up before it was actually in mid-air. + +But it is not necessary to enlarge on his abilities. The figures +against his name in _Wisden_ prove a good deal. The fact that he +had steered Kay's through into the last round of the house-matches +proves still more. It was perfectly obvious to everyone that, if only +you could get Fenn out for under ten, Kay's total for that innings +would be nearer twenty than forty. They were an appalling side. But +then no house bowler had as yet succeeded in getting Fenn out for +under ten. In the six innings he had played in the competition up to +date, he had made four centuries, an eighty, and a seventy. + +Kennedy, the second prefect at Blackburn's, paused in the act of +grappling with the remnant of a pot of jam belonging to some person +unknown, to reply to Silver's remarks. + +"We aren't beaten yet," he said, in his solid way. Kennedy's chief +characteristics were solidity, and an infinite capacity for taking +pains. Nothing seemed to tire or discourage him. He kept pegging away +till he arrived. The ordinary person, for instance, would have +considered the jam-pot, on which he was then engaged, an empty +jam-pot. Kennedy saw that there was still a strawberry (or it may have +been a section of a strawberry) at the extreme end, and he meant to +have that coy vegetable if he had to squeeze the pot to get at it. To +take another instance, all the afternoon of the previous day he had +bowled patiently at Fenn while the latter lifted every other ball into +space. He had been taken off three times, and at every fresh attack he +had plodded on doggedly, until at last, as he had expected, the +batsman had misjudged a straight one, and he had bowled him all over +his wicket. Kennedy generally managed to get there sooner or later. + +"It's no good chucking the game up simply because we're in a tight +place," he said, bringing the spoon to the surface at last with the +section of strawberry adhering to the end of it. "That sort of thing's +awfully feeble." + +"He calls me feeble!" shouted Jimmy Silver. "By James, I've put a man +to sleep for less." + +It was one of his amusements to express himself from time to time in a +melodramatic fashion, sometimes accompanying his words with suitable +gestures. It was on one of these occasions--when he had assumed at a +moment's notice the _role_ of the "Baffled Despot", in an +argument with Kennedy in his study on the subject of the house +football team--that he broke what Mr Blackburn considered a valuable +door with a poker. Since then he had moderated his transports. + +"They've got to make seventy-nine," said Kennedy. + +Challis, the other first eleven man, was reading a green scoring-book. + +"I don't think Kay's ought to have the face to stick the cup up in +their dining-room," he said, "considering the little they've done to +win it. If they _do_ win it, that is. Still, as they made two +hundred first innings, they ought to be able to knock off +seventy-nine. But I was saying that the pot ought to go to Fenn. Lot +the rest of the team had to do with it. Blackburn's, first innings, +hundred and fifty-one; Fenn, eight for forty-nine. Kay's, two hundred +and one; Fenn, a hundred and sixty-four not out. Second innings, +Blackburn's hundred and twenty-eight; Fenn ten for eighty. Bit thick, +isn't it? I suppose that's what you'd call a one-man team." + +Williams, one of the other prefects, who had just sat down at the +piano for the purpose of playing his one tune--a cake-walk, of which, +through constant practice, he had mastered the rudiments--spoke over +his shoulder to Silver. + +"I tell you what, Jimmy," he said, "you've probably lost us the pot by +getting your people to send brother Billy to Kay's. If he hadn't kept +up his wicket yesterday, Fenn wouldn't have made half as many." + +When his young brother had been sent to Eckleton two terms before, +Jimmy Silver had strongly urged upon his father the necessity of +placing him in some house other than Blackburn's. He felt that a head +of a house, even of so orderly and perfect a house as Blackburn's, has +enough worries without being saddled with a small brother. And on the +previous afternoon young Billy Silver, going in eighth wicket for +Kay's, had put a solid bat in front of everything for the space of one +hour, in the course of which he made ten runs and Fenn sixty. By +scoring odd numbers off the last ball of each over, Fenn had managed +to secure the majority of the bowling in the most masterly way. + +"These things will happen," said Silver, resignedly. "We Silvers, you +know, can't help making runs. Come on, Williams, let's have that tune, +and get it over." + +Williams obliged. It was a classic piece called "The Coon Band +Contest", remarkable partly for a taking melody, partly for the vast +possibilities of noise which it afforded. Williams made up for his +failure to do justice to the former by a keen appreciation of the +latter. He played the piece through again, in order to correct the +mistakes he had made at his first rendering of it. Then he played it +for the third time to correct a new batch of errors. + +"I should like to hear Fenn play that," said Challis. "You're awfully +good, you know, Williams, but he might do it better still." + +"Get him to play it as an encore at the concert," said Williams, +starting for the fourth time. + +The talented Fenn was also a musician,--not a genius at the piano, as +he was at cricket, but a sufficiently sound performer for his age, +considering that he had not made a special study of it. He was to play +at the school concert on the following day. + +"I believe Fenn has an awful time at Kay's," said Jimmy Silver. "It +must be a fair sort of hole, judging from the specimens you see +crawling about in Kay caps. I wish I'd known my people were sending +young Billy there. I'd have warned them. I only told them not to sling +him in here. I had no idea they'd have picked Kay's." + +"Fenn was telling me the other day," said Kennedy, "that being in +Kay's had spoiled his whole time at the school. He always wanted to +come to Blackburn's, only there wasn't room that particular term. Bad +luck, wasn't it? I don't think he found it so bad before he became +head of the house. He didn't come into contact with Kay so much. But +now he finds that he can't do a thing without Kay buzzing round and +interfering." + +"I wonder," said Jimmy Silver, thoughtfully, "if that's why he bowls +so fast. To work it off, you know." + +In the course of a beautiful innings of fifty-three that afternoon, +the captain of Blackburn's had received two of Fenn's speediest on the +same spot just above the pad in rapid succession, and he now hobbled +painfully when he moved about. + +The conversation that evening had dealt so largely with Fenn--the +whole school, indeed, was talking of nothing but his great attempt to +win the cricket cup single-handed--that Kennedy, going out into the +road for a breather before the rest of the boarders returned from +preparation, made his way to Kay's to see if Fenn was imitating his +example, and taking the air too. + +He found him at Kay's gate, and they strolled towards the school +buildings together. Fenn was unusually silent. + +"Well?" said Kennedy, after a minute had passed without a remark. + +"Well, what?" + +"What's up?" + +Fenn laughed what novelists are fond of calling a mirthless laugh. + +"Oh, I don't know," he said; "I'm sick of this place." + +Kennedy inspected his friend's face anxiously by the light of the lamp +over the school gate. There was no mistake about it. Fenn certainly +did look bad. His face always looked lean and craggy, but tonight +there was a difference. He looked used up. + +"Fagged?" asked Kennedy. + +"No. Sick." + +"What about?" + +"Everything. I wish you could come into Kay's for a bit just to see +what it's like. Then you'd understand. At present I don't suppose +you've an idea of it. I'd like to write a book on 'Kay Day by Day'. +I'd have plenty to put in it." + +"What's he been doing?" + +"Oh, nothing out of the ordinary run. It's the fact that he's always +at it that does me. You get a houseful of--well, you know the sort of +chap the average Kayite is. They'd keep me busy even if I were allowed +a free hand. But I'm not. Whenever I try and keep order and stop +things a bit, out springs the man Kay from nowhere, and takes the job +out of my hands, makes a ghastly mess of everything, and retires +purring. Once in every three times, or thereabouts, he slangs me in +front of the kids for not keeping order. I'm glad this is the end of +the term. I couldn't stand it much longer. Hullo, here come the chaps +from prep. We'd better be getting back." + + + + +II + +AN EVENING AT KAY'S + + +They turned, and began to walk towards the houses. Kennedy felt +miserable. He never allowed himself to be put out, to any great +extent, by his own worries, which, indeed, had not been very numerous +up to the present, but the misfortunes of his friends always troubled +him exceedingly. When anything happened to him personally, he found +the discomfort of being in a tight place largely counterbalanced by +the excitement of trying to find a way out. But the impossibility of +helping Fenn in any way depressed him. + +"It must be awful," he said, breaking the silence. + +"It is," said Fenn, briefly. + +"But haven't the house-matches made any difference? Blackburn's always +frightfully bucked when the house does anything. You can do anything +you like with him if you lift a cup. I should have thought Kay would +have been all right when he saw you knocking up centuries, and getting +into the final, and all that sort of thing." + +Fenn laughed. + +"Kay!" he said. "My dear man, he doesn't _know_. I don't suppose +he's got the remotest idea that we are in the final at all, or, if he +has, he doesn't understand what being in the final means." + +"But surely he'll be glad if you lick us tomorrow?" asked Kennedy. +Such indifference on the part of a house-master respecting the +fortunes of his house seemed to him, having before him the bright +example of Mr Blackburn, almost incredible. + +"I don't suppose so," said Fenn. "Or, if he is, I'll bet he doesn't +show it. He's not like Blackburn. I wish he was. Here he comes, so +perhaps we'd better talk about something else." + +The vanguard of the boys returning from preparation had passed them, +and they were now standing at the gate of the house. As Fenn spoke, a +little, restless-looking man in cap and gown came up. His clean-shaven +face wore an expression of extreme alertness--the sort of look a ferret +wears as he slips in at the mouth of a rabbit-hole. A doctor, called +upon to sum up Mr Kay at a glance, would probably have said that he +suffered from nerves, which would have been a perfectly correct +diagnosis, though none of the members of his house put his manners and +customs down to that cause. They considered that the methods he +pursued in the management of the house were the outcome of a naturally +malignant disposition. This was, however, not the case. There is no +reason to suppose that Mr Kay did not mean well. But there is no doubt +that he was extremely fussy. And fussiness--with the possible +exceptions of homicidal mania and a taste for arson--is quite the +worst characteristic it is possible for a house-master to possess. + +He caught sight of Fenn and Kennedy at the gate, and stopped in his +stride. + +"What are you doing here, Fenn?" he asked, with an abruptness which +brought a flush to the latter's face. "Why are you outside the house?" + +Kennedy began to understand why it was that his friend felt so +strongly on the subject of his house-master. If this was the sort of +thing that happened every day, no wonder that there was dissension in +the house of Kay. He tried to imagine Blackburn speaking in that way +to Jimmy Silver or himself, but his imagination was unequal to the +task. Between Mr Blackburn and his prefects there existed a perfect +understanding. He relied on them to see that order was kept, and they +acted accordingly. Fenn, by the exercise of considerable self-control, +had always been scrupulously polite to Mr Kay. + +"I came out to get some fresh air before lock-up, sir," he replied. + +"Well, go in. Go in at once. I cannot allow you to be outside the +house at this hour. Go indoors directly." + +Kennedy expected a scene, but Fenn took it quite quietly. + +"Good night, Kennedy," he said. + +"So long," said Kennedy. + +Fenn caught his eye, and smiled painfully. Then he turned and went +into the house. + +Mr Kay's zeal for reform was apparently still unsatisfied. He directed +his batteries towards Kennedy. + +"Go to your house at once, Kennedy. You have no business out here at +this time." + +This, thought Kennedy, was getting a bit too warm. Mr Kay might do as +he pleased with his own house, but he was hanged if he was going to +trample on _him_. + +"Mr Blackburn is my house-master, sir," he said with great respect. + +Mr Kay stared. + +"My house-master," continued Kennedy with gusto, slightly emphasising +the first word, "knows that I always go out just before lock-up, and +he has no objection." + +And, to emphasise this point, he walked towards the school buildings +again. For a moment it seemed as if Mr Kay intended to call him back, +but he thought better of it. Mr Blackburn, in normal circumstances a +pacific man, had one touchy point--his house. He resented any +interference with its management, and was in the habit of saying so. +Mr Kay remembered one painful scene in the Masters' Common Room, when +he had ventured to let fall a few well-meant hints as to how a house +should be ruled. Really, he had thought Blackburn would have choked. +Better, perhaps, to leave him to look after his own affairs. + +So Mr Kay followed Fenn indoors, and Kennedy, having watched him +vanish, made his way to Blackburn's. + +Quietly as Fenn had taken the incident at the gate, it nevertheless +rankled. He read prayers that night in a distinctly unprayerful mood. +It seemed to him that it would be lucky if he could get through to the +end of the term before Mr Kay applied that last straw which does not +break the backs of camels only. Eight weeks' holiday, with plenty of +cricket, would brace him up for another term. And he had been invited +to play for the county against Middlesex four days after the holidays +began. That should have been a soothing thought. But it really seemed +to make matters worse. It was hard that a man who on Monday would be +bowling against Warner and Beldam, or standing up to Trott and Hearne, +should on the preceding Tuesday be sent indoors like a naughty child +by a man who stood five-feet-one in his boots, and was devoid of any +sort of merit whatever. + +It seemed to him that it would help him to sleep peacefully that night +if he worked off a little of his just indignation upon somebody. There +was a noise going on in the fags' room. There always was at Kay's. It +was not a particularly noisy noise--considering; but it had better be +stopped. Badly as Kay had treated him, he remembered that he was head +of the house, and as such it behoved him to keep order in the house. + +He went downstairs, and, on arriving on the scene of action, found +that the fags were engaged upon spirited festivities, partly in honour +of the near approach of the summer holidays, partly because--miracles +barred--the house was going on the morrow to lift the cricket-cup. +There were a good many books flying about, and not a few slippers. +There was a confused mass rolling in combat on the floor, and the +table was occupied by a scarlet-faced individual, who passed the time +by kicking violently at certain hands, which were endeavouring to drag +him from his post, and shrieking frenzied abuse at the owners of the +said hands. It was an animated scene, and to a deaf man might have +been most enjoyable. + +Fenn's appearance was the signal for a temporary suspension of +hostilities. + +"What the dickens is all this row about?" he inquired. + +No one seemed ready at the moment with a concise explanation. There +was an awkward silence. One or two of the weaker spirits even went so +far as to sit down and begin to read. All would have been well but for +a bright idea which struck some undiscovered youth at the back of the +room. + +"Three cheers for Fenn!" observed this genial spirit, in no uncertain +voice. + +The idea caught on. It was just what was wanted to give a finish to +the evening's festivities. Fenn had done well by the house. He had +scored four centuries and an eighty, and was going to knock off the +runs against Blackburn's tomorrow off his own bat. Also, he had taken +eighteen wickets in the final house-match. Obviously Fenn was a person +deserving of all encouragement. It would be a pity to let him think +that his effort had passed unnoticed by the fags' room. Happy thought! +Three cheers and one more, and then "He's a jolly good fellow", to +wind up with. + +It was while those familiar words, "It's a way we have in the public +scho-o-o-o-l-s", were echoing through the room in various keys, that a +small and energetic form brushed past Fenn as he stood in the doorway, +vainly trying to stop the fags' choral efforts. + +It was Mr Kay. + +The singing ceased gradually, very gradually. It was some time before +Mr Kay could make himself heard. But after a couple of minutes there +was a lull, and the house-master's address began to be audible. + +"... unendurable noise. What is the meaning of it? I will not have it. +Do you hear? It is disgraceful. Every boy in this room will write me +two hundred lines by tomorrow evening. It is abominable, Fenn." He +wheeled round towards the head of the house. "Fenn, I am surprised at +you standing here and allowing such a disgraceful disturbance to go +on. Really, if you cannot keep order better--It is disgraceful, +disgraceful." + +Mr Kay shot out of the room. Fenn followed in his wake, and the +procession made its way to the house-masters' study. It had been a +near thing, but the last straw had arrived before the holidays. + +Mr Kay wheeled round as he reached his study door. + +"Well, Fenn?" + +Fenn said nothing. + +"Have you anything you wish to say, Fenn?" + +"I thought you might have something to say to me, sir." + +"I do not understand you, Fenn." + +"I thought you might wish to apologise for slanging me in front of the +fags." + +It is wonderful what a difference the last straw will make in one's +demeanour to a person. + +"Apologise! I think you forget whom it is you are speaking to." + +When a master makes this well-worn remark, the wise youth realises +that the time has come to close the conversation. All Fenn's prudence, +however, had gone to the four winds. + +"If you wanted to tell me I was not fit to be head of the house, you +needn't have done it before a roomful of fags. How do you think I can +keep order in the house if you do that sort of thing?" + +Mr Kay overcame his impulse to end the interview abruptly in order to +put in a thrust. + +"You do not keep order in the house, Fenn," he said, acidly. + +"I do when I am not interfered with." + +"You will be good enough to say 'sir' when you speak to me, Fenn," +said Mr Kay, thereby scoring another point. In the stress of the +moment, Fenn had not noticed the omission. + +He was silenced. And before he could recover himself, Mr Kay was in +his study, and there was a closed, forbidding door between them. + +And as he stared at it, it began slowly to dawn upon Fenn that he had +not shown up to advantage in the recent interview. In a word, he had +made a fool of himself. + + + + +III + +THE FINAL HOUSE-MATCH + + +Blackburn's took the field at three punctually on the following +afternoon, to play out the last act of the final house-match. They +were not without some small hope of victory, for curious things happen +at cricket, especially in the fourth innings of a match. And runs are +admitted to be easier saved than made. Yet seventy-nine seemed an +absurdly small score to try and dismiss a team for, and in view of the +fact that that team contained a batsman like Fenn, it seemed smaller +still. But Jimmy Silver, resolutely as he had declared victory +impossible to his intimate friends, was not the man to depress his +team by letting it become generally known that he considered +Blackburn's chances small. + +"You must work like niggers in the field," he said; "don't give away a +run. Seventy-nine isn't much to make, but if we get Fenn out for a +few, they won't come near it." + +He did not add that in his opinion Fenn would take very good care that +he did not get out for a few. It was far more likely that he would +make that seventy-nine off his own bat in a dozen overs. + +"You'd better begin, Kennedy," he continued, "from the top end. Place +your men where you want 'em. I should have an extra man in the deep, +if I were you. That's where Fenn kept putting them last innings. And +you'll want a short leg, only for goodness sake keep them off the +leg-side if you can. It's a safe four to Fenn every time if you don't. +Look out, you chaps. Man in." + +Kay's first pair were coming down the pavilion steps. + +Challis, going +to his place at short slip, called Silver's attention to a remarkable +fact. + +"Hullo," he said, "why isn't Fenn coming in first?" + +"What! By Jove, nor he is. That's queer. All the better for us. You +might get a bit finer, Challis, in case they snick 'em." + +Wayburn, who had accompanied Fenn to the wicket at the beginning of +Kay's first innings, had now for his partner one Walton, a large, +unpleasant-looking youth, said to be a bit of a bruiser, and known to +be a black sheep. He was one of those who made life at Kay's so close +an imitation of an Inferno. His cricket was of a rustic order. He hit +hard and high. When allowed to do so, he hit often. But, as a rule, he +left early, a prey to the slips or deep fields. Today was no exception +to that rule. + +Kennedy's first ball was straight and medium-paced. It was a little +too short, however, and Walton, letting go at it with a semi-circular +sweep like the drive of a golfer, sent it soaring over mid-on's head +and over the boundary. Cheers from the pavilion. + +Kennedy bowled his second ball with the same purposeful air, and +Walton swept at it as before. There was a click, and Jimmy Silver, who +was keeping wicket, took the ball comfortably on a level with his +chin. + +"How's that?" + +The umpire's hand went up, and Walton went out--reluctantly, murmuring +legends of how he had not gone within a yard of the thing. + +It was only when the next batsman who emerged from the pavilion turned +out to be his young brother and not Fenn, that Silver began to see +that something was wrong. It was conceivable that Fenn might have +chosen to go in first wicket down instead of opening the batting, but +not that he should go in second wicket. If Kay's were to win it was +essential that he should begin to bat as soon as possible. Otherwise +there might be no time for him to knock off the runs. However good a +batsman is, he can do little if no one can stay with him. + +There was no time to question the newcomer. He must control his +curiosity until the fall of the next wicket. + +"Man in," he said. + +Billy Silver was in many ways a miniature edition of his brother, and +he carried the resemblance into his batting. The head of Blackburn's +was stylish, and took no risks. His brother had not yet developed a +style, but he was very settled in his mind on the subject of risks. +There was no tempting him with half-volleys and long-hops. His motto +was defence, not defiance. He placed a straight bat in the path of +every ball, and seemed to consider his duty done if he stopped it. + +The remainder of the over was, therefore, quiet. Billy played +Kennedy's fastest like a book, and left the more tempting ones alone. + +Challis's first over realised a single, Wayburn snicking him to leg. +The first ball of Kennedy's second over saw him caught at the wicket, +as Walton had been. + +"Every _time_ a coconut," said Jimmy Silver complacently, as he +walked to the other end. "We're a powerful combination, Kennedy. +Where's Fenn? Does anybody know? Why doesn't he come in?" + +Billy Silver, seated on the grass by the side of the crease, fastening +the top strap of one of his pads, gave tongue with the eagerness of +the well-informed man. + +"What, don't you know?" he said. "Why, there's been an awful row. Fenn +won't be able to play till four o'clock. I believe he and Kay had a +row last night, and he cheeked Kay, and the old man's given him a sort +of extra. I saw him going over to the School House, and I heard him +tell Wayburn that he wouldn't be able to play till four." + +The effect produced by this communication would be most fittingly +expressed by the word "sensation" in brackets. It came as a complete +surprise to everyone. It seemed to knock the bottom out of the whole +match. Without Fenn the thing would be a farce. Kay's would have no +chance. + +"What a worm that man is," said Kennedy. "Do you know, I had a sort of +idea Fenn wouldn't last out much longer. Kay's been ragging him all +the term. I went round to see him last night, and Kay behaved like a +bounder then. I expect Fenn had it out with him when they got indoors. +What a beastly shame, though." + +"Beastly," agreed Jimmy Silver. "Still, it can't be helped. The sins +of the house-master are visited on the house. I'm afraid it will be +our painful duty to wipe the floor with Kay's this day. Speaking at a +venture, I should say that we have got them where the hair's short. +Yea. Even on toast, if I may be allowed to use the expression. Who is +this coming forth now? Curtis, or me old eyes deceive me. And is not +Curtis's record score three, marred by ten chances? Indeed yes. A +fastish yorker should settle Curtis's young hash. Try one." + +Kennedy followed the recipe. A ball later the middle and leg stumps +were lying in picturesque attitudes some yards behind the crease, and +Curtis was beginning that "sad, unending walk to the pavilion", +thinking, with the poet, + + "Thou wast not made to play, infernal ball!" + +Blackburn's non-combatants, dotted round the boundary, shrieked their +applause. Three wickets had fallen for five runs, and life was worth +living. Kay's were silent and gloomy. + +Billy Silver continued to occupy one end in an immovable manner, but +at the other there was no monotony. Man after man came in, padded and +gloved, and looking capable of mighty things. They took guard, patted +the ground lustily, as if to make it plain that they were going to +stand no nonsense, settled their caps over their eyes, and prepared to +receive the ball. When it came it usually took a stump or two with it +before it stopped. It was a procession such as the school grounds had +not often seen. As the tenth man walked from the pavilion, four +sounded from the clock over the Great Hall, and five minutes later the +weary eyes of the supporters of Kay's were refreshed by the sight of +Fenn making his way to the arena from the direction of the School +House. + +Just as he arrived on the scene, Billy Silver's defence broke down. +One of Challis's slows, which he had left alone with the idea that it +was going to break away to the off, came in quickly instead, and +removed a bail. Billy Silver had only made eight; but, as the full +score, including one bye, was only eighteen, this was above the +average, and deserved the applause it received. + +Fenn came in in the unusual position of eleventh man, with an +expression on his face that seemed to suggest that he meant business. +He was curiously garbed. Owing to the shortness of the interval +allowed him for changing, he had only managed to extend his cricket +costume as far as white buckskin boots. He wore no pads or gloves. But +even in the face of these sartorial deficiencies, he looked like a +cricketer. The field spread out respectfully, and Jimmy Silver moved a +man from the slips into the country. + +There were three more balls of Challis's over, for Billy Silver's +collapse had occurred at the third delivery. Fenn mistimed the first. +Two hours' writing indoors does not improve the eye. The ball missed +the leg stump by an inch. + +About the fifth ball he made no mistake. He got the full face of the +bat to it, and it hummed past coverpoint to the boundary. The last of +the over he put to leg for three. + +A remarkable last-wicket partnership now took place, remarkable not so +much for tall scoring as for the fact that one of the partners did not +receive a single ball from beginning to end of it, with the exception +of the one that bowled him. Fenn seemed to be able to do what he +pleased with the bowling. Kennedy he played with a shade more respect +than the others, but he never failed to score a three or a single off +the last ball of each of his overs. The figures on the telegraph-board +rose from twenty to thirty, from thirty to forty, from forty to fifty. +Williams went on at the lower end instead of Challis, and Fenn made +twelve off his first over. The pavilion was filled with howling +enthusiasts, who cheered every hit in a frenzy. + +Jimmy Silver began to look worried. He held a hasty consultation with +Kennedy. The telegraph-board now showed the figures 60--9--8. + +"This won't do," said Silver. "It would be too foul to get licked +after having nine of them out for eighteen. Can't you manage to keep +Fenn from scoring odd figures off the last ball of your over? If only +that kid at the other end would get some of the bowling, we should do +it." + +"I'll try," said Kennedy, and walked back to begin his over. + +Fenn reached his fifty off the third ball. Seventy went up on the +board. Ten more and Kay's would have the cup. The fourth ball was too +good to hit. Fenn let it pass. The fifth he drove to the on. It was a +big hit, but there was a fieldsman in the neighbourhood. Still, it was +an easy two. But to Kennedy's surprise Fenn sent his partner back +after they had run a single. Even the umpire was surprised. Fenn's +policy was so obvious that it was strange to see him thus deliberately +allow his partner to take a ball. + +"That's not over, you know, Fenn," said the umpire--Lang, of the +School House, a member of the first eleven. + +Fenn looked annoyed. He had miscounted the balls, and now his partner, +who had no pretensions to be considered a bat, would have to face +Kennedy. + +That mistake lost Kay's the match. + +Impossible as he had found it to defeat Fenn, Kennedy had never lost +his head or his length. He was bowling fully as well as he had done at +the beginning of the innings. + +The last ball of the over beat the batsman all the way. He scooped +blindly forward, missed it by a foot, and the next moment the off +stump lay flat. Blackburn's had won by seven runs. + + + + +IV + +HARMONY AND DISCORD + + +What might be described as a mixed reception awaited the players as +they left the field. The pavilion and the parts about the pavilion rails +were always packed on the last day of a final house-match, and even in +normal circumstances there was apt to be a little sparring between the +juniors of the two houses which had been playing for the cup. In the +present case, therefore, it was not surprising that Kay's fags took the +defeat badly. The thought that Fenn's presence at the beginning of the +innings, instead of at the end, would have made all the difference +between a loss and a victory, maddened them. The crowd that seethed +in front of the pavilion was a turbulent one. + +For a time the operation of chairing Fenn up the steps occupied the +active minds of the Kayites. When he had disappeared into the first +eleven room, they turned their attention in other directions. Caustic +and uncomplimentary remarks began to fly to and fro between the +representatives of Kay's and Blackburn's. It is not known who actually +administered the first blow. But, when Fenn came out of the pavilion +with Kennedy and Silver, he found a stirring battle in progress. The +members of the other houses who had come to look on at the match stood +in knots, and gazed with approval at the efforts of Kay's and +Blackburn's juniors to wipe each other off the face of the earth. The +air was full of shrill battle-cries, varied now and then by a smack or +a thud, as some young but strenuous fist found a billet. The fortune +of war seemed to be distributed equally so far, and the combatants +were just warming to their work. + +"Look here," said Kennedy, "we ought to stop this." + +"What's the good," said Fenn, without interest. "It pleases them, and +doesn't hurt anybody else." + +"All the same," observed Jimmy Silver, moving towards the nearest +group of combatants, "free fights aren't quite the thing, somehow. +For, children, you should never let your angry passions rise; your +little hands were never made to tear each other's eyes. Dr Watts' +_Advice to Young Pugilists_. Drop it, you little beasts." + +He separated two heated youths who were just beginning a fourth round. +The rest of the warriors, seeing Silver and the others, called a +truce, and Silver, having read a sort of Riot Act, moved on. The +juniors of the beaten house, deciding that it would be better not to +resume hostilities, consoled themselves by giving three groans for Mr +Kay. + +"What happened after I left you last night, Fenn?" asked Kennedy. + +"Oh, I had one of my usual rows with Kay, only rather worse than +usual. I said one or two things he didn't like, and today the old man +sent for me and told me to come to his room from two till four. Kay +had run me in for being 'grossly rude'. Listen to those kids. What a +row they're making!" + +"It's a beastly shame," said Kennedy despondently. + +At the school shop Morrell, of Mulholland's, met them. He had been +spending the afternoon with a rug and a novel on the hills at the back +of the school, and he wanted to know how the final house-match had +gone. Blackburn's had beaten Mulholland's in one of the early rounds. +Kennedy explained what had happened. + +"We should have lost if Fenn had turned up earlier," he said. "He had +a row with Kay, and Kay gave him a sort of extra between two and +four." + +Fenn, busily occupied with an ice, added no comment of his own to this +plain tale. + +"Rough luck," said Morrell. "What's all that row out in the field?" + +"That's Kay's kids giving three groans for Kay," explained Silver. "At +least, they started with the idea of giving three groans. They've got +up to about three hundred by this time. It seems to have fascinated +them. They won't leave off. There's no school rule against groaning in +the grounds, and they mean to groan till the end of the term. +Personally, I like the sound. But then, I'm fond of music." + +Morrell's face beamed with sudden pleasure. "I knew there was +something I wanted to tell you," he said, "only I couldn't remember +what. Your saying you're fond of music reminds me. Mulholland's +crocked himself, and won't be able to turn out for the concert." + +"What!" cried Kennedy. "How did it happen? What's he done?" + +Mr Mulholland was the master who looked after the music of the school, +a fine cricketer and keen sportsman. Had nothing gone wrong, he would +have conducted at the concert that night. + +"I heard it from the matron at our place," said Morrell. "She's full +of it. Mulholland was batting at the middle net, and somebody else--I +forget who--was at the one next to it on the right. The bowler sent +down a long-hop to leg, and this Johnny had a smack at it, and sent it +slap through the net, and it got Mulholland on the side of the head. +He was stunned for a bit, but he's getting all right again now. But he +won't be able to conduct tonight. Rather bad luck on the man, +especially as he's so keen on the concert." + +"Who's going to sub for him?" asked Silver. "Perhaps they'll scratch +the show," suggested Kennedy. + +"Oh, no," said Morrell, "it's all right. Kay is going to conduct. He's +often done it at choir practices when Mulholland couldn't turn up." + +Fenn put down his empty saucer with an emphatic crack on the counter. + +"If Kay's going to run the show, I'm hanged if I turn up," he said. + +"My dear chap, you can't get out of it now," said Kennedy anxiously. +He did not want to see Fenn plunging into any more strife with the +authorities this term. + +"Think of the crowned heads who are coming to hear you," pleaded Jimmy +Silver. "Think of the nobility and gentry. Think of me. You must +play." + +"Ah, there you are, Fenn." + +Mr Kay had bustled in in his energetic way. + +Fenn said nothing. He _was_ there. It was idle to deny it. + +"I thought I should find you here. Yes, I wanted to see you about the +concert tonight. Mr Mulholland has met with an unfortunate accident, +and I am looking after the entertainment in his place. Come with me +and play over your piece. I should like to see that you are perfect in +it. Dear me, dear me, what a noise those boys are making. Why +_are_ they behaving in that extraordinary way, I wonder!" + +Kay's juniors had left the pavilion, and were trooping back to their +house. At the present moment they were passing the school shop, and +their tuneful voices floated in through the open window. + +"This is very unusual. Why, they seem to be boys in my house. They are +groaning." + +"I think they are a little upset at the result of the match, sir," +said Jimmy Silver suavely. "Fenn did not arrive, for some reason, till +the end of the innings, so Mr Blackburn's won. The wicket was good, +but a little fiery." + +"Thank you, Silver," replied Mr Kay with asperity. "When I require +explanations I will ask for them." + +He darted out of the shop, and a moment later they heard him pouring +out a flood of recriminations on the groaning fags. + +"There was _once_ a man who snubbed me," said Jimmy Silver. "They +buried him at Brookwood. Well, what are you going to do, Fenn? Going +to play tonight? Harkee, boy. Say but the word, and I will beard this +tyrant to his face." + +Fenn rose. + +"Yes," he said briefly, "I shall play. You'd better turn up. I think +you'll enjoy it." + +Silver said that no human power should keep him away. + + * * * * * + +The School concert was always one of the events of the summer term. +There was a concert at the end of the winter term, too, but it was not +so important. To a great many of those present the summer concert +marked, as it were, the last flutter of their school life. On the +morrow they would be Old Boys, and it behoved them to extract as much +enjoyment from the function as they could. Under Mr Mullholland's rule +the concert had become a very flourishing institution. He aimed at a +high standard, and reached it. There was more than a touch of the +austere about the music. A glance at the programme was enough to show +the lover of airs of the trashy, clashy order that this was no place +for him. Most of the items were serious. When it was thought necessary +to introduce a lighter touch, some staidly rollicking number was +inserted, some song that was saved--in spite of a catchy tune--by a +halo of antiquity. Anything modern was taboo, unless it were the work +of Gotsuchakoff, Thingummyowsky, or some other eminent foreigner. +Foreign origin made it just possible. + +The school prefects lurked during the performance at the doors and at +the foot of the broad stone steps that led to the Great Hall. It was +their duty to supply visitors with programmes. + +Jimmy Silver had foregathered with Kennedy, Challis, and Williams at +the junior door. The hall was full now, and their labours consequently +at an end. + +"Pretty good 'gate'," said Silver, looking in through the open door. +"It must be warm up in the gallery." + +Across the further end of the hall a dais had been erected. On this +the bulk of the school sat, leaving the body of the hall to the +crowned heads, nobility, and gentry to whom Silver had referred in his +conversation with Fenn. + +"It always is warm in the gallery," said Challis. "I lost about two +stone there every concert when I was a kid. We simply used to sit and +melt." + +"And I tell you what," broke in Silver, "it's going to get warmer +before the end of the show. Do you notice that all Kay's house are +sitting in a lump at the back. I bet they're simply spoiling for a +row. Especially now Kay's running the concert. There's going to be a +hot time in the old town tonight--you see if there isn't. Hark at +'em." + +The choir had just come to the end of a little thing of Handel's. +There was no reason to suppose that the gallery appreciated Handel. +Nevertheless, they were making a deafening noise. Clouds of dust rose +from the rhythmical stamping of many feet. The noise was loudest and +the dust thickest by the big window, beneath which sat the men from +Kay's. Things were warming up. + +The gallery, with one last stamp which nearly caused the dais to +collapse, quieted down. The masters in the audience looked serious. +One or two of the visitors glanced over their shoulders with a smile. +How excited the dear boys were at the prospect of holidays! Young +blood! Young blood! Boys _would_ be boys. + +The concert continued. Half-way through the programme there was a ten +minutes' interval. Fenn's pianoforte solo was the second item of the +second half. + +He mounted the platform amidst howls of delight from the gallery. +Applause at the Eckleton concerts was granted more for services in the +playing-fields than merit as a musician. Kubelik or Paderewski would +have been welcomed with a few polite handclaps. A man in the eleven or +fifteen was certain of two minutes' unceasing cheers. + +"Evidently one of their heroes, my dear," said Paterfamilias to +Materfamilias. "I suppose he has won a scholarship at the University." + +Paterfamilias' mind was accustomed to run somewhat upon scholarships +at the University. What the school wanted was a batting average of +forty odd or a bowling analysis in single figures. + +Fenn played the "Moonlight Sonata". A trained musical critic would +probably have found much to cavil at in his rendering of the piece, +but it was undoubtedly good for a public school player. Of course he +was encored. The gallery would have encored him if he had played with +one finger, three mistakes to every bar. + +"I told Fenn," said Jimmy Silver, "if he got an encore, that he ought +to play the--My aunt! _He is!_" + +Three runs and half-a-dozen crashes, and there was no further room for +doubt. Fenn was playing the "Coon Band Contest". + +"He's gone mad," gasped Kennedy. + +Whether he had or not, it is certain that the gallery had. All the +evening they had been stewing in an atmosphere like that of the inner +room of a Turkish bath, and they were ready for anything. It needed +but a trifle to set them off. The lilt of that unspeakable Yankee +melody supplied that trifle. Kay's malcontents, huddled in their seats +by the window, were the first to break out. Feet began to stamp in +time to the music--softly at first, then more loudly. The wooden dais +gave out the sound like a drum. + +Other rioters joined in from the right. The noise spread through the +gallery as a fire spreads through gorse. Soon three hundred pairs of +well-shod feet were rising and falling. Somebody began to whistle. +Everybody whistled. Mr Kay was on his feet, gesticulating wildly. His +words were lost in the uproar. + +For five minutes the din prevailed. Then, with a final crash, Fenn +finished. He got up from the music-stool, bowed, and walked back to +his place by the senior door. The musical efforts of the gallery +changed to a storm of cheering and clapping. + +The choir rose to begin the next piece. + +Still the noise continued. + +People began to leave the Hall--in ones and twos first, then in a +steady stream which blocked the doorways. It was plain to the dullest +intelligence that if there was going to be any more concert, it would +have to be performed in dumb show. Mr Kay flung down his baton. + +The visitors had left by now, and the gallery was beginning to follow +their example, howling as it went. + +"Well," said Jimmy Silver cheerfully, as he went with Kennedy down the +steps, "I _think_ we may call that a record. By my halidom, +there'll be a row about this later on." + + + + +V + +CAMP + + +With the best intentions in the world, however, a headmaster cannot +make a row about a thing unless he is given a reasonable amount of +time to make it in. The concert being on the last evening of term, +there was only a single morning before the summer holidays, and that +morning was occupied with the prize-giving. The school assembled at +ten o'clock with a shadowy hope that this prize-day would be more +exciting than the general run of prize-days, but they were +disappointed. The function passed off without sensation. The +headmaster did not denounce the school in an impassioned speech from +the dais. He did not refer to the events of the previous evening. At +the same time, his demeanour was far from jovial. It lacked that +rollicking bonhomie which we like to see in headmasters on prize-day. +It was evident to the most casual observer that the affair was not +closed. The school would have to pay the bill sooner or later. But +eight weeks would elapse before the day of reckoning, which was a +comforting thought. + +The last prize was handed over to its rightful owner. The last and +dullest vote of thanks had been proposed by the last and dullest +member of the board of governors. The Bishop of Rumtifoo (who had been +selected this year to distribute the prizes) had worked off his +seventy minutes' speech (inaudible, of course, as usual), and was +feeling much easier. The term had been formally declared at an end, +and those members of the school corps who were going to camp were +beginning to assemble in front of the buildings. + +"I wonder why it always takes about three hours to get us off to the +station," said Jimmy Silver. "I've been to camp two years now, and +there's always been this rotting about in the grounds before we start. +Nobody's likely to turn up to inspect us for the next hour or so. If +any gent cares to put in a modest ginger-beer at the shop, I'm with +him." + +"I don't see why we shouldn't," said Kennedy. He had seen Fenn go into +the shop, and wished to talk to him. He had not seen him after the +concert, and he thought it would be interesting to know how Kay had +taken it, and what his comments had been on meeting Fenn in the house +that night. + +Fenn had not much to say. + +"He was rather worried," he said, grinning as if the recollection of +the interview amused him. "But he couldn't do anything. Of course, +there'll be a row next term, but it can't be helped." + +"If I were you," said Silver, "I should point out to them that you'd a +perfect right to play what you liked for an encore. How were you to +know the gallery would go off like that? You aren't responsible for +them. Hullo, there's that bugle. Things seem to be on the move. We +must go." + +"So long," said Fenn. + +"Goodbye. Mind you come off against Middlesex." + +Kennedy stayed for a moment. + +"Has the Old Man said anything to you yet?" he asked. + +"Not yet. He'll do that next term. It'll be something to look forward +to." + +Kennedy hurried off to take his place in the ranks. + +Getting to camp at the end of the summer term is always a nuisance. +Aldershot seems a long way from everywhere, and the trains take their +time over the journey. Then, again, the heat always happens to be +particularly oppressive on that day. Snow may have fallen on the day +before, but directly one sets out for camp, the thermometer goes up +into three figures. The Eckleton contingent marched into the lines +damp and very thirsty. + +Most of the other schools were already on the spot, and looked as if +they had been spending the last few years there. There was nothing +particular going on when the Eckleton warriors arrived, and everybody +was lounging about in khaki and shirt-sleeves, looking exasperatingly +cool. The only consolation which buoyed up the spirits of Eckleton +was the reflection that in a short space of time, when the +important-looking gentleman in uniform who had come to meet them had +said all he wanted to say on the subject of rules and regulations, +they would be like that too. Happy thought! If the man bucked up and +cut short the peroration, there would be time for a bathe in Cove +Reservoir. Those of the corps who had been to camp in previous years +felt quite limp with the joy of the thought. Why couldn't he get +through with it, and give a fellow a chance of getting cool again? + +The gist of the oration was apparently that the Eckleton cadets were +to consider themselves not only as soldiers--and as such subject to +military discipline, and the rules for the conduct of troops quartered +in the Aldershot district--but also as members of a public school. In +short, that if they misbehaved themselves they would get cells, and a +hundred lines in the same breath, as it were. + +The corps knew all this ages ago. The man seemed to think he was +telling them something fresh. They began positively to dislike him +after a while. + +He finished at last. Eckleton marched off wearily, but in style, to +its lines. + +"Dis-miss!" + +They did. + +"And about time, too," said Jimmy Silver. "I wish they would tie that +man up, or something. He's one of the worst bores I know. He may be +full of bright conversation in private life, but in public he will +talk about his beastly military regulations. You can't stop him. It's +a perfect mania with him. Now, I believe--that's to say, I have a sort +of dim idea--that there's a place round about here called a canteen. I +seem to remember such a thing vaguely. We might go and look for it." + +Kennedy made no objection. + +This was his first appearance at camp. Jimmy Silver, on the other +hand, was a veteran. He had been there twice before, and meant to go +again. He had a peculiar and extensive knowledge of the ins and outs +of the place. Kennedy was quite willing to take him as his guide. He +was full of information. Kennedy was surprised to see what a number of +men from the other schools he seemed to know. In the canteen there +were, amongst others, a Carthusian, two Tonbridge men, and a +Haileyburian. They all greeted Silver with the warmth of old friends. + +"You get to know a lot of fellows in camp," explained Jimmy, as they +strolled back to the Eckleton lines. "That's the best of the place. +Camp's the best place on earth, if only you have decent weather. See +that chap over there? He came here last year. He'd never been before, +and one of the things he didn't know was that Cove Reservoir's only +about three feet deep round the sides. He took a running dive, and +almost buried himself in the mud. It's about two feet deep. He told me +afterwards he swallowed pounds of it. Rather bad luck. Somebody ought +to have told him. You can't do much diving here." + +"Glad you mentioned it," said Kennedy. "I should have dived myself if +you hadn't." + +Many other curious and diverting facts did the expert drag from the +bonded warehouse of his knowledge. Nothing changes at camp. Once get +to know the ropes, and you know them for all time. + +"The one thing I bar," he said, "is having to get up at half-past +five. And one day in the week, when there's a divisional field-day, +it's half-past four. It's hardly worth while going to sleep at all. +Still, it isn't so bad as it used to be. The first year I came to camp +we used to have to do a three hours' field-day before brekker. We used +to have coffee before it, and nothing else till it was over. By Jove, +you felt you'd had enough of it before you got back. This is Laffan's +Plain. The worst of Laffan's Plain is that you get to know it too +well. You get jolly sick of always starting on field-days from the +same place, and marching across the same bit of ground. Still, I +suppose they can't alter the scenery for our benefit. See that man +there? He won the sabres at Aldershot last year. That chap with him is +in the Clifton footer team." + +When a school corps goes to camp, it lives in a number of tents, and, +as a rule, each house collects in a tent of its own. Blackburn's had a +tent, and further down the line Kay's had assembled. The Kay +contingent were under Wayburn, a good sort, as far as he himself was +concerned, but too weak to handle a mob like Kay's. Wayburn was not +coming back after the holidays, a fact which perhaps still further +weakened his hold on the Kayites. They had nothing to fear from him +next term. + +Kay's was represented at camp by a dozen or so of its members, of whom +young Billy Silver alone had any pretensions to the esteem of his +fellow man. Kay's was the rowdiest house in the school, and the cream +of its rowdy members had come to camp. There was Walton, for one, a +perfect specimen of the public school man at his worst. There was +Mortimer, another of Kay's gems. Perry, again, and Callingham, and the +rest. A pleasant gang, fit for anything, if it could be done in +safety. + +Kennedy observed them, and--the spectacle starting a train of +thought--asked Jimmy Silver, as they went into their tent just before +lights-out, if there was much ragging in camp. + +"Not very much," said the expert. "Chaps are generally too done up at +the end of the day to want to do anything except sleep. Still, I've +known cases. You sometimes get one tent mobbing another. They loose +the ropes, you know. Low trick, I think. It isn't often done, and it +gets dropped on like bricks when it's found out. But why? Do you feel +as if you wanted to do it?" + +"It only occurred to me that we've got a lively gang from Kay's here. +I was wondering if they'd get any chances of ragging, or if they'd +have to lie low." + +"I'd forgotten Kay's for the moment. Now you mention it, they are +rather a crew. But I shouldn't think they'd find it worth while to rot +about here. It isn't as if they were on their native heath. People +have a prejudice against having their tent-ropes loosed, and they'd +get beans if they did anything in that line. I remember once there was +a tent which made itself objectionable, and it got raided in the night +by a sort of vigilance committee from the other schools, and the chaps +in it got the dickens of a time. None of them ever came to camp again. +I hope Kay's'll try and behave decently. It'll be an effort for them; +but I hope they'll make it. It would be an awful nuisance if young +Billy made an ass of himself in any way. He loves making an ass of +himself. It's a sort of hobby of his." + +As if to support the statement, a sudden volley of subdued shouts came +from the other end of the Eckleton lines. + +"Go it, Wren!" + +"Stick to it, Silver!" + +"Wren!" + +"Silver!" + +"S-s-h!" + +Silence, followed almost immediately by a gruff voice inquiring with +simple directness what the dickens all this noise was about. + +"Hullo!" said Kennedy. "Did you hear that? I wonder what's been up? +Your brother was in it, whatever it was." + +"Of course," said Jimmy Silver, "he would be. We can't find out about +it now, though. I'll ask him tomorrow, if I remember. I shan't +remember, of course. Good night." + +"Good night." + +Half an hour later, Kennedy, who had been ruminating over the incident +in his usual painstaking way, reopened the debate. + +"Who's Wren?" he asked. + +"Wha'?" murmured Silver, sleepily. + +"Who's Wren?" repeated Kennedy. + +"I d'know.... Oh.... Li'l' beast.... Kay's.... Red hair.... G'-ni'." + +And sleep reigned in Blackburn's tent. + + + + +VI + +THE RAID ON THE GUARD-TENT + + +Wren and Billy Silver had fallen out over a question of space. It was +Silver's opinion that Wren's nest ought to have been built a foot or +two further to the left. He stated baldly that he had not room to +breathe, and requested the red-headed one to ease off a point or so in +the direction of his next-door neighbour. Wren had refused, and, after +a few moments' chatty conversation, smote William earnestly in the +wind. Trouble had begun upon the instant. It had ceased almost as +rapidly owing to interruptions from without, but the truce had been +merely temporary. They continued the argument outside the tent at +five-thirty the next morning, after the _reveille_ had sounded, +amidst shouts of approval from various shivering mortals who were +tubbing preparatory to embarking on the labours of the day. + +A brisk first round had just come to a conclusion when Walton lounged +out of the tent, yawning. + +Walton proceeded to separate the combatants. After which he rebuked +Billy Silver with a swagger-stick. Wren's share in the business he +overlooked. He was by way of being a patron of Wren's, and he disliked +Billy Silver, partly for his own sake and partly because he hated his +brother, with whom he had come into contact once or twice during his +career at Eckleton, always with unsatisfactory results. + +So Walton dropped on to Billy Silver, and Wren continued his toilet +rejoicing. + +Camp was beginning the strenuous life now. Tent after tent emptied +itself of its occupants, who stretched themselves vigorously, and +proceeded towards the tubbing-ground, where there were tin baths for +those who cared to wait until the same were vacant, and a good, honest +pump for those who did not. Then there was that unpopular job, the +piling of one's bedding outside the tent, and the rolling up of the +tent curtains. But these unpleasant duties came to an end at last, and +signs of breakfast began to appear. + +Breakfast gave Kennedy his first insight into life in camp. He +happened to be tent-orderly that day, and it therefore fell to his lot +to join the orderlies from the other tents in their search for the +Eckleton rations. He returned with a cargo of bread (obtained from the +quartermaster), and, later, with a great tin of meat, which the +cook-house had supplied, and felt that this was life. Hitherto +breakfast had been to him a thing of white cloths, tables, and food +that appeared from nowhere. This was the first time he had ever +tracked his food to its source, so to speak, and brought it back with +him. After breakfast, when he was informed that, as tent-orderly for +the day, it was his business to wash up, he began to feel as if he +were on a desert island. He had never quite realised before what +washing-up implied, and he was conscious of a feeling of respect for +the servants at Blackburn's, who did it every day as a matter of +course, without complaint. He had had no idea before this of the +intense stickiness of a jammy plate. + +One day at camp is much like another. The schools opened the day with +parade drill at about eight o'clock, and, after an instruction series +of "changing direction half-left in column of double companies", and +other pleasant movements of a similar nature, adjourned for lunch. +Lunch was much like breakfast, except that the supply of jam was cut +off. The people who arrange these things--probably the War Office, or +Mr Brodrick, or someone--have come to the conclusion that two pots of +jam per tent are sufficient for breakfast and lunch. The unwary devour +theirs recklessly at the earlier meal, and have to go jamless until +tea at six o'clock, when another pot is served out. + +The afternoon at camp is perfect or otherwise, according to whether +there is a four o'clock field-day or not. If there is, there are more +manoeuvrings until tea-time, and the time is spent profitably, but not +so pleasantly as it might be. If there is no field-day, you can take +your time about your bathe in Cove Reservoir. And a really +satisfactory bathe on a hot day should last at least three hours. +Kennedy and Jimmy Silver strolled off in the direction of the +Reservoir as soon as they felt that they had got over the effects of +the beef, potatoes, and ginger-beer which a generous commissariat had +doled out to them for lunch. It was a glorious day, and bathing was +the only thing to do for the next hour or so. Stump-cricket, that +fascinating sport much indulged in in camp, would not be at its best +until the sun had cooled off a little. + +After a pleasant half hour in the mud and water of the Reservoir, they +lay on the bank and watched the rest of the schools take their +afternoon dip. Kennedy had laid in a supply of provisions from the +stall which stood at the camp end of the water. Neither of them felt +inclined to move. + +"This _is_ decent," said Kennedy, wriggling into a more +comfortable position in the long grass. "Hullo!" + +"What's up?" inquired Jimmy Silver, lazily. + +He was almost asleep. + +"Look at those idiots. They're certain to get spotted." + +Jimmy Silver tilted his hat off his face, and sat up. + +"What's the matter? Which idiot?" + +Kennedy pointed to a bush on their right. Walton and Perry were seated +beside it. Both were smoking. + +"Oh, that's all right," said Silver. "Masters never come to Cove +Reservoir. It's a sort of unwritten law. They're rotters to smoke, all +the same. Certain to get spotted some day.... Not worth it.... Spoils +lungs.... Beastly bad ... training." + +He dozed off. The sun was warm, and the grass very soft and +comfortable. Kennedy turned his gaze to the Reservoir again. It was no +business of his what Walton and Perry did. + +Walton and Perry were discussing ways and means. The conversation +changed as they saw Kennedy glance at them. They were the sort of +persons who feel a vague sense of injury when anybody looks at them, +perhaps because they feel that those whose attention is attracted to +them must say something to their discredit when they begin to talk +about them. + +"There's that beast Kennedy," said Walton. "I can't stick that man. +He's always hanging round the house. What he comes for, I can't make +out." + +"Pal of Fenn's," suggested Perry. + +"He hangs on to Fenn. I bet Fenn bars him really." + +Perry doubted this in his innermost thoughts, but it was not worth +while to say so. + +"Those Blackburn chaps," continued Walton, reverting to another +grievance, "will stick on no end of side next term about that cup. +They wouldn't have had a look in if Kay hadn't given Fenn that extra. +Kay ought to be kicked. I'm hanged if I'm going to care what I do next +term. Somebody ought to do something to take it out of Kay for getting +his own house licked like that." + +Walton spoke as if the line of conduct he had mapped out for himself +would be a complete reversal of his customary mode of life. As a +matter of fact, he had never been in the habit of caring very much +what he did. + +Walton's last remarks brought the conversation back to where it had +been before the mention of Kennedy switched it off on to new lines. +Perry had been complaining that he thought camp a fraud, that it was +all drilling and getting up at unearthly hours. He reminded Walton +that he had only come on the strength of the latter's statement that +it would be a rag. Where did the rag come in? That was what Perry +wanted to know. + +"When it's not a ghastly sweat," he concluded, "it's slow. Like it is +now. Can't we do something for a change?" + +"As a matter of fact," said Walton, "nearly all the best rags are +played out. A chap at a crammer's told me last holidays that when he +was at camp he and some other fellows loosed the ropes of the +guard-tent. He said it was grand sport." + +Perry sat up. + +"That's the thing," he said, excitedly. "Let's do that. Why not?" + +"It's beastly risky," objected Walton. + +"What's that matter? They can't do anything, even if they spot us." + +"That's all you know. We should get beans." + +"Still, it's worth risking. It would be the biggest rag going. Did the +chap tell you how they did it?" + +"Yes," said Walton, becoming animated as he recalled the stirring +tale, "they bagged the sentry. Chucked a cloth or something over his +head, you know. Then they shoved him into the ditch, and one of them +sat on him while the others loosed the ropes. It took the chaps inside +no end of a time getting out." + +"That's the thing. We'll do it. We only need one other chap. Leveson +would come if we asked him. Let's get back to the lines. It's almost +tea-time. Tell him after tea." + +Leveson proved agreeable. Indeed, he jumped at it. His life, his +attitude suggested, had been a hollow mockery until he heard the plan, +but now he could begin to enjoy himself once more. + +The lights-out bugle sounded at ten o'clock; the last post at +ten-thirty. At a quarter to twelve the three adventurers, who had been +keeping themselves awake by the exercise of great pains, satisfied +themselves that the other occupants of the tent were asleep, and stole +out. + +It was an excellent night for their purpose. There was no moon, and +the stars were hidden by clouds. + +They crept silently towards the guard-tent. A dim figure loomed out of +the blackness. They noted with satisfaction, as it approached, that it +was small. Sentries at the public-school camp vary in physique. They +felt that it was lucky that the task of sentry-go had not fallen that +night to some muscular forward from one of the school fifteens, or +worse still, to a boxing expert who had figured in the Aldershot +competition at Easter. The present sentry would be an easy victim. + +They waited for him to arrive. + +A moment later Private Jones, of St Asterisk's--for it was he--turning +to resume his beat, found himself tackled from behind. Two moments +later he was reclining in the ditch. He would have challenged his +adversary, but, unfortunately, that individual happened to be seated +on his face. + +He struggled, but to no purpose. + +He was still struggling when a muffled roar of indignation from the +direction of the guard-tent broke the stillness of the summer night. +The roar swelled into a crescendo. What seemed like echoes came from +other quarters out of the darkness. The camp was waking. + +The noise from the guard-tent waxed louder. + +The unknown marauder rose from his seat on Private Jones, and +vanished. + +Private Jones also rose. He climbed out of the ditch, shook himself, +looked round for his assailant, and, not finding him, hurried to the +guard-tent to see what was happening. + + + + +VII + +A CLUE + + +The guard-tent had disappeared. + +Private Jones' bewildered eye, rolling in a fine frenzy from heaven to +earth, and from earth to heaven, in search of the missing edifice, +found it at last in a tangled heap upon the ground. It was too dark to +see anything distinctly, but he perceived that the canvas was rising +and falling spasmodically like a stage sea, and for a similar +reason--because there were human beings imprisoned beneath it. + +By this time the whole camp was up and doing. Figures in +_deshabille_, dashing the last vestiges of sleep away with their +knuckles, trooped on to the scene in twos and threes, full of inquiry +and trenchant sarcasm. + +"What are you men playing at? What's all the row about? Can't you +finish that game of footer some other time, when we aren't trying to +get to sleep? What on earth's up?" + +Then the voice of one having authority. + +"What's the matter? What are you doing?" + +It was perfectly obvious what the guard was doing. It was trying to +get out from underneath the fallen tent. Private Jones explained this +with some warmth. + +"Somebody jumped at me and sat on my head in the ditch. I couldn't get +up. And then some blackguard cut the ropes of the guard-tent. I +couldn't see who it was. He cut off directly the tent went down." + +Private Jones further expressed a wish that he could find the chap. +When he did, there would, he hinted, be trouble in the old homestead. + +The tent was beginning to disgorge its prisoners. + +"Guard, turn out!" said a facetious voice from the darkness. + +The camp was divided into two schools of thought. Those who were +watching the guard struggle out thought the episode funny. The guard +did not. It was pathetic to hear them on the subject of their +mysterious assailants. Matters quieted down rapidly after the tent had +been set up again. The spectators were driven back to their lines by +their officers. The guard turned in again to try and restore their +shattered nerves with sleep until their time for sentry-go came round. +Private Jones picked up his rifle and resumed his beat. The affair was +at an end as far as that night was concerned. + +Next morning, as might be expected, nothing else was talked about. +Conversation at breakfast was confined to the topic. No halfpenny +paper, however many times its circulation might exceed that of any +penny morning paper, ever propounded so fascinating and puzzling a +breakfast-table problem. It was the utter impossibility of detecting +the culprits that appealed to the schools. They had swooped down like +hawks out of the night, and disappeared like eels into mud, leaving no +traces. + +Jimmy Silver, of course, had no doubts. + +"It was those Kay's men," he said. "What does it matter about +evidence? You've only got to look at 'em. That's all the evidence you +want. The only thing that makes it at all puzzling is that they did +nothing worse. You'd naturally expect them to slay the sentry, at any +rate." + +But the rest of the camp, lacking that intimate knowledge of the +Kayite which he possessed, did not turn the eye of suspicion towards +the Eckleton lines. The affair remained a mystery. Kennedy, who never +gave up a problem when everybody else did, continued to revolve the +mystery in his mind. + +"I shouldn't wonder," he said to Silver, two days later, "if you were +right." + +Silver, who had not made any remark for the last five minutes, with +the exception of abusive comments on the toughness of the meat which +he was trying to carve with a blunt knife for the tent, asked for an +explanation. "I mean about that row the other night." + +"What row?" + +"That guard-tent business." + +"Oh, that! I'd forgotten. Why don't you move with the times? You're +always thinking of something that's been dead and buried for years." + +"You remember you said you thought it was those Kay's chaps who did +it. I've been thinking it over, and I believe you're right. You see, +it was probably somebody who'd been to camp before, or he wouldn't +have known that dodge of loosing the ropes." + +"I don't see why. Seems to me it's the sort of idea that might have +occurred to anybody. You don't want to study the thing particularly +deeply to know that the best way of making a tent collapse is to loose +the ropes. Of course it was Kay's lot who did it. But I don't see how +you're going to have them simply because one or two of them have been +here before." + +"No, I suppose not," said Kennedy. + +After tea the other occupants of the tent went out of the lines to +play stump-cricket. Silver was in the middle of a story in one of the +magazines, so did not accompany them. Kennedy cried off on the plea of +slackness. + +"I say," he said, when they were alone. + +"Hullo," said Silver, finishing his story, and putting down the +magazine. "What do you say to going after those chaps? I thought that +story was going to be a long one that would take half an hour to get +through. But it collapsed. Like that guard-tent." + +"About that tent business," said Kennedy. "Of course that was all rot +what I was saying just now. I suddenly remembered that I didn't +particularly want anybody but you to hear what I was going to say, so +I had to invent any rot that I could think of." + +"But now," said Jimmy Silver, sinking his voice to a melodramatic +whisper, "the villagers have left us to continue their revels on the +green, our wicked uncle has gone to London, his sinister retainer, +Jasper Murgleshaw, is washing his hands in the scullery sink, +and--_we are alone!_" + +"Don't be an ass," pleaded Kennedy. + +"Tell me your dreadful tale. Conceal nothing. Spare me not. In fact, +say on." + +"I've had a talk with the chap who was sentry that night," began +Kennedy. + +"Astounding revelations by our special correspondent," murmured +Silver. + +"You might listen." + +"I _am_ listening. Why don't you begin? All this hesitation +strikes me as suspicious. Get on with your shady story." + +"You remember the sentry was upset--" + +"Very upset." + +"Somebody collared him from behind, and upset him into the ditch. They +went in together, and the other man sat on his head." + +"A touching picture. Proceed, friend." + +"They rolled about a bit, and this sentry chap swears he scratched the +man. It was just after that that the man sat on his head. Jones says +he was a big chap, strong and heavy." + +"He was in a position to judge, anyhow." + +"Of course, he didn't mean to scratch him. He was rather keen on +having that understood. But his fingers came up against the fellow's +cheek as he was falling. So you see we've only got to look for a man +with a scratch on his cheek. It was the right cheek, Jones was almost +certain. I don't see what you're laughing at." + +"I wish you wouldn't spring these good things of yours on me +suddenly," gurgled Jimmy Silver, rolling about the wooden floor of the +tent. "You ought to give a chap some warning. Look here," he added, +imperatively, "swear you'll take me with you when you go on your tour +through camp examining everybody's right cheek to see if it's got a +scratch on it." + +Kennedy began to feel the glow and pride of the successful +sleuth-hound leaking out of him. This aspect of the case had not +occurred to him. The fact that the sentry had scratched his +assailant's right cheek, added to the other indubitable fact that +Walton, of Kay's, was even now walking abroad with a scratch on his +right cheek, had seemed to him conclusive. He had forgotten that there +might be others. Still, it was worth while just to question him. He +questioned him at Cove Reservoir next day. + +"Hullo, Walton," he said, with a friendly carelessness which would not +have deceived a prattling infant, "nasty scratch you've got on your +cheek. How did you get it?" + +"Perry did it when we were ragging a few days ago," replied Walton, +eyeing him distrustfully. + +"Oh," said Kennedy. + +"Silly fool," said Walton. + +"Talking about me?" inquired Kennedy politely. + +"No," replied Walton, with the suavity of a Chesterfield, "Perry." + +They parted, Kennedy with the idea that Walton was his man still more +deeply rooted, Walton with an uncomfortable feeling that Kennedy knew +too much, and that, though he had undoubtedly scored off him for the +moment, a time (as Jimmy Silver was fond of observing with a satanic +laugh) would come, and then--! + +He felt that it behoved him to be wary. + + + + +VIII + +A NIGHT ADVENTURE--THE DETHRONEMENT OF FENN + + +One of the things which make life on this planet more or less +agreeable is the speed with which alarums, excursions, excitement, and +rows generally, blow over. A nine-days' wonder has to be a big +business to last out its full time nowadays. As a rule the third day +sees the end of it, and the public rushes whooping after some other +hare that has been started for its benefit. The guard-tent row, as far +as the bulk of camp was concerned, lasted exactly two days; at the end +of which period it was generally agreed that all that could be said on +the subject had been said, and that it was now a back number. Nobody, +except possibly the authorities, wanted to find out the authors of the +raid, and even Private Jones had ceased to talk about it--this owing +to the unsympathetic attitude of his tent. + +"Jones," the corporal had observed, as the ex-sentry's narrative of +his misfortunes reached a finish for the third time since +_reveille_ that morning, "if you can't manage to switch off that +infernal chestnut of yours, I'll make you wash up all day and sit on +your head all night." + +So Jones had withdrawn his yarn from circulation. Kennedy's interest in +detective work waned after his interview with Walton. He was quite sure +that Walton had been one of the band, but it was not his business to +find out; even had he found out, he would have done nothing. It was +more for his own private satisfaction than for the furtherance of +justice that he wished to track the offenders down. But he did not +look on the affair, as Jimmy Silver did, as rather sporting; he had +a tender feeling for the good name of the school, and he felt that +it was not likely to make Eckleton popular with the other schools +that went to camp if they got the reputation of practical jokers. +Practical jokers are seldom popular until they have been dead a +hundred years or so. + +As for Walton and his colleagues, to complete the list of those who +were interested in this matter of the midnight raid, they lay +remarkably low after their successful foray. They imagined that +Kennedy was spying on their every movement. In which they were quite +wrong, for Kennedy was doing nothing of the kind. Camp does not allow +a great deal of leisure for the minding of other people's businesses. +But this reflection did not occur to Walton, and he regarded Kennedy, +whenever chance or his duties brought him into the neighbourhood of +that worthy's tent, with a suspicion which increased whenever the +latter looked at him. + +On the night before camp broke up, a second incident of a sensational +kind occurred, which, but for the fact that they never heard of it, +would have given the schools a good deal to talk about. It happened +that Kennedy was on sentry-go that night. The manner of sentry-go is +thus. At seven in the evening the guard falls in, and patrols the +fringe of the camp in relays till seven in the morning. A guard +consists of a sergeant, a corporal, and ten men. They are on duty for +two hours at a time, with intervals of four hours between each spell, +in which intervals they sleep the sleep of tired men in the +guard-tent, unless, as happened on the occasion previously described, +some miscreant takes it upon himself to loose the ropes. The ground to +be patrolled by the sentries is divided into three parts, each of +which is entrusted to one man. + +Kennedy was one of the ten privates, and his first spell of sentry-go +began at eleven o'clock. + +On this night there was no moon. It was as black as pitch. It is +always unpleasant to be on sentry-go on such a night. The mind +wanders, in spite of all effort to check it, through a long series of +all the ghastly stories one has ever read. There is one in particular +of Conan Doyle's about a mummy that came to life and chased people on +lonely roads--but enough! However courageous one may be, it is +difficult not to speculate on the possible horrors which may spring +out on one from the darkness. That feeling that there is somebody--or +something--just behind one can only be experienced in all its force by +a sentry on an inky night at camp. And the thought that, of all the +hundreds there, he and two others are the only ones awake, puts a sort +of finishing touch to the unpleasantness of the situation. + +Kennedy was not a particularly imaginative youth, but he looked +forward with no little eagerness to the time when he should be +relieved. It would be a relief in two senses of the word. His beat +included that side of the camp which faces the road to Aldershot. +Between camp and this road is a ditch and a wood. After he had been on +duty for an hour this wood began to suggest a variety of +possibilities, all grim. The ditch, too, was not without associations. +It was into this that Private Jones had been hurled on a certain +memorable occasion. Such a thing was not likely to happen again in the +same week, and, even if it did, Kennedy flattered himself that he +would have more to say in the matter than Private Jones had had; but +nevertheless he kept a careful eye in that direction whenever his beat +took him along the ditch. + +It was about half-past twelve, and he had entered upon the last +section of his two hours, when Kennedy distinctly heard footsteps in +the wood. He had heard so many mysterious sounds since his patrol +began at eleven o'clock that at first he was inclined to attribute +this to imagination. But a crackle of dead branches and the sound of +soft breathing convinced him that this was the real thing for once, +and that, as a sentry of the Public Schools' Camp on duty, it behoved +him to challenge the unknown. + +He stopped and waited, peering into the darkness in a futile endeavour +to catch a glimpse of his man. But the night was too black for the +keenest eye to penetrate it. A slight thud put him on the right track. +It showed him two things; first, that the unknown had dropped into the +ditch, and, secondly, that he was a camp man returning to his tent +after an illegal prowl about the town at lights-out. Nobody save one +belonging to the camp would have cause to cross the ditch. + +Besides, the man walked warily, as one not ignorant of the danger of +sentries. The unknown had crawled out of the ditch now. As luck would +have it he had chosen a spot immediately opposite to where Kennedy +stood. Now that he was nearer Kennedy could see the vague outline of +him. + +"Who goes there?" he said. + +From an instinctive regard for the other's feelings he did not shout +the question in the regulation manner. He knew how he would feel +himself if he were out of camp at half-past twelve, and the voice of +the sentry were to rip suddenly through the silence _fortissimo_. + +As it was, his question was quite loud enough to electrify the person +to whom it was addressed. The unknown started so violently that he +nearly leapt into the air. Kennedy was barely two yards from him when +he spoke. + +The next moment this fact was brought home to him in a very practical +manner. The unknown, sighting the sentry, perhaps more clearly against +the dim whiteness of the tents than Kennedy could sight him against +the dark wood, dashed in with a rapidity which showed that he knew +something of the art of boxing. Kennedy dropped his rifle and flung up +his arm. He was altogether too late. A sudden blaze of light, and he +was on the ground, sick and dizzy, a feeling he had often experienced +before in a slighter degree, when sparring in the Eckleton gymnasium +with the boxing instructor. + +The immediate effect of a flush hit in the regions about the jaw is to +make the victim lose for the moment all interest in life. Kennedy lay +where he had fallen for nearly half a minute before he fully realised +what it was that had happened to him. When he did realise the +situation, he leapt to his feet, feeling sick and shaky, and staggered +about in all directions in a manner which suggested that he fancied +his assailant would be waiting politely until he had recovered. As was +only natural, that wily person had vanished, and was by this time +doing a quick change into garments of the night. Kennedy had the +satisfaction of knowing--for what it was worth--that his adversary was +in one of those tents, but to place him with any greater accuracy was +impossible. + +So he gave up the search, found his rifle, and resumed his patrol. And +at one o'clock his successor relieved him. + +On the following day camp broke up. + + * * * * * + +Kennedy always enjoyed going home, but, as he travelled back to +Eckleton on the last day of these summer holidays, he could not help +feeling that there was a great deal to be said for term. He felt +particularly cheerful. He had the carriage to himself, and he had also +plenty to read and eat. The train was travelling at forty miles an +hour. And there were all the pleasures of a first night after the +holidays to look forward to, when you dashed from one friend's study +to another's, comparing notes, and explaining--five or six of you at a +time--what a good time you had had in the holidays. This was always a +pleasant ceremony at Blackburn's, where all the prefects were intimate +friends, and all good sorts, without that liberal admixture of weeds, +worms, and outsiders which marred the list of prefects in most of the +other houses. Such as Kay's! Kennedy could not restrain a momentary +gloating as he contrasted the state of affairs in Blackburn's with +what existed at Kay's. Then this feeling was merged in one of pity for +Fenn's hard case. How he must hate the beginning of term, thought +Kennedy. + +All the well-known stations were flashing by now. In a few minutes he +would be at the junction, and in another half-hour back at +Blackburn's. He began to collect his baggage from the rack. + +Nobody he knew was at the junction. This was the late train that he +had come down by. Most of the school had returned earlier in the +afternoon. + +He reached Blackburn's at eight o'clock, and went up to his study to +unpack. This was always his first act on coming back to school. He +liked to start the term with all his books in their shelves, and all +his pictures and photographs in their proper places on the first day. +Some of the studies looked like lumber-rooms till near the end of the +first week. + +He had filled the shelves, and was arranging the artistic decorations, +when Jimmy Silver came in. Kennedy had been surprised that he had not +met him downstairs, but the matron had answered his inquiry with the +statement that he was talking to Mr Blackburn in the other part of the +house. + +"When did you arrive?" asked Silver, after the conclusion of the first +outbreak of holiday talk. + +"I've only just come." + +"Seen Blackburn yet?" + +"No. I was thinking of going up after I had got this place done +properly." + +Jimmy Silver ran his eye over the room. + +"I haven't started mine yet," he said. "You're such an energetic man. +Now, are all those books in their proper places?" + +"Yes," said Kennedy. + +"Sure?" + +"Yes." + +"How about the pictures? Got them up?" + +"All but this lot here. Shan't be a second. There you are. How's that +for effect?" + +"Not bad. Got all your photographs in their places?" + +"Yes." + +"Then," said Jimmy Silver, calmly, "you'd better start now to pack +them all up again. And why, my son? Because you are no longer a +Blackburnite. That's what." + +Kennedy stared. + +"I've just had the whole yarn from Blackburn," continued Jimmy Silver. +"Our dear old pal, Mr Kay, wanting somebody in his house capable of +keeping order, by way of a change, has gone to the Old Man and +borrowed you. So _you're_ head of Kay's now. There's an honour +for you." + + + + +IX + +THE SENSATIONS OF AN EXILE + + +"What" shouted Kennedy. + +He sprang to his feet as if he had had an electric shock. + +Jimmy Silver, having satisfied his passion for the dramatic by the +abruptness with which he had exploded his mine, now felt himself at +liberty to be sympathetic. + +"It's quite true," he said. "And that's just how I felt when Blackburn +told me. Blackburn's as sick as anything. Naturally he doesn't see the +point of handing you over to Kay. But the Old Man insisted, so he +caved in. He wanted to see you as soon as you arrived. You'd better go +now. I'll finish your packing." + +This was noble of Jimmy, for of all the duties of life he loathed +packing most. + +"Thanks awfully," said Kennedy, "but don't you bother. I'll do it when +I get back. But what's it all about? What made Kay want a man? Why +won't Fenn do? And why me?" + +"Well, it's easy to see why they chose you. They reflected that you'd +had the advantage of being in Blackburn's with me, and seeing how a +house really should be run. Kay wants a head for his house. Off he +goes to the Old Man. 'Look here,' he says, 'I want somebody shunted +into my happy home, or it'll bust up. And it's no good trying to put +me off with an inferior article, because I won't have it. It must be +somebody who's been trained from youth up by Silver.' 'Then,' says the +Old Man, reflectively, 'you can't do better than take Kennedy. I +happen to know that Silver has spent years in showing him the straight +and narrow path. You take Kennedy.' 'All right,' says Kay; 'I always +thought Kennedy a bit of an ass myself, but if he's studied under +Silver he ought to know how to manage a house. I'll take him. Advise +our Mr Blackburn to that effect, and ask him to deliver the goods at +his earliest convenience. Adoo, mess-mate, adoo!' And there you +are--that's how it was." + +"But what's wrong with Fenn?" + +"My dear chap! Remember last term. Didn't Fenn have a regular scrap +with Kay, and get shoved into extra for it? And didn't he wreck the +concert in the most sportsmanlike way with that encore of his? Think +the Old Man is going to take that grinning? Not much! Fenn made a +ripping fifty against Kent in the holidays--I saw him do it--but they +don't count that. It's a wonder they didn't ask him to leave. Of +course, I think it's jolly rough on Fenn, but I don't see that you can +blame them. Not the Old Man, at any rate. He couldn't do anything +else. It's all Kay's fault that all this has happened, of course. I'm +awfully sorry for you having to go into that beastly hole, but from +Kay's point of view it's a jolly sound move. You may reform the +place." + +"I doubt it." + +"So do I--very much. I didn't say you would--I said you might. I +wonder if Kay means to give you a free hand. It all depends on that." + +"Yes. If he's going to interfere with me as he used to with Fenn, +he'll want to bring in another head to improve on me." + +"Rather a good idea, that," said Jimmy Silver, laughing, as he always +did when any humorous possibilities suggested themselves to him. "If +he brings in somebody to improve on you, and then somebody else to +improve on him, and then another chap to improve on him, he ought to +have a decent house in half-a-dozen years or so." + +"The worst of it is," said Kennedy, "that I've got to go to Kay's as a +sort of rival to Fenn. I shouldn't mind so much if it wasn't for that. +I wonder how he'll take it! Do you think he knows about it yet? He +didn't enjoy being head, but that's no reason why he shouldn't cut up +rough at being shoved back to second prefect. It's a beastly +situation." + +"Beastly," agreed Jimmy Silver. "Look here," he added, after a pause, +"there's no reason, you know, why this should make any difference. To +us, I mean. What I mean to say is, I don't see why we shouldn't see +each other just as often, and so on, simply because you are in another +house, and all that sort of thing. You know what I mean." + +He spoke shamefacedly, as was his habit whenever he was serious. He +liked Kennedy better than anyone he knew, and hated to show his +feelings. Anything remotely connected with sentiment made him +uncomfortable. + +"Of course," said Kennedy, awkwardly. + +"You'll want a refuge," said Silver, in his normal manner, "now that +you're going to see wild life in Kay's. Don't forget that I'm always +at home in my study in the afternoons--admission on presentation of a +visiting-card." + +"All right," said Kennedy, "I'll remember. I suppose I'd better go and +see Blackburn now." + +Mr Blackburn was in his study. He was obviously disgusted and +irritated by what had happened. Loyalty to the headmaster, and an +appreciation of his position as a member of the staff led him to try +and conceal his feelings as much as possible in his interview with +Kennedy, but the latter understood as plainly as if his house-master +had burst into a flow of abuse and complaint. There had always been an +excellent understanding--indeed, a friendship--between Kennedy and Mr +Blackburn, and the master was just as sorry to lose his second prefect +as the latter was to go. + +"Well, Kennedy," he said, pleasantly. "I hope you had a good time in +the holidays. I suppose Silver has told you the melancholy news--that +you are to desert us this term? It is a great pity. We shall all be +very sorry to lose you. I don't look forward to seeing you bowl us all +out in the house-matches next summer," he added, with a smile, "though +we shall expect a few full-pitches to leg, for the sake of old times." + +He meant well, but the picture he conjured up almost made Kennedy +break down. Nothing up to the present had made him realise the +completeness of his exile so keenly as this remark of Mr Blackburn's +about his bowling against the side for which he had taken so many +wickets in the past. It was a painful thought. + +"I am afraid you won't have quite such a pleasant time in Mr Kay's as +you have had here," resumed the house-master. "Of course, I know that, +strictly speaking, I ought not to talk like this about another +master's house; but you can scarcely be unaware of the reasons that +have led to this change. You must know that you are being sent to pull +Mr Kay's house together. This is strictly between ourselves, of +course. I think you have a difficult task before you, but I don't +fancy that you will find it too much for you. And mind you come here +as often as you please. I am sure Silver and the others will be glad +to see you. Goodbye, Kennedy. I think you ought to be getting across +now to Mr Kay's. I told him that you would be there before half-past +nine. Good night." + +"Good night, sir," said Kennedy. + +He wandered out into the house dining-room. Somehow, though Kay's was +only next door, he could not get rid of the feeling that he was about +to start on a long journey, and would never see his old house again. +And in a sense this was so. He would probably visit Blackburn's +tomorrow afternoon, but it would not be the same. Jimmy Silver would +greet him like a brother, and he would brew in the same study in which +he had always brewed, and sit in the same chair; but it would not be +the same. He would be an outsider, a visitor, a stranger within the +gates, and--worst of all--a Kayite. Nothing could alter that. + +The walk of the dining-room were covered with photographs of the house +cricket and football teams for the last fifteen years. Looking at +them, he felt more than ever how entirely his school life had been +bound up in his house. From his first day at Eckleton he had been +taught the simple creed of the Blackburnite, that Eckleton was the +finest school in the three kingdoms, and that Blackburn's was the +finest house in the finest school. + +Under the gas-bracket by the door hung the first photograph in which +he appeared, the cricket team of four years ago. He had just got the +last place in front of Challis on the strength of a tremendous catch +for the house second in a scratch game two days before the +house-matches began. It had been a glaring fluke, but it had impressed +Denny, the head of the house, who happened to see it, and had won him +his place. + +He walked round the room, looking at each photograph in turn. It +seemed incredible that he had no longer any right to an interest in +the success of Blackburn's. He could have endured leaving all this +when his time at school was up, for that would have been the natural +result of the passing of years. But to be transplanted abruptly and +with a wrench from his native soil was too much. He went upstairs to +pack, suffering from as severe an attack of the blues as any youth of +eighteen had experienced since blues were first invented. + +Jimmy Silver hovered round, while he packed, with expressions of +sympathy and bitter remarks concerning Mr Kay and his wicked works, +and, when the operation was concluded, helped Kennedy carry his box +over to his new house with the air of one seeing a friend off to the +parts beyond the equator. + +It was ten o'clock by the time the front door of Kay's closed upon its +new head. Kennedy went to the matron's sanctum to be instructed in the +geography of the house. The matron, a severe lady, whose faith in +human nature had been terribly shaken by five years of office in +Kay's, showed him his dormitory and study with a lack of geniality +which added a deeper tinge of azure to Kennedy's blues. "So you've +come to live here, have you?" her manner seemed to say; "well, I pity +you, that's all. A nice time _you're_ going to have." + +Kennedy spent the half-hour before going to bed in unpacking his box +for the second time, and arranging his books and photographs in the +study which had been Wayburn's. He had nothing to find fault with in +the study. It was as large as the one he had owned at Blackburn's, +and, like it, looked out over the school grounds. + +At half-past ten the gas gave a flicker and went out, turned off at +the main. Kennedy lit a candle and made his way to his dormitory. +There now faced him the more than unpleasant task of introducing +himself to its inmates. He knew from experience the disconcerting way +in which a dormitory greets an intruder. It was difficult to know how +to begin matters. It would take a long time, he thought, to explain +his presence to their satisfaction. + +Fortunately, however, the dormitory was not unprepared. Things get +about very quickly in a house. The matron had told the housemaids; the +housemaids had handed it on to their ally, the boot boy; the boot boy +had told Wren, whom he happened to meet in the passage, and Wren had +told everybody else. + +There was an uproar going on when Kennedy opened the door, but it died +away as he appeared, and the dormitory gazed at the newcomer in +absolute and embarrassing silence. Kennedy had not felt so conscious +of the public eye being upon him since he had gone out to bat against +the M.C.C., on his first appearance in the ranks of the Eckleton +eleven. He went to his bed and began to undress without a word, +feeling rather than seeing the eyes that were peering at him. When he +had completed the performance of disrobing, he blew out the candle and +got into bed. The silence was broken by numerous coughs, of that +short, suggestive type with which the public schoolboy loves to +embarrass his fellow man. From some unidentified corner of the room +came a subdued giggle. Then a whispered, "Shut _up_, you fool!" +To which a low voice replied, "All _right,_ I'm not doing +anything." + +More coughs, and another outbreak of giggling from a fresh quarter. + +"Good night," said Kennedy, to the room in general. + +There was no reply. The giggler appeared to be rapidly approaching +hysterics. + +"Shut up that row," said Kennedy. + +The giggling ceased. + +The atmosphere was charged with suspicion. Kennedy fell asleep fearing +that he was going to have trouble with his dormitory before many +nights had passed. + + + + +X + +FURTHER EXPERIENCES OF AN EXILE + + +Breakfast on the following morning was a repetition of the dormitory +ordeal. Kennedy walked to his place on Mr Kay's right, feeling that +everyone was looking at him, as indeed they were. He understood for +the first time the meaning of the expression, "the cynosure of all +eyes". He was modest by nature, and felt his position a distinct +trial. + +He did not quite know what to say or do with regard to his new +house-master at this their first meeting in the latter's territory. +"Come aboard, sir," occurred to him for a moment as a happy phrase, +but he discarded it. To make the situation more awkward, Mr Kay did +not observe him at first, being occupied in assailing a riotous fag at +the other end of the table, that youth having succeeded, by a +dexterous drive in the ribs, in making a friend of his spill half a +cup of coffee. Kennedy did not know whether to sit down without a word +or to remain standing until Mr Kay had time to attend to him. He would +have done better to have sat down; Mr Kay's greeting, when it came, +was not worth waiting for. + +"Sit down, Kennedy," he said, irritably--rebuking people on an empty +stomach always ruffled him. "Sit down, sit down." + +Kennedy sat down, and began to toy diffidently with a sausage, +remembering, as he did so, certain diatribes of Fenn's against the +food at Kay's. As he became more intimate with the sausage, he +admitted to himself that Fenn had had reason. Mr Kay meanwhile pounded +away in moody silence at a plate of kidneys and bacon. It was one of +the many grievances which gave the Kayite material for conversation +that Mr Kay had not the courage of his opinions in the matter of food. +He insisted that he fed his house luxuriously, but he refused to brave +the mysteries of its bill of fare himself. + +Fenn had not come down when Kennedy went in to breakfast. He arrived +some ten minutes later, when Kennedy had vanquished the sausage, and +was keeping body and soul together with bread and marmalade. + +"I cannot have this, Fenn," snapped Mr Kay; "you must come down in +time." + +Fenn took the rebuke in silence, cast one glance at the sausage which +confronted him, and then pushed it away with such unhesitating +rapidity that Mr Kay glared at him as if about to take up the cudgels +for the rejected viand. Perhaps he remembered that it scarcely +befitted the dignity of a house-master to enter upon a wrangle with a +member of his house on the subject of the merits and demerits of +sausages, for he refrained, and Fenn was allowed to go on with his +meal in peace. + +Kennedy's chief anxiety had been with regard to Fenn. True, the latter +could hardly blame him for being made head of Kay's, since he had not +been consulted in the matter, and, if he had been, would have refused +the post with horror; but nevertheless the situation might cause a +coolness between them. And if Fenn, the only person in the house with +whom he was at all intimate, refused to be on friendly terms, his stay +in Kay's would be rendered worse than even he had looked for. + +Fenn had not spoken to him at breakfast, but then there was little +table talk at Kay's. Perhaps the quality of the food suggested such +gloomy reflections that nobody liked to put them into words. + +After the meal Fenn ran upstairs to his study. Kennedy followed him, +and opened conversation in his direct way with the subject which he +had come to discuss. + +"I say," he said, "I hope you aren't sick about this. You know I +didn't want to bag your place as head of the house." + +"My dear chap," said Fenn, "don't apologise. You're welcome to it. +Being head of Kay's isn't such a soft job that one is keen on sticking +to it." + +"All the same--" began Kennedy. + +"I knew Kay would get at me somehow, of course. I've been wondering +how all the holidays. I didn't think of this. Still, I'm jolly glad +it's happened. I now retire into private life, and look on. I've taken +years off my life sweating to make this house decent, and now I'm +going to take a rest and watch you tearing your hair out over the job. +I'm awfully sorry for you. I wish they'd roped in some other victim." + +"But you're still a house prefect, I suppose?" + +"I believe so, Kay couldn't very well make me a fag again." + +"Then you'll help manage things?" + +Fenn laughed. + +"Will I, by Jove! I'd like to see myself! I don't want to do the heavy +martyr business and that sort of thing, but I'm hanged if I'm going to +take any more trouble over the house. Haven't you any respect for Mr +Kay's feelings? He thinks I can't keep order. Surely you don't want me +to go and shatter his pet beliefs? Anyhow, I'm not going to do it. I'm +going to play 'villagers and retainers' to your 'hero'. If you do +anything wonderful with the house, I shall be standing by ready to +cheer. But you don't catch me shoving myself forward. 'Thank Heaven I +knows me place,' as the butler in the play says." + +Kennedy kicked moodily at the leg of the chair which he was holding. +The feeling that his whole world had fallen about his ears was +increasing with every hour he spent in Kay's. Last term he and Fenn +had been as close friends as you could wish to see. If he had asked +Fenn to help him in a tight place then, he knew he could have relied +on him. Now his chief desire seemed to be to score off the human race +in general, his best friend included. It was a depressing beginning. + +"Do you know what the sherry said to the man when he was just going to +drink it?" inquired Fenn. "It said, '_Nemo me impune lacessit_'. +That's how I feel. Kay went out of his way to give me a bad time when +I was doing my best to run his house properly, so I don't see that I'm +called upon to go out of my way to work for him." + +"It's rather rough on me--" Kennedy began. Then a sudden indignation +rushed through him. Why should he grovel to Fenn? If Fenn chose to +stand out, let him. He was capable of running the house by himself. + +"I don't care," he said, savagely. "If you can't see what a cad you're +making of yourself, I'm not going to try to show you. You can do what +you jolly well please. I'm not dependent on you. I'll make this a +decent house off my own bat without your help. If you like looking on, +you'd better look on. I'll give you something to look at soon." + +He went out, leaving Fenn with mixed feelings. He would have liked to +have followed him, taken back what he had said, and formed an +offensive alliance against the black sheep of the house--and also, +which was just as important, against the slack sheep, who were good +for nothing, either at work or play. But his bitterness against the +house-master prevented him. He was not going to take his removal from +the leadership of Kay's as if nothing had happened. + +Meanwhile, in the dayrooms and studies, the house had been holding +indignation meetings, and at each it had been unanimously resolved +that Kay's had been abominably treated, and that the deposition of +Fenn must not be tolerated. Unfortunately, a house cannot do very much +when it revolts. It can only show its displeasure in little things, +and by an increase of rowdiness. This was the line that Kay's took. +Fenn became a popular hero. Fags, until he kicked them for it, showed +a tendency to cheer him whenever they saw him. Nothing could paint Mr +Kay blacker in the eyes of his house, so that Kennedy came in for all +the odium. The same fags who had cheered Fenn hooted him on one +occasion as he passed the junior dayroom. Kennedy stopped short, went +in, and presented each inmate of the room with six cuts with a +swagger-stick. This summary and Captain Kettle-like move had its +effect. There was no more hooting. The fags bethought themselves of +other ways of showing their disapproval of their new head. + +One genius suggested that they might kill two birds with one +stone--snub Kennedy and pay a stately compliment to Fenn by applying +to the latter for leave to go out of bounds instead of to the former. +As the giving of leave "down town" was the prerogative of the head of +the house, and of no other, there was a suggestiveness about this mode +of procedure which appealed to the junior dayroom. + +But the star of the junior dayroom was not in the ascendant. Fenn +might have quarrelled with Kennedy, and be extremely indignant at his +removal from the headship of the house, but he was not the man to +forget to play the game. His policy of non-interference did not +include underhand attempts to sap Kennedy's authority. When Gorrick, +of the Lower Fourth, the first of the fags to put the ingenious scheme +into practice, came to him, still smarting from Kennedy's castigation, +Fenn promptly gave him six more cuts, worse than the first, and kicked +him out into the passage. Gorrick naturally did not want to spoil a +good thing by giving Fenn's game away, so he lay low and said nothing, +with the result that Wren and three others met with the same fate, +only more so, because Fenn's wrath increased with each visit. + +Kennedy, of course, heard nothing of this, or he might perhaps have +thought better of Fenn. As for the junior dayroom, it was obliged to +work off its emotion by jeering Jimmy Silver from the safety of the +touchline when the head of Blackburn's was refereeing in a match +between the juniors of his house and those of Kay's. Blackburn's +happened to win by four goals and eight tries, a result which the +patriotic Kay fag attributed solely to favouritism on the part of the +referee. + +"I like the kids in your house," said Jimmy to Kennedy, after the +match, when telling the latter of the incident; "there's no false idea +of politeness about them. If they don't like your decisions, they say +so in a shrill treble." + +"Little beasts," said Kennedy. "I wish I knew who they were. It's +hopeless to try and spot them, of course." + + + + +XI + +THE SENIOR DAYROOM OPENS FIRE + + +Curiously enough, it was shortly after this that the junior dayroom +ceased almost entirely to trouble the head of the house. Not that they +turned over new leaves, and modelled their conduct on that of the hero +of the Sunday-school story. They were still disorderly, but in a +lesser degree; and ragging became a matter of private enterprise among +the fags instead of being, as it had threatened to be, an organised +revolt against the new head. When a Kay's fag rioted now, he did so +with the air of one endeavouring to amuse himself, not as if he were +carrying on a holy war against the oppressor. + +Kennedy's difficulties were considerably diminished by this change. A +head of a house expects the juniors of his house to rag. It is what +they are put into the world to do, and there is no difficulty in +keeping the thing within decent limits. A revolution is another case +altogether. Kennedy was grateful for the change, for it gave him more +time to keep an eye on the other members of the house, but he had no +idea what had brought it about. As a matter of fact, he had Billy +Silver to thank for it. The chief organiser of the movement against +Kennedy in the junior dayroom had been the red-haired Wren, who +preached war to his fellow fags, partly because he loved to create a +disturbance, and partly because Walton, who hated Kennedy, had told +him to. Between Wren and Billy Silver a feud had existed since their +first meeting. The unsatisfactory conclusion to their encounter in +camp had given another lease of life to the feud, and Billy had come +back to Kay's with the fixed intention of smiting his auburn-haired +foe hip and thigh at the earliest opportunity. Wren's attitude with +respect to Kennedy gave him a decent excuse. He had no particular +regard for Kennedy. The fact that he was a friend of his brother's was +no recommendation. There existed between the two Silvers that feeling +which generally exists between an elder and a much younger brother at +the same school. Each thought the other a bit of an idiot, and though +equal to tolerating him personally, was hanged if he was going to do +the same by his friends. In Billy's circle of acquaintances, Jimmy's +friends were looked upon with cold suspicion as officious meddlers who +would give them lines if they found them out of bounds. The +aristocrats with whom Jimmy foregathered barely recognised the +existence of Billy's companions. Kennedy's claim to Billy's good +offices rested on the fact that they both objected to Wren. + +So that, when Wren lifted up his voice in the junior dayroom, and +exhorted the fags to go and make a row in the passage outside +Kennedy's study, and--from a safe distance, and having previously +ensured a means of rapid escape--to fling boots at his door, Billy +damped the popular enthusiasm which had been excited by the proposal +by kicking Wren with some violence, and begging him not to be an ass. +Whereupon they resumed their battle at the point at which it had been +interrupted at camp. And when, some five minutes later, Billy, from +his seat on his adversary's chest, offered to go through the same +performance with anybody else who wished, the junior dayroom came to +the conclusion that his feelings with regard to the new head of the +house, however foolish and unpatriotic, had better be respected. And +the revolution of the fags had fizzled out from that moment. + +In the senior dayroom, however, the flag of battle was still unfurled. +It was so obvious that Kennedy had been put into the house as a +reformer, and the seniors of Kay's had such an objection to being +reformed, that trouble was only to be expected. It was the custom in +most houses for the head of the house, by right of that position, to +be also captain of football. The senior dayroom was aggrieved at +Kennedy's taking this post from Fenn. Fenn was in his second year in +the school fifteen, and he was the three-quarter who scored most +frequently for Eckleton, whereas Kennedy, though practically a +certainty for one of the six vacant places in the school scrum, was at +present entitled to wear only a second fifteen cap. The claims of Fenn +to be captain of Kay's football were strong, Kennedy had begged him to +continue in that position more than once. Fenn's persistent refusal +had helped to increase the coolness between them, and it had also made +things more difficult for Kennedy in the house. + +It was on the Monday of the third week of term that Kennedy, at Jimmy +Silver's request, arranged a "friendly" between Kay's and Blackburn's. +There could be no doubt as to which was the better team (for +Blackburn's had been runners up for the Cup the season before), but +the better one's opponents the better the practice. Kennedy wrote out +the list and fixed it on the notice board. The match was to be played +on the following afternoon. + +A football team must generally be made up of the biggest men at the +captain's disposal, so it happened that Walton, Perry, Callingham, and +the other leaders of dissension in Kay's all figured on the list. The +consequence was that the list came in for a good deal of comment in +the senior dayroom. There were games every Saturday and Wednesday, and +it annoyed Walton and friends that they should have to turn out on an +afternoon that was not a half holiday. It was trouble enough playing +football on the days when it was compulsory. As for patriotism, no +member of the house even pretended to care whether Kay's put a good +team into the field or not. The senior dayroom sat talking over the +matter till lights-out. When Kennedy came down next morning, he found +his list scribbled over with blue pencil, while across it in bold +letters ran the single word, + + ROT. + +He went to his study, wrote out a fresh copy, and pinned it up in +place of the old one. He had been early in coming down that morning, +and the majority of the Kayites had not seen the defaced notice. The +match was fixed for half-past four. At four a thin rain was falling. +The weather had been bad for some days, but on this particular +afternoon it reached the limit. In addition to being wet, it was also +cold, and Kennedy, as he walked over to the grounds, felt that he +would be glad when the game was over. He hoped that Blackburn's would +be punctual, and congratulated himself on his foresight in securing Mr +Blackburn as referee. Some of the staff, when they consented to hold +the whistle in a scratch game, invariably kept the teams waiting on +the field for half an hour before turning up. Mr Blackburn, an the +other hand, was always punctual. He came out of his house just as +Kennedy turned in at the school gates. + +"Well, Kennedy," he said from the depths of his ulster, the collar of +which he had turned up over his ears with a prudence which Kennedy, +having come out with only a blazer on over his football clothes, +distinctly envied, "I hope your men are not going to be late. I don't +think I ever saw a worse day for football. How long were you thinking +of playing? Two twenty-fives would be enough for a day like this, I +think." + +Kennedy consulted with Jimmy Silver, who came up at this moment, and +they agreed without argument that twenty-five minutes each way would +be the very thing. + +"Where are your men?" asked Jimmy. "I've got all our chaps out here, +bar Challis, who'll be out in a few minutes. I left him almost +changed." + +Challis appeared a little later, and joined the rest of Blackburn's +team, who were putting in the time and trying to keep warm by running +and passing and dropping desultory goals. But, with the exception of +Fenn, who stood brooding by himself in the centre of the field, +wrapped to the eyes in a huge overcoat, and two other house prefects +of Kay's, who strolled up and down looking as if they wished they were +in their studies, there was no sign of the missing team. + +"I can't make it out," said Kennedy. + +"You're sure you put up the right time?" asked Jimmy Silver. + +"Yes, quite." + +It certainly could not be said that Kay's had had any room for doubt +as to the time of the match, for it had appeared in large figures on +both notices. + +A quarter to five sounded from the college clock. + +"We must begin soon," said Mr Blackburn, "or there will not be light +enough even for two twenty-fives." + +Kennedy felt wretched. Apart from the fact that he was frozen to an +icicle and drenched by the rain, he felt responsible for his team, and +he could see that Blackburn's men were growing irritated at the delay, +though they did their best to conceal it. + +"Can't we lend them some subs?" suggested Challis, hopefully. + +"All right--if you can raise eleven subs," said Silver. "They've only +got four men on the field at present." + +Challis subsided. + +"Look here," said Kennedy, "I'm going back to the house to see what's +up. I'll be back as soon as I can. They must have mistaken the time or +something after all." + +He rushed back to the house, and flung open the door of the senior +dayroom. It was empty. + +Kennedy had expected to find his missing men huddled in a semicircle +round the fire, waiting for some one to come and tell them that +Blackburn's had taken the field, and that they could come out now +without any fear of having to wait in the rain for the match to begin. +This, he thought, would have been the unselfish policy of Kay's senior +dayroom. + +But to find nobody was extraordinary. + +The thought occurred to him that the team might be changing in their +dormitories. He ran upstairs. But all the dormitories were locked, as +he might have known they would have been. Coming downstairs again he +met his fag, Spencer. + +Spencer replied to his inquiry that he had only just come in. He did +not know where the team had got to. No, he had not seen any of them. + +"Oh, yes, though," he added, as an afterthought, "I met Walton just +now. He looked as if he was going down town." + +Walton had once licked Spencer, and that vindictive youth thought that +this might be a chance of getting back at him. + +"Oh," said Kennedy, quietly, "Walton? Did you? Thanks." + +Spencer was disappointed at his lack of excitement. His news did not +seem to interest him. + +Kennedy went back to the football field to inform Jimmy Silver of the +result of his investigations. + + + + +XII + +KENNEDY INTERVIEWS WALTON + + +"I'm very sorry," he said, when he rejoined the shivering group, "but +I'm afraid we shall have to call this match off. There seems to have +been a mistake. None of my team are anywhere about. I'm awfully sorry, +sir," he added, to Mr Blackburn, "to have given you all this trouble +for nothing." + +"Not at all, Kennedy. We must try another day." + +Mr Blackburn suspected that something untoward had happened in Kay's +to cause this sudden defection of the first fifteen of the house. He +knew that Kennedy was having a hard time in his new position, and he +did not wish to add to his discomfort by calling for an explanation +before an audience. It could not be pleasant for Kennedy to feel that +his enemies had scored off him. It was best to preserve a discreet +silence with regard to the whole affair, and leave him to settle it +for himself. + +Jimmy Silver was more curious. He took Kennedy off to tea in his +study, sat him down in the best chair in front of the fire, and +proceeded to urge him to confess everything. + +"Now, then, what's it all about?" he asked, briskly, spearing a muffin +on the fork and beginning to toast. + +"It's no good asking me," said Kennedy. "I suppose it's a put-up job +to make me look a fool. I ought to have known something of this kind +would happen when I saw what they did to my first notice." + +"What was that?" + +Kennedy explained. + +"This is getting thrilling," said Jimmy. "Just pass that plate. +Thanks. What are you going to do about it?" + +"I don't know. What would you do?" + +"My dear chap, I'd first find out who was at the bottom of it--there's +bound to be one man who started the whole thing--and I'd make it my +aim in life to give him the warmest ten minutes he'd ever had." + +"That sounds all right. But how would you set about it?" + +"Why, touch him up, of course. What else would you do? Before the +whole house, too." + +"Supposing he wouldn't be touched up?" + +"Wouldn't _be!_ He'd have to." + +"You don't know Kay's, Jimmy. You're thinking what you'd do if this +had happened in Blackburn's. The two things aren't the same. Here the +man would probably take it like a lamb. The feeling of the house would +be against him. He'd find nobody to back him up. That's because +Blackburn's is a decent house instead of being a sink like Kay's. If I +tried the touching-up before the whole house game with our chaps, the +man would probably reply by going for me, assisted by the whole +strength of the company." + +"Well, dash it all then, all you've got to do is to call a prefects' +meeting, and he'll get ten times worse beans from them than he'd have +got from you. It's simple." + +Kennedy stared into the fire pensively. + +"I don't know," he said. "I bar that prefects' meeting business. It +always seems rather feeble to me, lugging in a lot of chaps to help +settle some one you can't manage yourself. I want to carry this job +through on my own." + +"Then you'd better scrap with the man." + +"I think I will." + +Silver stared. + +"Don't be an ass," he said. "I was only rotting. You +can't go fighting all over the shop as if you were a fag. You'd lose +your prefect's cap if it came out." + +"I could wear my topper," said Kennedy, with a grin. "You see," he +added, "I've not much choice. I must do something. If I took no notice +of this business there'd be no holding the house. I should be ragged to +death. It's no good talking about it. Personally, I should prefer +touching the chap up to fighting him, and I shall try it on. But he's +not likely to meet me half-way. And if he doesn't there'll be an +interesting turn-up, and you shall hold the watch. I'll send a kid +round to fetch you when things look like starting. I must go now to +interview my missing men. So long. Mind you slip round directly I send +for you." + +"Wait a second. Don't be in such a beastly hurry. Who's the chap +you're going to fight?" + +"I don't know yet. Walton, I should think. But I don't know." + +"Walton! By Jove, it'll be worth seeing, anyhow, if we _are_ both +sacked for it when the Old Man finds out." + +Kennedy returned to his study and changed his football boots for a +pair of gymnasium shoes. For the job he had in hand it was necessary +that he should move quickly, and football boots are a nuisance on a +board floor. When he had changed, he called Spencer. + +"Go down to the senior dayroom," he said, "and tell MacPherson I want +to see him." + +MacPherson was a long, weak-looking youth. He had been put down to +play for the house that day, and had not appeared. + +"MacPherson!" said the fag, in a tone of astonishment, "not Walton?" + +He had been looking forward to the meeting between Kennedy and his +ancient foe, and to have a miserable being like MacPherson offered as +a substitute disgusted him. + +"If you have no objection," said Kennedy, politely, "I may want you to +fetch Walton later on." + +Spencer vanished, hopeful once more. + +"Come in, MacPherson," said Kennedy, on the arrival of the long one; +"shut the door." + +MacPherson did so, feeling as if he were paying a visit to the +dentist. As long as there had been others with him in this affair he +had looked on it as a splendid idea. But to be singled out like this +was quite a different thing. + +"Now," said Kennedy, "Why weren't you on the field this afternoon?" + +"I--er--I was kept in." + +"How long?" + +"Oh--er--till about five." + +"What do you call about five?" + +"About twenty-five to," he replied, despondently. + +"Now look here," said Kennedy, briskly, "I'm just going to explain to +you exactly how I stand in this business, so you'd better attend. I +didn't ask to be made head of this sewage depot. If I could have had +any choice, I wouldn't have touched a Kayite with a barge-pole. But +since I am head, I'm going to be it, and the sooner you and your +senior dayroom crew realise it the better. This sort of thing isn't +going on. I want to know now who it was put up this job. You wouldn't +have the cheek to start a thing like this yourself. Who was it?" + +"Well--er--" + +"You'd better say, and be quick, too. I can't wait. Whoever it was. I +shan't tell him you told me. And I shan't tell Kay. So now you can go +ahead. Who was it?" + +"Well--er--Walton." + +"I thought so. Now you can get out. If you see Spencer, send him here." + +Spencer, curiously enough, was just outside the door. So close to it, +indeed, that he almost tumbled in when MacPherson opened it. + +"Go and fetch Walton," said Kennedy. + +Spencer dashed off delightedly, and in a couple of minutes Walton +appeared. He walked in with an air of subdued defiance, and slammed +the door. + +"Don't bang the door like that," said Kennedy. "Why didn't you turn +out today?" + +"I was kept in." + +"Couldn't you get out in time to play?" + +"No." + +"When did you get out?" + +"Six." + +"Not before?" + +"I said six." + +"Then how did you manage to go down town--without leave, by the way, +but that's a detail--at half-past five?" + +"All right," said Walton; "better call me a liar." + +"Good suggestion," said Kennedy, cheerfully; "I will." + +"It's all very well," said Walton. "You know jolly well you can say +anything you like. I can't do anything to you. You'd have me up before +the prefects." + +"Not a bit of it. This is a private affair between ourselves. I'm not +going to drag the prefects into it. You seem to want to make this +house worse than it is. I want to make it more or less decent. We +can't both have what we want." + +There was a pause. + +"When would it be convenient for you to be touched up before the whole +house?" inquired Kennedy, pleasantly. + +"What?" + +"Well, you see, it seems the only thing. I must take it out of some +one for this house-match business, and you started it. Will tonight +suit you, after supper?" + +"You'll get it hot if you try to touch me." + +"We'll see." + +"You'd funk taking me on in a scrap," said Walton. + +"Would I? As a matter of fact, a scrap would suit me just as well. +Better. Are you ready now?" + +"Quite, thanks," sneered Walton. "I've knocked you out before, and +I'll do it again." + +"Oh, then it was you that night at camp? I thought so. I spotted your +style. Hitting a chap when he wasn't ready, you know, and so on. Now, +if you'll wait a minute, I'll send across to Blackburn's for Silver. I +told him I should probably want him as a time-keeper tonight." + +"What do you want with Silver. Why won't Perry do?" + +"Thanks, I'm afraid Perry's time-keeping wouldn't be impartial enough. +Silver, I think, if you don't mind." + +Spencer was summoned once more, and despatched to Blackburn's. He +returned with Jimmy. + +"Come in, Jimmy," said Kennedy. "Run away, Spencer. Walton and I are +just going to settle a point of order which has arisen, Jimmy. Will +you hold the watch? We ought just to have time before tea." + +"Where?" asked Silver. + +"My dormitory would be the best place. We can move the beds. I'll go +and get the keys." + +Kennedy's dormitory was the largest in the house. After the beds had +been moved back, there was a space in the middle of fifteen feet one +way, and twelve the other--not a large ring, but large enough for two +fighters who meant business. + +Walton took off his coat, waistcoat, and shirt. Kennedy, who was still +in football clothes, removed his blazer. + +"Half a second," said Jimmy Silver--"what length rounds?" + +"Two minutes?" said Kennedy to Walton. + +"All right," growled Walton. + +"Two minutes, then, and half a minute in between." + +"Are you both ready?" asked Jimmy, from his seat on the chest of +drawers. + +Kennedy and Walton advanced into the middle of the impromptu ring. + +There was dead silence for a moment. + +"Time!" said Jimmy Silver. + + + + +XIII + +THE FIGHT IN THE DORMITORY + + +Stating it broadly, fighters may be said to be divided into two +classes--those who are content to take two blows if they can give +three in return, and those who prefer to receive as little punishment +as possible, even at the expense of scoring fewer points themselves. +Kennedy's position, when Jimmy Silver called time, was peculiar. On +all the other occasions on which he had fought--with the gloves on in +the annual competition, and at the assault-at-arms--he had gone in for +the policy of taking all that the other man liked to give him, and +giving rather more in exchange. Now, however, he was obliged to alter +his whole style. For a variety of reasons it was necessary that he +should come out of this fight with as few marks as possible. To begin +with, he represented, in a sense, the Majesty of the Law. He was +tackling Walton more by way of an object-lesson to the Kayite +mutineers than for his own personal satisfaction. The object-lesson +would lose in impressiveness if he were compelled to go about for a +week or so with a pair of black eyes, or other adornments of a similar +kind. Again--and this was even more important--if he was badly marked +the affair must come to the knowledge of the headmaster. Being a +prefect, and in the sixth form, he came into contact with the Head +every day, and the disclosure of the fact that he had been engaged in +a pitched battle with a member of his house, who was, in addition to +other disadvantages, very low down in the school, would be likely to +lead to unpleasantness. A school prefect of Eckleton was supposed to +be hedged about with so much dignity that he could quell turbulent +inferiors with a glance. The idea of one of the august body lowering +himself to the extent of emphasising his authority with the bare +knuckle would scandalise the powers. + +So Kennedy, rising at the call of time from the bed on which he sat, +came up to the scratch warily. + +Walton, on the other hand, having everything to gain and nothing to +lose, and happy in the knowledge that no amount of bruises could do +him any harm, except physically, came on with the evident intention of +making a hurricane fight of it. He had very little science as a boxer. +Heavy two-handed slogging was his forte, and, as the majority of his +opponents up to the present had not had sufficient skill to discount +his strength, he had found this a very successful line of action. +Kennedy and he had never had the gloves on together. In the +competition of the previous year both had entered in their respective +classes, Kennedy as a lightweight, Walton in the middles, and both, +after reaching the semi-final, had been defeated by the narrowest of +margins by men who had since left the school. That had been in the +previous Easter term, and, while Walton had remained much the same as +regards weight and strength, Kennedy, owing to a term of hard bowling +and a summer holiday spent in the open, had filled out. They were now +practically on an equality, as far as weight was concerned. As for +condition, that was all in favour of Kennedy. He played football in +his spare time. Walton, on the days when football was not compulsory, +smoked cigarettes. + +Neither of the pair showed any desire to open the fight by shaking +hands. This was not a friendly spar. It was business. The first move +was made by Walton, who feinted with his right and dashed in to fight +at close quarters. It was not a convincing feint. At any rate, it did +not deceive Kennedy. He countered with his left, and swung his right +at the body with all the force he could put into the hit. Walton went +back a pace, sparred for a moment, then came in again, hitting +heavily. Kennedy's counter missed its mark this time. He just stopped +a round sweep of Walton's right, ducked to avoid a similar effort of +his left, and they came together in a clinch. + +In a properly regulated glove-fight, the referee, on observing the +principals clinch, says, "Break away there, break away," in a sad, +reproachful voice, and the fighters separate without demur, being very +much alive to the fact that, as far as that contest is concerned, +their destinies are in his hands, and that any bad behaviour in the +ring will lose them the victory. But in an impromptu turn-up like this +one, the combatants show a tendency to ignore the rules so carefully +mapped out by the present Marquess of Queensberry's grandfather, and +revert to the conditions of warfare under which Cribb and Spring won +their battles. Kennedy and Walton, having clinched, proceeded to +wrestle up and down the room, while Jimmy Silver looked on from his +eminence in pained surprise at the sight of two men, who knew the +rules of the ring, so far forgetting themselves. + +To do Kennedy justice, it was not his fault. He was only acting in +self-defence. Walton had started the hugging. Also, he had got the +under-grip, which, when neither man knows a great deal of the science +of wrestling, generally means victory. Kennedy was quite sure that he +could not throw his antagonist, but he hung on in the knowledge that +the round must be over shortly, when Walton would have to loose him. + +"Time," said Jimmy Silver. + +Kennedy instantly relaxed his grip, and in that instant Walton swung +him off his feet, and they came down together with a crash that shook +the room. Kennedy was underneath, and, as he fell, his head came into +violent contact with the iron support of a bed. + +Jimmy Silver sprang down from his seat. + +"What are you playing at, Walton? Didn't you hear me call time? It was +a beastly foul--the worst I ever saw. You ought to be sacked for a +thing like that. Look here, Kennedy, you needn't go on. I disqualify +Walton for fouling." + +The usually genial James stammered with righteous indignation. + +Kennedy sat down on a bed, dizzily. + +"No," he said; "I'm going on." + +"But he fouled you." + +"I don't care. I'll look after myself. Is it time yet?" + +"Ten seconds more, if you really are going on." + +He climbed back on to the chest of drawers. + +"Time." + +Kennedy came up feeling weak and sick. The force with which he had hit +his head on the iron had left him dazed. + +Walton rushed in as before. He had no chivalrous desire to spare his +man by way of compensation for fouling him. What monopolised his +attention was the evident fact that Kennedy was in a bad way, and that +a little strenuous infighting might end the affair in the desired +manner. + +It was at this point that Kennedy had reason to congratulate himself +on donning gymnasium shoes. They gave him that extra touch of +lightness which enabled him to dodge blows which he was too weak to +parry. Everything was vague and unreal to him. He seemed to be looking +on at a fight between Walton and some stranger. + +Then the effect of his fall began to wear off. He could feel himself +growing stronger. Little by little his head cleared, and he began once +more to take a personal interest in the battle. It is astonishing what +a power a boxer, who has learnt the art carefully, has of automatic +fighting. The expert gentleman who fights under the pseudonym of "Kid +M'Coy" once informed the present writer that in one of his fights he +was knocked down by such a severe hit that he remembered nothing +further, and it was only on reading the paper next morning that he +found, to his surprise, that he had fought four more rounds after the +blow, and won the battle handsomely on points. Much the same thing +happened to Kennedy. For the greater part of the second round he +fought without knowing it. When Jimmy Silver called time he was in as +good case as ever, and the only effects of the blow on his head were a +vast lump underneath the hair, and a settled determination to win or +perish. In a few minutes the bell would ring for tea, and all his +efforts would end in nothing. It was no good fighting a draw with +Walton if he meant to impress the house. He knew exactly what Rumour, +assisted by Walton, would make of the affair in that case. "Have you +heard the latest?" A would ask of B. "Why, Kennedy tried to touch +Walton up for not playing footer, and Walton went for him and would +have given him frightful beans, only they had to go down to tea." +There must be none of that sort of thing. + +"Time," said Jimmy Silver, breaking in on his meditations. + +It was probably the suddenness and unexpectedness of it that took +Walton aback. Up till now his antagonist had been fighting strictly on +the defensive, and was obviously desirous of escaping punishment as +far as might be possible. And then the fall at the end of round one +had shaken him up, so that he could hardly fight at all at their +second meeting. Walton naturally expected that it would be left to him +to do the leading in round three. Instead of this, however, Kennedy +opened the round with such a lightning attack that Walton was all +abroad in a moment. In his most scientific mood he had never had the +remotest notion of how to guard. He was aggressive and nothing else. +Attacked by a quick hitter, he was useless. Three times Kennedy got +through his guard with his left. The third hit staggered him. Before +he could recover, Kennedy had got his right in, and down went Walton +in a heap. + +He was up again as soon as he touched the boards, and down again +almost as soon as he was up. Kennedy was always a straight hitter, and +now a combination of good cause and bad temper--for the thought of the +foul in the first round had stirred what was normally a more or less +placid nature into extreme viciousness--lent a vigour to his left arm +to which he had hitherto been a stranger. He did not use his right +again. It was not needed. + +Twice more Walton went down. He was still down when Jimmy Silver +called time. When the half-minute interval between the rounds was +over, he stated that he was not going on. + +Kennedy looked across at him as he sat on a bed dabbing tenderly at +his face with a handkerchief, and was satisfied with the success of +his object-lesson. From his own face the most observant of headmasters +could have detected no evidence that he had been engaged in a vulgar +fight. Walton, on the other hand, looked as if he had been engaged in +several--all violent. Kennedy went off to his study to change, feeling +that he had advanced a long step on the thorny path that led to the +Perfect House. + + + + +XIV + +FENN RECEIVES A LETTER + + +But the step was not such a very long one after all. What it amounted +to was simply this, that open rebellion ceased in Kay's. When Kennedy +put up the list on the notice-board for the third time, which he did +on the morning following his encounter with Walton, and wrote on it +that the match with Blackburn's would take place that afternoon, his +team turned out like lambs, and were duly defeated by thirty-one +points. He had to play a substitute for Walton, who was rather too +battered to be of any real use in the scrum; but, with that exception, +the team that entered the field was the same that should have entered +it the day before. + +But his labours in the Augean stables of Kay's were by no means over. +Practically they had only begun. The state of the house now was +exactly what it had been under Fenn. When Kennedy had taken over the +reins, Kay's had become on the instant twice as bad as it had been +before. By his summary treatment of the revolution, he had, so to +speak, wiped off this deficit. What he had to do now was to begin to +improve things. Kay's was now in its normal state--slack, rowdy in an +underhand way, and utterly useless to the school. It was "up to" +Kennedy, as they say in America, to start in and make something +presentable and useful out of these unpromising materials. + +What annoyed him more than anything else was the knowledge that if +only Fenn chose to do the square thing and help him in his work, the +combination would be irresistible. It was impossible to make any +leeway to speak of by himself. If Fenn would only forget his +grievances and join forces with him, they could electrify the house. + +Fenn, however, showed no inclination to do anything of the kind. He +and Kennedy never spoke to one another now except when it was +absolutely unavoidable, and then they behaved with that painful +politeness in which the public schoolman always wraps himself as in a +garment when dealing with a friend with whom he has quarrelled. + +On the Walton episode Fenn had made no comment, though it is probable +that he thought a good deal. + +It was while matters were in this strained condition that Fenn +received a letter from his elder brother. This brother had been at +Eckleton in his time--School House--and had left five years before to +go to Cambridge. Cambridge had not taught him a great deal, possibly +because he did not meet the well-meant efforts of his tutor half-way. +The net result of his three years at King's was--_imprimis_, a +cricket blue, including a rather lucky eighty-three at Lord's; +secondly, a very poor degree; thirdly and lastly, a taste for +literature and the drama--he had been a prominent member of the +Footlights Club. When he came down he looked about him for some +occupation which should combine in happy proportions a small amount of +work and a large amount of salary, and, finding none, drifted into +journalism, at which calling he had been doing very fairly ever since. + +"Dear Bob," the letter began. Fenn's names were Robert Mowbray, the +second of which he had spent much of his time in concealing. "Just a +line." + +The elder Fenn always began his letters with these words, whether they +ran to one sheet or eight. In the present case the screed was not +particularly long. + +"Do you remember my reading you a bit of an opera I was writing? Well, +I finished it, and, after going the round of most of the managers, who +chucked it with wonderful unanimity, it found an admirer in Higgs, the +man who took the part of the duke in _The Outsider_. Luckily, he +happened to be thinking of starting on his own in opera instead of +farce, and there's a part in mine which fits him like a glove. So he's +going to bring it out at the Imperial in the spring, and by way of +testing the piece--trying it on the dog, as it were--he means to tour +with it. Now, here's the point of this letter. We start at Eckleton +next Wednesday. We shall only be there one night, for we go on to +Southampton on Thursday. I suppose you couldn't come and see it? I +remember Peter Brown, who got the last place in the team the year I +got my cricket colours, cutting out of his house (Kay's, by the way) +and going down town to see a piece at the theatre. I'm bound to admit +he got sacked for it, but still, it shows that it can be done. All the +same, I shouldn't try it on if I were you. You'll be able to read all +about the 'striking success' and 'unrestrained enthusiasm' in the +_Eckleton Mirror_ on Thursday. Mind you buy a copy." + +The rest of the letter was on other subjects. It took Fenn less than a +minute to decide to patronise that opening performance. He was never +in the habit of paying very much attention to risks when he wished to +do anything, and now he felt as if he cared even less than usual what +might be the outcome of the adventure. Since he had ceased to be on +speaking terms with Kennedy, he had found life decidedly dull. Kennedy +had been his only intimate friend. He had plenty of acquaintances, as +a first eleven and first fifteen man usually has, but none of them +were very entertaining. Consequently he welcomed the idea of a break +in the monotony of affairs. The only thing that had broken it up to +the present had been a burglary at the school house. Some enterprising +marauder had broken in a week before and gone off with a few articles +of value from the headmaster's drawing-room. But the members of the +school house had talked about this episode to such an extent that the +rest of the school had dropped off the subject, exhausted, and +declined to discuss it further. And things had become monotonous once +more. + +Having decided to go, Fenn began to consider how he should do it. And +here circumstances favoured him. It happened that on the evening on +which his brother's play was to be produced the headmaster was giving +his once-a-term dinner to the house-prefects. This simplified matters +wonderfully. The only time when his absence from the house was at all +likely to be discovered would be at prayers, which took place at +half-past nine. The prefects' dinner solved this difficulty for him. +Kay would not expect him to be at prayers, thinking he was over at the +Head's, while the Head, if he noticed his absence at all, would +imagine that he was staying away from the dinner owing to a headache +or some other malady. It seemed tempting Providence not to take +advantage of such an excellent piece of luck. For the rest, detection +was practically impossible. Kennedy's advent to the house had ousted +Fenn from the dormitory in which he had slept hitherto, and, there +being no bed available in any of the other dormitories, he had been +put into the spare room usually reserved for invalids whose invalidism +was not of a sufficiently infectious kind to demand their removal to +the infirmary. As for getting back into the house, he would leave the +window of his study unfastened. He could easily climb on to the +window-ledge, and so to bed without let or hindrance. + +The distance from Kay's to the town was a mile and a half. If he +started at the hour when he should have been starting for the school +house, he would arrive just in time to see the curtain go up. + +Having settled these facts definitely in his mind, he got his books +together and went over to school. + + + + +XV + +DOWN TOWN + + +Fenn arrived at the theatre a quarter of an hour before the curtain +rose. Going down a gloomy alley of the High Street, he found himself +at the stage door, where he made inquiries of a depressed-looking man +with a bad cold in the head as to the whereabouts of his brother. It +seemed that he was with Mr Higgs. If he would wait, said the +door-keeper, his name should be sent up. Fenn waited, while the +door-keeper made polite conversation by describing his symptoms to him +in a hoarse growl. Presently the minion who had been despatched to the +upper regions with Fenn's message returned. Would he go upstairs, +third door on the left. Fenn followed the instructions, and found +himself in a small room, a third of which was filled by a huge +iron-bound chest, another third by a very stout man and a +dressing-table, while the rest of the space was comparatively empty, +being occupied by a wooden chair with three legs. On this seat his +brother was trying to balance himself, giving what part of his +attention was not required for this feat to listening to some story +the fat man was telling him. Fenn had heard his deep voice booming as +he went up the passage. + +His brother did the honours. + +"Glad to see you, glad to see you," said Mr Higgs, for the fat man was +none other than that celebrity. "Take a seat." + +Fenn sat down on the chest and promptly tore his trousers on a jagged +piece of iron. + +"These provincial dressing-rooms!" said Mr Higgs, by way of comment. +"No room! Never any room! No chairs! Nothing!" + +He spoke in short, quick sentences, and gasped between each. Fenn said +it really didn't matter--he was quite comfortable. + +"Haven't they done anything about it?" asked Fenn's brother, resuming +the conversation which Fenn's entrance had interrupted. "We've been +having a burglary here," he explained. "Somebody got into the theatre +last night through a window. I don't know what they expected to find." + +"Why," said Fenn, "we've had a burglar up our way too. Chap broke into +the school house and went through the old man's drawing-room. The +school house men have been talking about nothing else ever since. I +wonder if it's the same crew." + +Mr Higgs turned in his chair, and waved a stick of grease paint +impressively to emphasise his point. + +"There," he said. "There! What I've been saying all along. No doubt of +it. Organised gang. And what are the police doing? Nothing, sir, +nothing. Making inquiries. Rot! What's the good of inquiries?" + +Fenn's brother suggested mildly that inquiries were a good beginning. +You _must_ start somehow. Mr Higgs scouted the idea. + +"There ought not to be any doubt, sir. They ought to _know_. To +KNOW," he added, with firmness. + +At this point there filtered through the closed doors the strains of +the opening chorus. + +"By Jove, it's begun!" said Fenn's brother. "Come on, Bob." + +"Where are we going to?" asked Fenn, as he followed. "The wings?" + +But it seemed that the rules of Mr Higgs' company prevented any +outsider taking up his position in that desirable quarter. The only +place from which it was possible to watch the performance, except by +going to the front of the house, was the "flies," situated near the +roof of the building. + +Fenn found all the pleasures of novelty in watching the players from +this lofty position. Judged by the cold light of reason, it was not +the best place from which to see a play. It was possible to gain only +a very foreshortened view of the actors. But it was a change after +sitting "in front". + +The piece was progressing merrily. The gifted author, at first silent +and pale, began now to show signs of gratification. Now and again he +chuckled as some _jeu de mots_ hit the mark and drew a quick gust +of laughter from the unseen audience. Occasionally he would nudge Fenn +to draw his attention to some good bit of dialogue which was +approaching. He was obviously enjoying himself. + +The advent of Mr Higgs completed his satisfaction, for the audience +greeted the comedian with roars of applause. As a rule Eckleton took +its drama through the medium of third-rate touring companies, which +came down with plays that had not managed to attract London to any +great extent, and were trying to make up for failures in the +metropolis by long tours in the provinces. It was seldom that an actor +of the Higgs type paid the town a visit, and in a play, too, which had +positively never appeared before on any stage. Eckleton appreciated +the compliment. + +"Listen," said Fenn's brother. "Isn't that just the part for him? It's +just like he was in the dressing-room, eh? Short sentences and +everything. The funny part of it is that I didn't know the man when I +wrote the play. It was all luck." + +Mr Higgs' performance sealed the success of the piece. The house +laughed at everything he said. He sang a song in his gasping way, and +they laughed still more. Fenn's brother became incoherent with +delight. The verdict of Eckleton was hardly likely to affect London +theatre-goers, but it was very pleasant notwithstanding. Like every +playwright with his first piece, he had been haunted by the idea that +his dialogue "would not act", that, however humorous it might be to a +reader, it would fall flat when spoken. There was no doubt now as to +whether the lines sounded well. + +At the beginning of the second act the great Higgs was not on the +stage, Fenn's brother knowing enough of the game not to bring on his +big man too soon. He had not to enter for ten minutes or so. The +author, who had gone down to see him during the interval, stayed in +the dressing-room. Fenn, however, who wanted to see all of the piece +that he could, went up to the "flies" again. + +It occurred to him when he got there that he would see more if he took +the seat which his brother had been occupying. It would give him much +the same view of the stage, and a wider view of the audience. He +thought it would be amusing to see how the audience looked from the +"flies". + +Mr W. S. Gilbert once wrote a poem about a certain bishop who, while +fond of amusing himself, objected to his clergy doing likewise. And +the consequence was that whenever he did so amuse himself, he was +always haunted by a phantom curate, who joined him in his pleasures, +much to his dismay. On one occasion he stopped to watch a Punch and +Judy show, + + And heard, as Punch was being treated penally, + That phantom curate laughing all hyaenally. + +The disgust and panic of this eminent cleric was as nothing compared +with that of Fenn, when, shifting to his brother's seat, he got the +first clear view he had had of the audience. In a box to the left of +the dress-circle sat, "laughing all hyaenally", the following +distinguished visitors: + + Mr Mulholland of No. 7 College Buildings. + Mr Raynes of No. 4 ditto, + and + Mr Kay. + +Fenn drew back like a flash, knocking his chair over as he did so. + +"Giddy, sir?" said a stage hand, pleasantly. "Bless you, lots of gents +is like that when they comes up here. Can't stand the 'eight, they +can't. You'll be all right in a jiffy." + +"Yes. It--it is rather high, isn't it?" said Fenn. "Awful glare, too." + +He picked up his chair and sat down well out of sight of the box. Had +they seen him? he wondered. Then common sense returned to him. They +could not possibly have seen him. Apart from any other reasons, he had +only been in his brother's seat for half-a-dozen seconds. No. He was +all right so far. But he would have to get back to the house, and at +once. With three of the staff, including his own house-master, ranging +the town, things were a trifle too warm for comfort. He wondered it +had not occurred to him that, with a big attraction at the theatre, +some of the staff might feel an inclination to visit it. + +He did not stop to say goodbye to his brother. Descending from his +perch, he hurried to the stage door. + +"It's in the toobs that I feel it, sir." said the door-keeper, as he +let him out, resuming their conversation as if they had only just +parted. Fenn hurried off without waiting to hear more. + +It was drizzling outside, and there was a fog. Not a "London +particular", but quite thick enough to make it difficult to see where +one was going. People and vehicles passed him, vague phantoms in the +darkness. Occasionally the former collided with him. He began to wish +he had not accepted his brother's invitation. The unexpected sight of +the three masters had shaken his nerve. Till then only the romantic, +adventurous side of the expedition had struck him. Now the risks began +to loom larger in his mind. It was all very well, he felt, to think, as +he had done, that he would be expelled if found out, but that all the +same he would risk it. Detection then had seemed a remote contingency. +With three masters in the offing it became at least a possibility. The +melancholy case of Peter Brown seemed to him now to have a more +personal significance for him. + +Wrapped in these reflections, he lost his way. + +He did not realise this for some time. It was borne in upon him when +the road he was taking suddenly came to an abrupt end in a blank wall. +Instead of being, as he had fancied, in the High Street, he must have +branched off into some miserable blind alley. + +More than ever he wished he had not come. Eckleton was not a town that +took up a great deal of room on the map of England, but it made up for +small dimensions by the eccentricity with which it had been laid out. +On a dark and foggy night, to one who knew little of its geography, it +was a perfect maze. + +Fenn had wandered some way when the sound of someone whistling a +popular music-hall song came to him through the gloom. He had never +heard anything more agreeable. + +"I say," he shouted at a venture, "can you tell me the way to the High +Street?" + +The whistler stopped in the middle of a bar, and presently Fenn saw a +figure sidling towards him in what struck him as a particularly +furtive manner. + +"Wot's thet, gav'nor?" + +"Can you tell me where the High Street is? I've lost my way." + +The vague figure came closer. + +"'Igh Street? Yus; yer go--" + +A hand shot out, Fenn felt a sharp wrench in the region of his +waistcoat, and a moment later the stranger had vanished into the fog +with the prefect's watch and chain. + +Fenn forgot his desire to return to the High Street. He forgot +everything except that he wished to catch the fugitive, maltreat him, +and retrieve his property. He tore in the direction whence came the +patter of retreating foot-steps. + +There were moments when he thought he had him, when he could hear the +sound of his breathing. But the fog was against him. Just as he was +almost on his man's heels, the fugitive turned sharply into a street +which was moderately well lighted. Fenn turned after him. He had just +time to recognise the street as his goal, the High Street, when +somebody, walking unexpectedly out of the corner house, stood directly +in his path. Fenn could not stop himself. He charged the man squarely, +clutched him to save himself, and they fell in a heap on the pavement. + + + + +XVI + +WHAT HAPPENED TO FENN + + +Fenn was up first. Many years' experience of being tackled at full +speed on the football field had taught him how to fall. The stranger, +whose football days, if he had ever had any, were long past, had gone +down with a crash, and remained on the pavement, motionless. Fenn was +conscious of an ignoble impulse to fly without stopping to chat about +the matter. Then he was seized with a gruesome fear that he had +injured the man seriously, which vanished when the stranger sat up. +His first words were hardly of the sort that one would listen to from +choice. His first printable expression, which did not escape him until +he had been speaking some time, was in the nature of an official +bulletin. + +"You've broken my neck," said he. + +Fenn renewed his apologies and explanations. + +"Your watch!" cried the man in a high, cracked voice. "Don't stand +there talking about your watch, but help me up. What do I care about +your watch? Why don't you look where you are going to? Now then, now +then, don't hoist me as if I were a hod of bricks. That's right. Now +help me indoors, and go away." + +Fenn supported him while he walked lamely into the house. He was +relieved to find that there was nothing more the matter with him than +a shaking and a few bruises. + +"Door on the left," said the injured one. + +Fenn led him down the passage and into a small sitting-room. The gas +was lit, and as he turned it up he saw that the stranger was a man +well advanced in years. He had grey hair that was almost white. His +face was not a pleasant one. It was a mass of lines and wrinkles from +which a physiognomist would have deduced uncomplimentary conclusions +as to his character. Fenn had little skill in that way, but he felt +that for some reason he disliked the man, whose eyes, which were small +and extraordinarily bright, gave rather an eerie look to his face. + +"Go away, go away," he kept repeating savagely from his post on the +shabby sofa on which Fenn had deposited him. + +"But are you all right? Can't I get you something?" asked the +Eckletonian. + +"Go away, go away," repeated the man. + +Conversation on these lines could never be really attractive. Fenn +turned to go. As he closed the door and began to feel his way along +the dark passage, he heard the key turn in the lock behind him. The +man could not, he felt, have been very badly hurt if he were able to +get across the room so quickly. The thought relieved him somewhat. +Nobody likes to have the maiming even of the most complete stranger on +his mind. The sensation of relief lasted possibly three seconds. Then +it flashed upon him that in the excitement of the late interview he +had forgotten his cap. That damaging piece of evidence lay on the +table in the sitting-room, and between him and it was a locked door. + +He groped his way back, and knocked. No sound came from the room. + +"I say," he cried, "you might let me have my cap. I left it on the +table." + +No reply. + +Fenn half thought of making a violent assault on the door. He +refrained on reflecting that it would be useless. If he could break it +open--which, in all probability, he could not--there would be trouble +such as he had never come across in his life. He was not sure it would +not be an offence for which he would be rendered liable to fine or +imprisonment. At any rate, it would mean the certain detection of his +visit to the town. So he gave the thing up, resolving to return on the +morrow and reopen negotiations. For the present, what he had to do was +to get safely back to his house. He had lost his watch, his cap with +his name in it was in the hands of an evil old man who evidently bore +him a grudge, and he had to run the gauntlet of three house-masters +and get to bed _via_ a study-window. Few people, even after the +dullest of plays, have returned from the theatre so disgusted with +everything as did Fenn. Reviewing the situation as he ran with long, +easy strides over the road that led to Kay's, he found it devoid of +any kind of comfort. Unless his mission in quest of the cap should +prove successful, he was in a tight place. + +It is just as well that the gift of second sight is accorded to but +few. If Fenn could have known at this point that his adventures were +only beginning, that what had taken place already was but as the +overture to a drama, it is possible that he would have thrown up the +sponge for good and all, entered Kay's by way of the front door--after +knocking up the entire household--and remarked, in answer to his +house-master's excited questions, "Enough! Enough! I am a victim of +Fate, a Toad beneath the Harrow. Sack me tomorrow, if you like, but +for goodness' sake let me get quietly to bed now." + +As it was, not being able to "peep with security into futurity," he +imagined that the worst was over. + +He began to revise this opinion immediately on turning in at Kay's +gate. He had hardly got half-way down the drive when the front door +opened and two indistinct figures came down the steps. As they did so +his foot slipped off the grass border on which he was running to +deaden the noise of his steps, and grated sharply on the gravel. + +"What's that?" said a voice. The speaker was Mr Kay. + +"What's what?" replied a second voice which he recognised as Mr +Mulholland's. + +"Didn't you hear a noise?" + +"'I heard the water lapping on the crag,'" replied Mr Mulholland, +poetically. + +"It was over there," persisted Mr Kay. "I am certain I heard +something--positively certain, Mulholland. And after that burglary at +the school house--" + +He began to move towards the spot where Fenn lay crouching behind a +bush. Mr Mulholland followed, mildly amused. They were a dozen yards +away when Fenn, debating in his mind whether it would not be +better--as it would certainly be more dignified--for him to rise and +deliver himself up to justice instead of waiting to be discovered +wallowing in the damp grass behind a laurel bush, was aware of +something soft and furry pressing against his knuckles. A soft purring +sound reached his ears. + +He knew at once who it was--Thomas Edward, the matron's cat, ever a +staunch friend of his. Many a time had they taken tea together in his +study in happier days. The friendly animal had sought him out in his +hiding-place, and was evidently trying to intimate that the best thing +they could do now would be to make a regular night of it. + +Fenn, as I have said, liked and respected Thomas. In ordinary +circumstances he would not have spoken an unfriendly word to him. But +things were desperate now, and needed remedies to match. + +Very softly he passed his hand down the delighted animal's back until +he reached his tail. Then, stifling with an effort all the finer +feelings which should have made such an act impossible, he +administered so vigorous a tweak to that appendage that Thomas, with +one frenzied yowl, sprang through the bush past the two masters and +vanished at full speed into the opposite hedge. + +"My goodness!" said Mr Kay, starting back. + +It was a further shock to Fenn to find how close he was to the laurel. + + "'Goodness me, + Why, what was that? + Silent be, + It was the cat,'" + +chanted Mr Mulholland, who was in poetical vein after the theatre. + +"It was a cat!" gasped Mr Kay. + +"So I am disposed to imagine. What lungs! We shall be having the +R.S.P.C.A. down on us if we aren't careful. They must have heard that +noise at the headquarters of the Society, wherever they are. Well, if +your zeal for big game hunting is satisfied, and you don't propose to +follow the vocalist through that hedge, I think I will be off. Good +night. Good piece, wasn't it?" + +"Excellent. Good night, Mulholland." + +"By the way, I wonder if the man who wrote it is a relation of our +Fenn. It may be his brother--I believe he writes. You probably remember +him when he was here. He was before my time. Talking of Fenn, how do +you find the new arrangement answer? Is Kennedy an improvement?" + +"Kennedy," said Mr Kay, "is a well-meaning boy, I think. Quite +well-meaning. But he lacks ability, in my opinion. I have had to speak +to him on several occasions on account of disturbances amongst the +juniors. Once I found two boys actually fighting in the junior +dayroom. I was very much annoyed about it." + +"And where was Kennedy while this was going on? Was he holding the +watch?" + +"The watch?" said Mr Kay, in a puzzled tone of voice. "Kennedy was +over at the gymnasium when it occurred." + +"Then it was hardly his fault that the fight took place." + +"My dear Mulholland, if the head of a house is efficient, fights +should be impossible. Even when he is not present, his influence, his +prestige, so to speak, should be sufficient to restrain the boys under +him." + +Mr Mulholland whistled softly. + +"So that's your idea of what the head of your house should be like, is +it? Well, I know of one fellow who would have been just your man. +Unfortunately, he is never likely to come to school at Eckleton." + +"Indeed?" said Mr Kay, with interest. "Who is that? Where did you meet +him? What school is he at?" + +"I never said I had met him. I only go by what I have heard of him. +And as far as I know, he is not at any school. He was a gentleman of +the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. He might just have been equal to the +arduous duties which devolve upon the head of your house. Goodnight." + +And Fenn heard his footsteps crunch the gravel as he walked away. A +minute later the front door shut, and there was a rattle. Mr Kay had +put the chain up and retired for the night. + +Fenn lay where he was for a short while longer. Then he rose, feeling +very stiff and wet, and crept into one of the summer-houses which +stood in Mr Kay's garden. Here he sat for an hour and a half, at the +end of which time, thinking that Mr Kay must be asleep, he started out +to climb into the house. + +His study was on the first floor. A high garden-seat stood directly +beneath the window and acted as a convenient ladder. It was easy to +get from this on to the window-ledge. Once there he could open the +window, and the rest would be plain sailing. + +Unhappily, there was one flaw in his scheme. He had conceived that +scheme in the expectation that the window would be as he had left it. + +But it was not. + +During his absence somebody had shot the bolt. And, try his hardest, +he could not move the sash an inch. + + + + +XVII + +FENN HUNTS FOR HIMSELF + + +Nobody knows for certain the feelings of the camel when his proprietor +placed that last straw on his back. The incident happened so long ago. +If it had occurred in modern times, he would probably have contributed +a first-hand report to the _Daily Mail._ But it is very likely +that he felt on that occasion exactly as Fenn felt when, after a night +of unparalleled misadventure, he found that somebody had cut off his +retreat by latching the window. After a gruelling race Fate had just +beaten him on the tape. + +There was no doubt about its being latched. The sash had not merely +stuck. He put all he knew into the effort to raise it, but without a +hint of success. After three attempts he climbed down again and, +sitting on the garden-seat, began to review his position. + +If one has an active mind and a fair degree of optimism, the effect of +the "staggerers" administered by Fate passes off after a while. Fenn +had both. The consequence was that, after ten minutes of grey despair, +he was relieved by a faint hope that there might be some other way +into the house than through his study. Anyhow, it would be worth while +to investigate. + +His study was at the side of the house. At the back were the kitchen, +the scullery, and the dining-room, and above these more studies and a +couple of dormitories. As a last resort he might fling rocks and other +solids at the windows until he woke somebody up. But he did not feel +like trying this plan until every other had failed. He had no desire +to let a garrulous dormitory into the secret of his wanderings. What +he hoped was that he might find one of the lower windows open. + +And so he did. + +As he turned the corner of the house he saw what he had been looking +for. The very first window was wide open. His spirits shot up, and for +the first time since he had left the theatre he was conscious of +taking a pleasure in his adventurous career. Fate was with him after +all. He could not help smiling as he remembered how he had felt during +that ten minutes on the garden-seat, when the future seemed blank and +devoid of any comfort whatsoever. And all the time he could have got +in without an effort, if he had only thought of walking half a dozen +yards. + +Now that the way was open to him, he wasted no time. He climbed +through into the dark room. He was not certain which room it was, in +spite of his lengthy residence at Kay's. + +He let himself down softly till his foot touched the floor. After a +moment's pause he moved forward a step. Then another. At the third +step his knee struck the leg of a table. He must be in the +dining-room. If so, he was all right. He could find his way up to his +room with his eyes shut. It was easy to find out for certain. The +walls of the dining-room at Kay's, as in the other houses, were +covered with photographs. He walked gingerly in the direction in which +he imagined the nearest wall to be, reached it, and passed his hand +along it. Yes, there were photographs. Then all he had to do was to +find the table again, make his way along it, and when he got to the +end the door would be a yard or so to his left. The programme seemed +simple and attractive. But it was added to in a manner which he had +not foreseen. Feeling his way back to the table, he upset a chair. If +he had upset a cart-load of coal on to a sheet of tin it could not, so +it seemed to him in the disordered state of his nerves, have made more +noise. It went down with an appalling crash, striking the table on its +way. "This," thought Fenn, savagely, as he waited, listening, "is +where I get collared. What a fool I am to barge about like this." + +He felt that the echoes of that crash must have penetrated to every +corner of the house. But no one came. Perhaps, after all, the noise +had not been so great. He proceeded on his journey down the table, +feeling every inch of the way. The place seemed one bristling mass of +chairs. But, by the exercise of consummate caution, he upset no more +and won through at last in safety to the door. + +It was at this point that the really lively and exciting part of his +adventure began. Compared with what was to follow, his evening had +been up to the present dull and monotonous. + +As he opened the door there was a sudden stir and crash at the other +end of the room. Fenn had upset one chair and the noise had nearly +deafened him. Now chairs seemed to be falling in dozens. Bang! Bang! +Crash!! (two that time). And then somebody shot through the window +like a harlequin and dashed away across the lawn. Fenn could hear his +footsteps thudding on the soft turf. And at the same moment other +footsteps made themselves heard. + +Somebody was coming downstairs. + +"Who is that? Is anybody there?" + +It was Mr Kay's voice, unmistakably nervous. Fenn darted from the door +and across the passage. At the other side was a boot-cupboard. It was +his only refuge in that direction. What he ought to have done was to +leave the dining-room by the opposite door, which led _via_ a +corridor to the junior dayroom. But he lost his head, and instead of +bolting away from the enemy, went towards him. + +The stairs down which Mr Kay was approaching were at the end of the +passage. To reach the dining-room one turned to the right. Beyond the +stairs on the left the passage ended in a wall, so that Mr Kay was +bound to take the right direction in the search. Fenn wondered if he +had a pistol. Not that he cared very much. If the house-master was +going to find him, it would be very little extra discomfort to be shot +at. And Mr Kay's talents as a marksman were in all probability limited +to picking off sitting haystacks. The important point was that he had +a candle. A faint yellow glow preceded him down the stairs. Playing +hide-and-seek with him in the dark, Fenn might have slipped past in +safety; but the candle made that impossible. + +He found the boot-room door and slipped through just as Mr Kay turned +the corner. With a thrill of pleasure he found that there was a key +inside. He turned it as quietly as he could, but nevertheless it +grated. Having done this, and seeing nothing else that he could do +except await developments, he sat down on the floor among the boots. +It was not a dignified position for a man who had played for his +county while still at school, but just then he would not have +exchanged it for a throne--if the throne had been placed in the +passage or the dining-room. + +The only question was--had he been seen or heard? He thought not; but +his heart began to beat furiously as the footsteps stopped outside the +cupboard door and unseen fingers rattled the handle. + +Twice Mr Kay tried the handle, but, finding the cupboard locked, +passed on into the dining-room. The light of the candle ceased to +shine under the door, and Fenn was once more in inky darkness. + +He listened intently. A minute later he had made his second mistake. +Instead of waiting, as he should have done, until Mr Kay had retired +for good, he unlocked the door directly he had passed, and when a +muffled crash told him that the house-master was in the dining-room +among the chairs, out he came and fled softly upstairs towards his +bedroom. He thought that Mr Kay might possibly take it into his head +to go round the dormitories to make certain that all the members of +his house were in. In which case all would be discovered. + +When he reached his room he began to fling off his clothes with +feverish haste. Once in bed all would be well. + +He had got out of his boots, his coat, and his waistcoat, and was +beginning to feel that electric sensation of triumph which only conies +to the man who _just_ pulls through, when he heard Mr Kay coming +down the corridor towards his room. The burglar-hunter, returning from +the dining-room in the full belief that the miscreant had escaped +through the open window, had had all his ardour for the chase +redoubled by the sight of the cupboard door, which Fenn in his hurry +had not remembered to close. Mr Kay had made certain by two separate +trials that that door had been locked. And now it was wide open. Ergo, +the apostle of the jemmy and the skeleton key must still be in the +house. Mr Kay, secure in the recollection that burglars never show +fight if they can possibly help it, determined to search the house. + +Fenn made up his mind swiftly. There was no time to finish dressing. +Mr Kay, peering round, might note the absence of the rest of his +clothes from their accustomed pegs if he got into bed as he was. There +was only one thing to be done. He threw back the bed-clothes, ruffled +the sheets till the bed looked as if it had been slept in, and opened +the door just as Mr Kay reached the threshold. + +"Anything the matter, sir?" asked Fenn, promptly. "I heard a noise +downstairs. Can I help you?" + +Mr Kay looked carefully at the ex-head of his house. Fenn was a +finely-developed youth. He stood six feet, and all of him that was not +bone was muscle. A useful colleague to have by one in a hunt for a +possibly ferocious burglar. + +So thought Mr Kay. + +"So _you_ heard the noise?" he said. "Well, perhaps you had +better come with me. There is no doubt that a burglar has entered the +house tonight, in spite of the fact that I locked all the windows +myself. Your study window was unlocked, Fenn. It was extremely +careless of you to leave it in such a condition, and I hope you will +be more careful in future. Why, somebody might have got in through +it." + +Fenn thought it was not at all unlikely. + +"Come along, then. I am sure the man is still in the house. He was +hiding in the cupboard by the dining-room. I know it. I am sure he is +still in the house." + +But, in spite of the fact that Fenn was equally sure, half an hour's +search failed to discover any lurking evil-doer. + +"You had better go to bed, Fenn," said Mr Kay, disgustedly, at the end +of that period. "He must have got back in some extraordinary manner." + +"Yes, sir," agreed Fenn. + +He himself had certainly got back in a very extraordinary manner. + +However, he _had_ got back, which was the main point. + + + + +XVIII + +A VAIN QUEST + + +After all he had gone through that night, it disturbed Fenn very +little to find on the following morning that the professional +cracksman had gone off with one of the cups in his study. Certainly, +it was not as bad as it might have been, for he had only abstracted +one out of the half dozen that decorated the room. Fenn was a fine +runner, and had won the "sprint" events at the sports for two years +now. + +The news of the burglary at Kay's soon spread about the school. Mr Kay +mentioned it to Mr Mulholland, and Mr Mulholland discussed it at lunch +with the prefects of his house. The juniors of Kay's were among the +last to hear of it, but when they did, they made the most of it, to +the disgust of the School House fags, to whom the episode seemed in +the nature of an infringement of copyright. Several spirited +by-battles took place that day owing to this, and at the lower end of +the table of Kay's dining-room at tea that evening there could be seen +many swollen countenances. All, however, wore pleased smiles. They had +proved to the School House their right to have a burglary of their own +if they liked. It was the first occasion since Kennedy had become head +of the house that Kay's had united in a common and patriotic cause. + +Directly afternoon school was over that day, Fenn started for the +town. The only thing that caused him any anxiety now was the fear lest +the cap which he had left in the house in the High Street might rise +up as evidence against him later on. Except for that, he was safe. The +headmaster had evidently not remembered his absence from the festive +board, or he would have spoken to him on the subject before now. If he +could but recover the lost cap, all would be right with the world. +Give him back that cap, and he would turn over a new leaf with a +rapidity and emphasis which would lower the world's record for that +performance. He would be a reformed character. He would even go to the +extent of calling a truce with Mr Kay, climbing down to Kennedy, and +offering him his services in his attempt to lick the house into shape. + +As a matter of fact, he had had this idea before. Jimmy Silver, who +was in the position--common at school--of being very friendly with two +people who were not on speaking terms, had been at him on the topic. + +"It's rot," James had said, with perfect truth, "to see two chaps like +you making idiots of themselves over a house like Kay's. And it's all +your fault, too," he had added frankly. "You know jolly well you +aren't playing the game. You ought to be backing Kennedy up all the +time. Instead of which, you go about trying to look like a Christian +martyr--" + +"I don't," said Fenn, indignantly. + +"Well, like a stuffed frog, then--it's all the same to me. It's +perfect rot. If I'm walking with Kennedy, you stalk past as if we'd +both got the plague or something. And if I'm with you, Kennedy +suddenly remembers an appointment, and dashes off at a gallop in the +opposite direction. If I had to award the bronze medal for drivelling +lunacy in this place, you would get it by a narrow margin, and Kennedy +would be _proxime_, and honourably mentioned. Silly idiots!" + +"Don't stop, Jimmy. Keep it up," said Fenn, settling himself in his +chair. The dialogue was taking place in Silver's study. + +"My dear chap, you didn't think I'd finished, surely! I was only +trying to find some description that would suit you. But it's no good. +I can't. Look here, take my advice--the advice," he added, in the +melodramatic voice he was in the habit of using whenever he wished to +conceal the fact that he was speaking seriously, "of an old man who +wishes ye both well. Go to Kennedy, fling yourself on his chest, and +say, 'We have done those things which we ought not to have done--' No. +As you were! Compn'y, 'shun! Say 'J. Silver says that I am a rotter. I +am a worm. I have made an ass of myself. But I will be good. Shake, +pard!' That's what you've got to do. Come in." + +And in had come Kennedy. The attractions of Kay's were small, and he +usually looked in on Jimmy Silver in the afternoons. + +"Oh, sorry," he said, as he saw Fenn. "I thought you were alone, +Jimmy." + +"I was just going," said Fenn, politely. + +"Oh, don't let me disturb you," protested Kennedy, with winning +courtesy. + +"Not at all," said Fenn. + +"Oh, if you really were--" + +"Oh, yes, really." + +"Get out, then," growled Jimmy, who had been listening in speechless +disgust to the beautifully polite conversation just recorded. "I'll +forward that bronze medal to you, Fenn." + +And as the door closed he had turned to rend Kennedy as he had rent +Fenn; while Fenn walked back to Kay's feeling that there was a good +deal in what Jimmy had said. + +So that when he went down town that afternoon in search of his cap, he +pondered as he walked over the advisability of making a fresh start. +It would not be a bad idea. But first he must concentrate his energies +on recovering what he had lost. + +He found the house in the High Street without a great deal of +difficulty, for he had marked the spot carefully as far as that had +been possible in the fog. + +The door was opened to him, not by the old man with whom he had +exchanged amenities on the previous night, but by a short, thick +fellow, who looked exactly like a picture of a loafer from the pages +of a comic journal. He eyed Fenn with what might have been meant for +an inquiring look. To Fenn it seemed merely menacing. + +"Wodyer want?" he asked, abruptly. + +Eckleton was not a great distance from London, and, as a consequence, +many of London's choicest blackguards migrated there from time to +time. During the hopping season, and while the local races were on, +one might meet with two Cockney twangs for every country accent. + +"I want to see the old gentleman who lives here," said Fenn. + +"Wot old gentleman?" + +"I'm afraid I don't know his name. Is this a home for old gentlemen? +If you'll bring out all you've got, I'll find my one." + +"Wodyer want see the old gentleman for?" + +"To ask for my cap. I left it here last night." + +"Oh, yer left it 'ere last night! Well, yer cawn't see 'im." + +"Not from here, no," agreed Fenn. "Being only eyes, you see," he +quoted happily, "my wision's limited. But if you wouldn't mind moving +out of the way--" + +"Yer cawn't see 'im. Blimey, 'ow much more of it, I should like to +know. Gerroutovit, cawn't yer! You and yer caps." + +And he added a searching expletive by way of concluding the sentence +fittingly. After which he slipped back and slammed the door, leaving +Fenn waiting outside like the Peri at the gate of Paradise. + +His resemblance to the Peri ceased after the first quarter of a +minute. That lady, we read, took her expulsion lying down. Fenn was +more vigorous. He seized the knocker, and banged lustily on the door. +He had given up all hope of getting back the cap. All he wanted was to +get the doorkeeper out into the open again, when he would proceed to +show him, to the best of his ability, what was what. It would not be +the first time he had taken on a gentleman of the same class and a +similar type of conversation. + +But the man refused to be drawn. For all the reply Fenn's knocking +produced, the house might have been empty. At last, having tired his +wrist and collected a small crowd of Young Eckleton, who looked as if +they expected him to proceed to further efforts for their amusement, +he gave it up, and retired down the High Street with what dignity he +could command--which, as he was followed for the first fifty yards by +the silent but obviously expectant youths, was not a great deal. + +They left him, disappointed, near the Town Hall, and Fenn continued on +his way alone. The window of the grocer's shop, with its tins of +preserved apricots and pots of jam, recalled to his mind what he had +forgotten, that the food at Kay's, though it might be wholesome (which +he doubted), was undeniably plain, and, secondly, that he had run out +of jam. Now that he was here he might as well supply that deficiency. + +Now it chanced that Master Wren, of Kay's, was down town--without +leave, as was his habit--on an errand of a very similar nature. Walton +had found that he, like Fenn, lacked those luxuries of life which are +so much more necessary than necessities, and, being unable to go +himself, owing to the unfortunate accident of being kept in by his +form-master, had asked Wren to go for him. Wren's visit to the +grocer's was just ending when Fenn's began. + +They met in the doorway. + +Wren looked embarrassed, and nearly dropped a pot of honey, which he +secured low down after the manner of a catch in the slips. Fenn, on +the other hand, took no notice of his fellow-Kayite, but walked on +into the shop and began to inspect the tins of biscuits which were +stacked on the floor by the counter. + + + + +XIX + +THE GUILE OF WREN + + +Wren did not quite know what to make of this. Why had not Fenn said a +word to him? There were one or two prefects in the school whom he +might have met even at such close quarters and yet have cherished a +hope that they had not seen him. Once he had run right into Drew, of +the School House, and escaped unrecognised. But with Fenn it was +different. Compared to Fenn, lynxes were astigmatic. He must have +spotted him. + +There was a vein of philosophy in Wren's composition. He felt that he +might just as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. In other words, +having been caught down town without leave, he might as well stay +there and enjoy himself a little while longer before going back to be +executed. So he strolled off down the High Street, bought a few things +at a stationer's, and wound up with an excellent tea at the +confectioner's by the post-office. + +It was as he was going to this meal that Kennedy caught sight of him. +Kennedy had come down town to visit the local photographer, to whom he +had entrusted a fortnight before the pleasant task of taking his +photograph. As he had heard nothing from him since, he was now coming +to investigate. He entered the High Street as Wren was turning into +the confectioner's, saw him, and made a note of it for future +reference. + +When Wren returned to the house just before lock-up, he sought counsel +of Walton. + +"I say," he said, as he handed over the honey he had saved so neatly +from destruction, "what would you do? Just as I was coming out of the +shop, I barged into Fenn. He must have twigged me." + +"Didn't he say anything?" + +"Not a word. I couldn't make it out, because he must have seen me. We +weren't a yard away from one another." + +"It's dark in the shop," suggested Walton. + +"Not at the door; which is where we met." + +Before Walton could find anything to say in reply to this, their +conversation was interrupted by Spencer. + +"Kennedy wants you, Wren," said Spencer. "You'd better buck up; he's +in an awful wax." + +Next to Walton, the vindictive Spencer objected most to Wren, and he +did not attempt to conceal the pleasure he felt in being the bearer of +this ominous summons. + +The group broke up. Wren went disconsolately upstairs to Kennedy's +study; Walton smacked Spencer's head--more as a matter of form than +because he had done anything special to annoy him--and retired to the +senior dayroom; while Spencer, muttering darkly to himself, avoided a +second smack and took cover in the junior room, where he consoled +himself by toasting a piece of india-rubber in the gas till it made +the atmosphere painful to breathe in, and recalling with pleasure the +condition Walton's face had been in for the day or two following his +encounter with Kennedy in the dormitory. + +Kennedy was working when Wren knocked at his door. + +He had not much time to spare on a bounds-breaking fag; and his manner +was curt. + +"I saw you going into Rose's, in the High Street, this afternoon, +Wren," he said, looking up from his Greek prose. "I didn't give you +leave. Come up here after prayers tonight. Shut the door." + +Wren went down to consult Walton again. His attitude with regard to a +licking from the head of the house was much like that of the other +fags. Custom had, to a certain extent, inured him to these painful +interviews, but still, if it was possible, he preferred to keep out of +them. Under Fenn's rule he had often found a tolerably thin excuse +serve his need. Fenn had so many other things to do that he was not +unwilling to forego an occasional licking, if the excuse was good +enough. And he never took the trouble to find out whether the +ingenious stories Wren was wont to serve up to him were true or not. +Kennedy, Wren reflected uncomfortably, had given signs that this +easy-going method would not do for him. Still, it might be possible to +hunt up some story that would meet the case. Walton had a gift in that +direction. + +"He says I'm to go to his study after prayers," reported Wren. "Can't +you think of any excuse that would do?" + +"Can't understand Fenn running you in," said Walton. "I thought he +never spoke to Kennedy." + +Wren explained. + +"It wasn't Fenn who ran me in. Kennedy was down town, too, and twigged +me going into Rose's. I went there and had tea after I got your things +at the grocer's." + +"Oh, he spotted you himself, did he?" said Walton. "And he doesn't +know Fenn saw you?" + +"I don't think so." + +"Then I've got a ripping idea. When he has you up tonight, swear that +you got leave from Fenn to go down town." + +"But he'll ask him." + +"The odds are that he won't. He and Fenn had a row at the beginning of +term, and never speak to one another if they can help it. It's ten to +one that he will prefer taking your yarn to going and asking Fenn if +it's true or not. Then he's bound to let you off." + +Wren admitted that the scheme was sound. + +At the conclusion of prayers, therefore, he went up again to Kennedy's +study, with a more hopeful air than he had worn on his previous visit. + +"Come in," said Kennedy, reaching for the swagger-stick which he was +accustomed to use at these ceremonies. + +"Please, Kennedy," said Wren, glibly. "I did get leave to go down town +this afternoon." + +"What!" + +Wren repeated the assertion. + +"Who gave you leave?" + +"Fenn." + +The thing did not seem to be working properly. When he said the word +"Fenn", Wren expected to see Kennedy retire baffled, conscious that +there was nothing more to be said or done. Instead of this, the remark +appeared to infuriate him. + +"It's just like your beastly cheek," he said, glaring at the +red-headed delinquent, "to ask Fenn for leave instead of me. You know +perfectly well that only the head of the house can give leave to go +down town. I don't know how often you and the rest of the junior +dayroom have played this game, but it's going to stop now. You'd +better remember another time when you want to go to Rose's that I've +got to be consulted first." + +With which he proceeded to ensure to the best of his ability that the +memory of Master Wren should not again prove treacherous in this +respect. + +"How did it work?" asked Walton, when Wren returned. + +"It didn't," said Wren, briefly. + +Walton expressed an opinion that Kennedy was a cad; which, however +sound in itself, did little to improve the condition of Wren. + +Having disposed of Wren, Kennedy sat down seriously to consider this +new development of a difficult situation. Hitherto he had imagined +Fenn to be merely a sort of passive resister who confined himself to +the Achilles-in-his-tent business, and was only a nuisance because he +refused to back him up. To find him actually aiding and abetting the +house in its opposition to its head was something of a shock. And yet, +if he had given Wren leave to go down town, he had probably done the +same kind office by others. It irritated Kennedy more than the most +overt act of enmity would have done. It was not good form. It was +hitting below the belt. There was, of course, the chance that Wren's +story had not been true. But he did not build much on that. He did not +yet know his Wren well, and believed that such an audacious lie would +be beyond the daring of a fag. But it would be worth while to make +inquiries. He went down the passage to Fenn's study. Fenn, however, +had gone to bed, so he resolved to approach him on the subject next +day. There was no hurry. + +He went to his dormitory, feeling very bitter towards Fenn, and +rehearsing home truths with which to confound him on the morrow. + + + + +XX + +JIMMY THE PEACEMAKER + + +In these hustling times it is not always easy to get ten minutes' +conversation with an acquaintance in private. There was drill in the +dinner hour next day for the corps, to which Kennedy had to go +directly after lunch. It did not end till afternoon school began. When +afternoon school was over, he had to turn out and practise scrummaging +with the first fifteen, in view of an important school match which was +coming off on the following Saturday. Kennedy had not yet received his +cap, but he was playing regularly for the first fifteen, and was +generally looked upon as a certainty for one of the last places in the +team. Fenn, being a three-quarter, had not to participate in this +practice. While the forwards were scrummaging on the second fifteen +ground, the outsides ran and passed on the first fifteen ground over +at the other end of the field. Fenn's training for the day finished +earlier than Kennedy's, the captain of the Eckleton fifteen, who led +the scrum, not being satisfied with the way in which the forwards +wheeled. He kept them for a quarter of an hour after the outsides had +done their day's work, and when Kennedy got back to the house and went +to Fenn's study, the latter was not there. He had evidently changed +and gone out again, for his football clothes were lying in a heap in a +corner of the room. Going back to his own study, he met Spencer. + +"Have you seen Fenn?" he asked. + +"No," said the fag. "He hasn't come in." + +"He's come in all right, but he's gone out again. Go and ask Taylor if +he knows where he is." + +Taylor was Fenn's fag. + +Spencer went to the junior dayroom, and returned with the information +that Taylor did not know. + +"Oh, all right, then--it doesn't matter," said Kennedy, and went into +his study to change. + +He had completed this operation, and was thinking of putting his +kettle on for tea, when there was a knock at the door. + +It was Baker, Jimmy Silver's fag. + +"Oh, Kennedy," he said, "Silver says, if you aren't doing anything +special, will you go over to his study to tea?" + +"Why, is there anything on?" + +It struck him as curious that Jimmy should take the trouble to send +his fag over to Kay's with a formal invitation. As a rule the head of +Blackburn's kept open house. His friends were given to understand that +they could drop in whenever they liked. Kennedy looked in for tea +three times a week on an average. + +"I don't think so," said Baker. + +"Who else is going to be there?" + +Jimmy Silver sometimes took it into his head to entertain weird beings +from other houses whose brothers or cousins he had met in the +holidays. On such occasions he liked to have some trusty friend by him +to help the conversation along. It struck Kennedy that this might be +one of those occasions. If so, he would send back a polite but firm +refusal of the invitation. Last time he had gone to help Jimmy +entertain a guest of this kind, conversation had come to a dead +standstill a quarter of an hour after his arrival, the guest refusing +to do anything except eat prodigiously, and reply "Yes" or "No", as +the question might demand, when spoken to. Also he had declined to +stir from his seat till a quarter to seven. Kennedy was not going to +be let in for another orgy of that nature if he knew it. + +"Who's with Silver?" he asked. + +"Only Fenn," said Baker. + +Kennedy pondered for a moment. + +"All right," he said, at last, "tell him I'll be round in a few +minutes." + +He sat thinking the thing over after Baker had gone back to +Blackburn's with the message. He saw Silver's game, of course. Jimmy +had made no secret for some time of his disgust at the coolness +between Kennedy and Fenn. Not knowing all the circumstances, he +considered it absolute folly. If only he could get the two together +over a quiet pot of tea, he imagined that it would not be a difficult +task to act effectively as a peacemaker. + +Kennedy was sorry for Jimmy. He appreciated his feelings in the +matter. He would not have liked it himself if his two best friends had +been at daggers drawn. Still, he could not bring himself to treat Fenn +as if nothing had happened, simply to oblige Silver. There had been a +time when he might have done it, but now that Fenn had started a +deliberate campaign against him by giving Wren--and probably, thought +Kennedy, half the other fags in the house--leave down town when he +ought to have sent them on to him, things had gone too far. However, +he could do no harm by going over to Jimmy's to tea, even if Fenn was +there. He had not looked to interview Fenn before an audience, but if +that audience consisted only of Jimmy, it would not matter so much. + +His advent surprised Fenn. The astute James, fancying that if he +mentioned that he was expecting Kennedy to tea, Fenn would make a bolt +for it, had said nothing about it. + +When Kennedy arrived there was one of those awkward pauses which are +so difficult to fill up in a satisfactory manner. + +"Now you're up, Fenn," said Jimmy, as the latter rose, evidently with +the intention of leaving the study, "you might as well reach down that +toasting-fork and make some toast." + +"I'm afraid I must be off now, Jimmy," said Fenn. + +"No you aren't," said Silver. "You bustle about and make yourself +useful, and don't talk rot. You'll find your cup on that shelf over +there, Kennedy. It'll want a wipe round. Better use the table-cloth." + +There was silence in the study until tea was ready. Then Jimmy Silver +spoke. + +"Long time since we three had tea together," he said, addressing the +remark to the teapot. + +"Kennedy's a busy man," said Fenn, suavely. "He's got a house to look +after." + +"And I'm going to look after it," said Kennedy, "as you'll find." + +Jimmy Silver put in a plaintive protest. + +"I wish you two men wouldn't talk shop," he said. "It's bad enough +having Kay's next door to one, without your dragging it into the +conversation. How were the forwards this evening, Kennedy?" + +"Not bad," said Kennedy, shortly. + +"I wonder if we shall lick Tuppenham on Saturday?" + +"I don't know," said Kennedy; and there was silence again. + +"Look here, Jimmy," said Kennedy, after a long pause, during which the +head of Blackburn's tried to fill up the blank in the conversation by +toasting a piece of bread in a way which was intended to suggest that +if he were not so busy, the talk would be unchecked and animated, +"it's no good. We must have it out some time, so it may as well be +here as anywhere else. I've been looking for Fenn all day." + +"Sorry to give you all that trouble," said Fenn, with a sneer. "Got +something important to say?" + +"Yes." + +"Go ahead, then." + +Jimmy Silver stood between them with the toasting-fork in his hand, as +if he meant to plunge it into the one who first showed symptoms of +flying at the other's throat. He was unhappy. His peace-making +tea-party was not proving a success. + +"I wanted to ask you," said Kennedy, quietly, "what you meant by +giving the fags leave down town when you knew that they ought to come +to me?" + +The gentle and intelligent reader will remember (though that miserable +worm, the vapid and irreflective reader, will have forgotten) that at +the beginning of the term the fags of Kay's had endeavoured to show +their approval of Fenn and their disapproval of Kennedy by applying to +the former for leave when they wished to go to the town; and that Fenn +had received them in the most ungrateful manner with blows instead of +exeats. Strong in this recollection, he was not disturbed by Kennedy's +question. Indeed, it gave him a comfortable feeling of rectitude. +There is nothing more pleasant than to be accused to your face of +something which you can deny on the spot with an easy conscience. It +is like getting a very loose ball at cricket. Fenn felt almost +friendly towards Kennedy. + +"I meant nothing," he replied, "for the simple reason that I didn't do +it." + +"I caught Wren down town yesterday, and he said you had given him +leave." + +"Then he lied, and I hope you licked him." + +"There you are, you see," broke in Jimmy Silver triumphantly, "it's +all a misunderstanding. You two have got no right to be cutting one +another. Why on earth can't you stop all this rot, and behave like +decent members of society again?" + +"As a matter of fact," said Fenn, "they did try it on earlier in the +term. I wasted a lot of valuable time pointing out to them with a +swagger-stick--that I was the wrong person to come to. I'm sorry you +should have thought I could play it as low down as that." + +Kennedy hesitated. It is not very pleasant to have to climb down after +starting a conversation in a stormy and wrathful vein. But it had to +be done. + +"I'm sorry, Fenn," he said; "I was an idiot." + +Jimmy Silver cut in again. + +"You were," he said, with enthusiasm. "You both were. I used to think +Fenn was a bigger idiot than you, but now I'm inclined to call it a +dead heat. What's the good of going on trying to see which of you can +make the bigger fool of himself? You've both lowered all previous +records." + +"I suppose we have," said Fenn. "At least, I have." + +"No, I have," said Kennedy. + +"You both have," said Jimmy Silver. "Another cup of tea, anybody? Say +when." + +Fenn and Kennedy walked back to Kay's together, and tea-d together in +Fenn's study on the following afternoon, to the amazement--and even +scandal--of Master Spencer, who discovered them at it. Spencer liked +excitement; and with the two leaders of the house at logger-heads, +things could never be really dull. If, as appearances seemed to +suggest, they had agreed to settle their differences, life would +become monotonous again--possibly even unpleasant. + +This thought flashed through Spencer's brain (as he called it) when he +opened Fenn's door and found him helping Kennedy to tea. + +"Oh, the headmaster wants to see you, please, Fenn," said Spencer, +recovering from his amazement, "and told me to give you this." + +"This" was a prefect's cap. Fenn recognised it without difficulty. It +was the cap he had left in the sitting-room of the house in the High +Street. + + + + +XXI + +IN WHICH AN EPISODE IS CLOSED + + +"Thanks," said Fenn. + +He stood twirling the cap round in his hand as Spencer closed the +door. Then he threw it on to the table. He did not feel particularly +disturbed at the thought of the interview that was to come. He had +been expecting the cap to turn up, like the corpse of Eugene Aram's +victim, at some inconvenient moment. It was a pity that it had come +just as things looked as if they might be made more or less tolerable +in Kay's. He had been looking forward with a grim pleasure to the +sensation that would be caused in the house when it became known that +he and Kennedy had formed a combine for its moral and physical +benefit. But that was all over. He would be sacked, beyond a doubt. In +the history of Eckleton, as far as he knew it, there had never been a +case of a fellow breaking out at night and not being expelled when he +was caught. It was one of the cardinal sins in the school code. There +had been the case of Peter Brown, which his brother had mentioned in +his letter. And in his own time he had seen three men vanish from +Eckleton for the same offence. He did not flatter himself that his +record at the school was so good as to make it likely that the +authorities would stretch a point in his favour. + +"So long, Kennedy," he said. "You'll be here when I get back, I +suppose?" + +"What does he want you for, do you think?" asked Kennedy, stretching +himself, with a yawn. It never struck him that Fenn could be in any +serious trouble. Fenn was a prefect; and when the headmaster sent for +a prefect, it was generally to tell him that he had got a split +infinitive in his English Essay that week. + +"Glad I'm not you," he added, as a gust of wind rattled the sash, and +the rain dashed against the pane. "Beastly evening to have to go out." + +"It isn't the rain I mind," said Fenn; "it's what's going to happen +when I get indoors again," and refused to explain further. There would +be plenty of time to tell Kennedy the whole story when he returned. It +was better not to keep the headmaster waiting. + +The first thing he noticed on reaching the School House was the +strange demeanour of the butler. Whenever Fenn had had occasion to +call on the headmaster hitherto, Watson had admitted him with the air +of a high priest leading a devotee to a shrine of which he was the +sole managing director. This evening he seemed restless, excited. + +"Good evening, Mr Fenn," he said. "This way, sir." + +Those were his actual words. Fenn had not known for certain until now +that he _could_ talk. On previous occasions their conversations +had been limited to an "Is the headmaster in?" from Fenn, and a +stately inclination of the head from Watson. The man was getting a +positive babbler. + +With an eager, springy step, distantly reminiscent of a shopwalker +heading a procession of customers, with a touch of the style of the +winner in a walking-race to Brighton, the once slow-moving butler led +the way to the headmaster's study. + +For the first time since he started out, Fenn was conscious of a +tremor. There is something about a closed door, behind which somebody +is waiting to receive one, which appeals to the imagination, +especially if the ensuing meeting is likely to be an unpleasant one. + +"Ah, Fenn," said the headmaster. "Come in." + +Fenn wondered. It was not in this tone of voice that the Head was wont +to begin a conversation which was going to prove painful. + +"You've got your cap, Fenn? I gave it to a small boy in your house to +take to you." + +"Yes, sir." + +He had given up all hope of understanding the Head's line of action. +Unless he was playing a deep game, and intended to flash out suddenly +with a keen question which it would be impossible to parry, there +seemed nothing to account for the strange absence of anything unusual +in his manner. He referred to the cap as if he had borrowed it from +Fenn, and had returned it by bearer, hoping that its loss had not +inconvenienced him at all. + +"I daresay," continued the Head, "that you are wondering how it came +into my possession. You missed it, of course?" + +"Very much, sir," said Fenn, with perfect truth. + +"It has just been brought to my house, together with a great many +other things, more valuable, perhaps,"--here he smiled a +head-magisterial smile--"by a policeman from Eckleton." + +Fenn was still unequal to the intellectual pressure of the +conversation. He could understand, in a vague way, that for some +unexplained reason things were going well for him, but beyond that his +mind was in a whirl. + +"You will remember the unfortunate burglary of Mr Kay's house and +mine. Your cap was returned with the rest of the stolen property." + +"Just so," thought Fenn. "The rest of the stolen property? Exactly. +_Go_ on. Don't mind me. I shall begin to understand soon, I +suppose." + +He condensed these thoughts into the verbal reply, "Yes, sir." + +"I sent for you to identify your own property. I see there is a silver +cup belonging to you. Perhaps there are also other articles. Go and +see. You will find them on that table. They are in a hopeless state of +confusion, having been conveyed here in a sack. Fortunately, nothing +is broken." + +He was thinking of certain valuables belonging to himself which had +been abstracted from his drawing-room on the occasion of the burglar's +visit to the School House. + +Fenn crossed the room, and began to inspect the table indicated. On it +was as mixed a collection of valuable and useless articles as one +could wish to see. He saw his cup at once, and attached himself to it. +But of all the other exhibits in this private collection, he could +recognise nothing else as his property. + +"There is nothing of mine here except the cup, sir," he said. + +"Ah. Then that is all, I think. You are going back to Mr Kay's. Then +please send Kennedy to me. Good night, Fenn." + +"Good night, sir." + +Even now Fenn could not understand it. The more he thought it over, +the more his brain reeled. He could grasp the fact that his cap and +his cup were safe again, and that there was evidently going to be no +sacking for the moment. But how it had all happened, and how the +police had got hold of his cap, and why they had returned it with the +loot gathered in by the burglar who had visited Kay's and the School +House, were problems which, he had to confess, were beyond him. + +He walked to Kay's through the rain with the cup under his mackintosh, +and freely admitted to himself that there were things in heaven and +earth--and particularly earth--which no fellow could understand. + +"I don't know," he said, when Kennedy pressed for an explanation of +the reappearance of the cup. "It's no good asking me. I'm going now to +borrow the matron's smelling-salts: I feel faint. After that I shall +wrap a wet towel round my head, and begin to think it out. Meanwhile, +you're to go over to the Head. He's had enough of me, and he wants to +have a look at you." + +"Me?" said Kennedy. "Why?" + +"Now, is it any good asking _me?_?" said Fenn. "If you can find +out what it's all about, I'll thank you if you'll come and tell me." + +Ten minutes later Kennedy returned. He carried a watch and chain. + +"I couldn't think what had happened to my watch," he said. "I missed +it on the day after that burglary here, but I never thought of +thinking it had been collared by a professional. I thought I must have +lost it somewhere." + +"Well, have you grasped what's been happening?" + +"I've grasped my ticker, which is good enough for me. Half a second. +The old man wants to see the rest of the prefects. He's going to work +through the house in batches, instead of man by man. I'll just go round +the studies and rout them out, and then I'll come back and explain. It's +perfectly simple." + +"Glad you think so," said Fenn. + +Kennedy went and returned. + +"Now," he said, subsiding into a deck-chair, "what is it you don't +understand?" + +"I don't understand anything. Begin at the beginning." + +"I got the yarn from the butler--what's his name?" + +"Those who know him well enough to venture to give him a name--I've +never dared to myself--call him Watson," said Fenn. + +"I got the yarn from Watson. He was as excited as anything about it. I +never saw him like that before." + +"I noticed something queer about him." + +"He's awfully bucked, and is doing the Ancient Mariner business all +over the place. Wants to tell the story to everyone he sees." + +"Well, suppose you follow his example. I want to hear about it." + +"Well, it seems that the police have been watching a house at the +corner of the High Street for some time--what's up?" + +"Nothing. Go on." + +"But you said, 'By Jove!'" + +"Well, why shouldn't I say 'By Jove'? When you are telling sensational +yarns, it's my duty to say something of the sort. Buck along." + +"It's a house not far from the Town Hall, at the corner of Pegwell +Street--you've probably been there scores of times." + +"Once or twice, perhaps," said Fenn. "Well?" + +"About a month ago two suspicious-looking bounders went to live there. +Watson says their faces were enough to hang them. Anyhow, they must +have been pretty bad, for they made even the Eckleton police, who are +pretty average-sized rotters, suspicious, and they kept an eye on +them. Well, after a bit there began to be a regular epidemic of +burglary round about here. Watson says half the houses round were +broken into. The police thought it was getting a bit too thick, but +they didn't like to raid the house without some jolly good evidence +that these two men were the burglars, so they lay low and waited till +they should give them a decent excuse for jumping on them. They had +had a detective chap down from London, by the way, to see if he +couldn't do something about the burglaries, and he kept his eye on +them, too." + +"They had quite a gallery. Didn't they notice any of the eyes?" + +"No. Then after a bit one of them nipped off to London with a big bag. +The detective chap was after him like a shot. He followed him from the +station, saw him get into a cab, got into another himself, and stuck +to him hard. The front cab stopped at about a dozen pawnbrokers' +shops. The detective Johnny took the names and addresses, and hung on +to the burglar man all day, and finally saw him return to the station, +where he caught a train back to Eckleton. Directly he had seen him +off, the detective got into a cab, called on the dozen pawnbrokers, +showed his card, with 'Scotland Yard' on it, I suppose, and asked to +see what the other chap had pawned. He identified every single thing +as something that had been collared from one of the houses round +Eckleton way. So he came back here, told the police, and they raided +the house, and there they found stacks of loot of all descriptions." + +"Including my cap," said Fenn, thoughtfully. "I see now." + +"Rummy the man thinking it worth his while to take an old cap," said +Kennedy. + +"Very," said Fenn. "But it's been a rum business all along." + + + + +XXII + +KAY'S CHANGES ITS NAME + + +For the remaining weeks of the winter term, things went as smoothly in +Kay's as Kay would let them. That restless gentleman still continued +to burst in on Kennedy from time to time with some sensational story +of how he had found a fag doing what he ought not to have done. But +there was a world of difference between the effect these visits had +now and that which they had had when Kennedy had stood alone in the +house, his hand against all men. Now that he could work off the +effects of such encounters by going straight to Fenn's study and +picking the house-master to pieces, the latter's peculiar methods +ceased to be irritating, and became funny. Mr Kay was always ferreting +out the weirdest misdoings on the part of the members of his house, +and rushing to Kennedy's study to tell him about them at full length, +like a rather indignant dog bringing a rat he has hunted down into a +drawing-room, to display it to the company. On one occasion, when Fenn +and Jimmy Silver were in Kennedy's study, Mr Kay dashed in to complain +bitterly that he had discovered that the junior dayroom kept mice in +their lockers. Apparently this fact seemed to him enough to cause an +epidemic of typhoid fever in the place, and he hauled Kennedy over the +coals, in a speech that lasted five minutes, for not having detected +this plague-spot in the house. + +"So that's the celebrity at home, is it?" said Jimmy Silver, when he +had gone. "I now begin to understand more or less why this house wants +a new Head every two terms. Is he often taken like that?" + +"He's never anything else," said Kennedy. "Fenn keeps a list of the +things he rags me about, and we have an even shilling on, each week, +that he will beat the record of the previous week. At first I used to +get the shilling if he lowered the record; but after a bit it struck +us that it wasn't fair, so now we take it on alternate weeks. This is +my week, by the way. I think I can trouble you for that bob, Fenn?" + +"I wish I could make it more," said Fenn, handing over the shilling. + +"What sort of things does he rag you about generally?" inquired +Silver. + +Fenn produced a slip of paper. + +"Here are a few," he said, "for this month. He came in on the 10th +because he found two kids fighting. Kennedy was down town when it +happened, but that made no difference. Then he caught the senior +dayroom making a row of some sort. He said it was perfectly deafening; +but we couldn't hear it in our studies. I believe he goes round the +house, listening at keyholes. That was on the 16th. On the 22nd he +found a chap in Kennedy's dormitory wandering about the house at one +in the morning. He seemed to think that Kennedy ought to have sat up +all night on the chance of somebody cutting out of the dormitory. At +any rate, he ragged him. I won the weekly shilling on that; and +deserved it, too." + +Fenn had to go over to the gymnasium shortly after this. Jimmy Silver +stayed on, talking to Kennedy. + +"And bar Kay," said Jimmy, "how do you find the house doing? Any +better?" + +"Better! It's getting a sort of model establishment. I believe, if we +keep pegging away at them, we may win some sort of a cup sooner or +later." + +"Well, Kay's very nearly won the cricket cup last year. You ought to +get it next season, now that you and Fenn are both in the team." + +"Oh, I don't know. It'll be a fluke if we do. Still, we're hoping. It +isn't every house that's got a county man in it. But we're breaking +out in another place. Don't let it get about, for goodness' sake, but +we're going for the sports' cup." + +"Hope you'll get it. Blackburn's won't have a chance, anyhow, and I +should like to see somebody get it away from the School House. They've +had it much too long. They're beginning to look on it as their right. +But who are your men?" + +"Well, Fenn ought to be a cert for the hundred and the quarter, to +start with." + +"But the School House must get the long run, and the mile, and the +half, too, probably." + +"Yes. We haven't anyone to beat Milligan, certainly. But there are the +second and third places. Don't forget those. That's where we're going +to have a look in. There's all sorts of unsuspected talent in Kay's. +To look at Peel, for instance, you wouldn't think he could do the +hundred in eleven, would you? Well, he can, only he's been too slack +to go in for the race at the sports, because it meant training. I had +him up here and reasoned with him, and he's promised to do his best. +Eleven is good enough for second place in the hundred, don't you +think? There are lots of others in the house who can do quite decently +on the track, if they try. I've been making strict inquiries. Kay's +are hot stuff, Jimmy. Heap big medicine. That's what they are." + +"You're a wonderful man, Kennedy," said Jimmy Silver. And he meant it. +Kennedy's uphill fight at Kay's had appealed to him strongly. He +himself had never known what it meant to have to manage a hostile +house. He had stepped into his predecessor's shoes at Blackburn's much +as the heir to a throne becomes king. Nobody had thought of disputing +his right to the place. He was next man in; so, directly the departure +of the previous head of Blackburn's left a vacancy, he stepped into +it, and the machinery of the house had gone on as smoothly as if there +had been no change at all. But Kennedy had gone in against a slack and +antagonistic house, with weak prefects to help him, and a fussy +house-master; and he had fought them all for a term, and looked like +winning. Jimmy admired his friend with a fervour which nothing on +earth would have tempted him to reveal. Like most people with a sense +of humour, he had a fear of appearing ridiculous, and he hid his real +feelings as completely as he was able. + +"How is the footer getting on?" inquired Jimmy, remembering the +difficulties Kennedy had encountered earlier in the term in connection +with his house team. + +"It's better," said Kennedy. "Keener, at any rate. We shall do our +best in the house-matches. But we aren't a good team." + +"Any more trouble about your being captain instead of Fenn?" + +"No. We both sign the lists now. Fenn didn't want to, but I thought it +would be a good idea, so we tried it. It seems to have worked all +right." + +"Of course, your getting your first has probably made a difference." + +"A bit, perhaps." + +"Well, I hope you won't get the footer cup, because I want it for +Blackburn's. Or the cricket cup. I want that, too. But you can have +the sports' cup with my blessing." + +"Thanks," said Kennedy. "It's very generous of you." + +"Don't mention it," said Jimmy. + +From which conversation it will be seen that Kay's was gradually +pulling itself together. It had been asleep for years. It was now +waking up. + +When the winter term ended, there were distinct symptoms of an +outbreak of public spirit in the house. + +The Easter term opened auspiciously in one way. Neither Walton nor +Perry returned. The former had been snapped up in the middle of the +holidays--to his enormous disgust--by a bank, which wanted his +services so much that it was prepared to pay him 40 pounds a year simply +to enter the addresses of its outgoing letters in a book, and post them +when he had completed this ceremony. After a spell of this he might +hope to be transferred to another sphere of bank life and thought, and +at the end of his first year he might even hope for a rise in his +salary of ten pounds, if his conduct was good, and he had not been +late on more than twenty mornings in the year. I am aware that in a +properly-regulated story of school-life Walton would have gone to the +Eckleton races, returned in a state of speechless intoxication, and +been summarily expelled; but facts are facts, and must not be tampered +with. The ingenious but not industrious Perry had been superannuated. +For three years he had been in the Lower Fourth. Probably the master +of that form went to the Head, and said that his constitution would +not stand another year of him, and that either he or Perry must go. So +Perry had departed. Like a poor play, he had "failed to attract," and +was withdrawn. There was also another departure of an even more +momentous nature. + +Mr Kay had left Eckleton. + +Kennedy was no longer head of Kay's. He was now head of Dencroft's. + +Mr Dencroft was one of the most popular masters in the school. He was +a keen athlete and a tactful master. Fenn and Kennedy knew him well, +through having played at the nets and in scratch games with him. They +both liked him. If Kennedy had had to select a house-master, he would +have chosen Mr Blackburn first. But Mr Dencroft would have been easily +second. + +Fenn learned the facts from the matron, and detailed them to Kennedy. + +"Kay got the offer of a headmastership at a small school in the north, +and jumped at it. I pity the fellows there. They are going to have a +lively time." + +"I'm jolly glad Dencroft has got the house," said Kennedy. "We might +have had some awful rotter put in. Dencroft will help us buck up the +house games." + +The new house-master sent for Kennedy on the first evening of term. He +wished to find out how the Head of the house and the ex-Head stood +with regard to one another. He knew the circumstances, and +comprehended vaguely that there had been trouble. + +"I hope we shall have a good term," he said. + +"I hope so, sir," said Kennedy. + +"You--er--you think the house is keener, Kennedy, than when you first +came in?" + +"Yes, sir. They are getting quite keen now. We might win the sports." + +"I hope we shall. I wish we could win the football cup, too, but I am +afraid Mr Blackburn's are very heavy metal." + +"It's hardly likely we shall have very much chance with them; but we +might get into the final!" + +"It would be an excellent thing for the house if we could. I hope Fenn +is helping you get the team into shape?" he added. + +"Oh, yes, sir," said Kennedy. "We share the captaincy. We both sign +the lists." + +"A very good idea," said Mr Dencroft, relieved. "Good night, Kennedy." + +"Good night, sir," said Kennedy. + + + + +XXIII + +THE HOUSE-MATCHES + + +The chances of Kay's in the inter-house Football Competition were not +thought very much of by their rivals. Of late years each of the other +houses had prayed to draw Kay's for the first round, it being a +certainty that this would mean that they got at least into the second +round, and so a step nearer the cup. Nobody, however weak compared to +Blackburn's, which was at the moment the crack football house, ever +doubted the result of a match with Kay's. It was looked on as a sort +of gentle trial trip. + +But the efforts of the two captains during the last weeks of the +winter term had put a different complexion on matters. Football is not +like cricket. It is a game at which anybody of average size and a +certain amount of pluck can make himself at least moderately +proficient. Kennedy, after consultations with Fenn, had picked out +what he considered the best fifteen, and the two set themselves to +knock it into shape. In weight there was not much to grumble at. There +were several heavy men in the scrum. If only these could be brought to +use their weight to the last ounce when shoving, all would be well as +far as the forwards were concerned. The outsides were not so +satisfactory. With the exception, of course, of Fenn, they lacked +speed. They were well-meaning, but they could not run any faster by +virtue of that. Kay's would have to trust to its scrum to pull it +through. Peel, the sprinter whom Kennedy had discovered in his search +for athletes, had to be put in the pack on account of his weight, +which deprived the three-quarter line of what would have been a good +man in that position. It was a drawback, too, that Fenn was accustomed +to play on the wing. To be of real service, a wing three-quarter must +be fed by his centres, and, unfortunately, there was no centre in +Kay's--or Dencroft's, as it should now be called--who was capable of +making openings enough to give Fenn a chance. So he had to play in the +centre, where he did not know the game so well. + +Kennedy realised at an early date that the one chance of the house was +to get together before the house-matches and play as a coherent team, +not as a collection of units. Combination will often make up for lack +of speed in a three-quarter line. So twice a week Dencroft's turned +out against scratch teams of varying strength. + +It delighted Kennedy to watch their improvement. The first side they +played ran through them to the tune of three goals and four tries to a +try, and it took all the efforts of the Head of the house to keep a +spirit of pessimism from spreading in the ranks. Another frost of this +sort, and the sprouting keenness of the house would be nipped in the +bud. He conducted himself with much tact. Another captain might have +made the fatal error of trying to stir his team up with pungent abuse. +He realised what a mistake this would be. It did not need a great deal +of discouragement to send the house back to its old slack ways. +Another such defeat, following immediately in the footsteps of the +first, and they would begin to ask themselves what was the good of +mortifying the flesh simply to get a licking from a scratch team by +twenty-four points. Kay's, they would feel, always had got beaten, and +they always would, to the end of time. A house that has once got +thoroughly slack does not change its views of life in a moment. + +Kennedy acted craftily. + +"You played jolly well," he told his despondent team, as they trooped +off the field. "We haven't got together yet, that's all. And it was a +hot side we were playing today. They would have licked Blackburn's." + +A good deal more in the same strain gave the house team the +comfortable feeling that they had done uncommonly well to get beaten +by only twenty-four points. Kennedy fostered the delusion, and in the +meantime arranged with Mr Dencroft to collect fifteen innocents and +lead them forth to be slaughtered by the house on the following +Friday. Mr Dencroft entered into the thing with a relish. When he +showed Kennedy the list of his team on the Friday morning, that +diplomatist chuckled. He foresaw a good time in the near future. "You +must play up like the dickens," he told the house during the +dinner-hour. "Dencroft is bringing a hot lot this afternoon. But I +think we shall lick them." + +They did. When the whistle blew for No-side, the house had just +finished scoring its fourteenth try. Six goals and eight tries to nil +was the exact total. Dencroft's returned to headquarters, asking +itself in a dazed way if these things could be. They saw that cup on +their mantelpiece already. Keenness redoubled. Football became the +fashion in Dencroft's. The play of the team improved weekly. And its +spirit improved too. The next scratch team they played beat them by a +goal and a try to a goal. Dencroft's was not depressed. It put the +result down to a fluke. Then they beat another side by a try to +nothing; and by that time they had got going as an organised team, and +their heart was in the thing. + +They had improved out of all knowledge when the house-matches began. +Blair's was the lucky house that drew against them in the first round. + +"Good business," said the men of Blair. "Wonder who we'll play in the +second round." + +They left the field marvelling. For some unaccountable reason, +Dencroft's had flatly refused to act in the good old way as a doormat +for their opponents. Instead, they had played with a dash and +knowledge of the game which for the first quarter of an hour quite +unnerved Blair's. In that quarter of an hour they scored three times, +and finished the game with two goals and three tries to their name. + +The School looked on it as a huge joke. "Heard the latest?" friends +would say on meeting one another the day after the game. "Kay's--I +mean Dencroft's--have won a match. They simply sat on Blair's. First +time they've ever won a house-match, I should think. Blair's are +awfully sick. We shall have to be looking out." + +Whereat the friend would grin broadly. The idea of Dencroft's making a +game of it with his house tickled him. + +When Dencroft's took fifteen points off Mulholland's, the joke began +to lose its humour. + +"Why, they must be some good," said the public, startled at the +novelty of the idea. "If they win another match, they'll be in the +final!" + +Kay's in the final! Cricket? Oh, yes, they had got into the final at +cricket, of course. But that wasn't the house. It was Fenn. Footer was +different. One man couldn't do everything there. The only possible +explanation was that they had improved to an enormous extent. + +Then people began to remember that they had played in scratch games +against the house. There seemed to be a tremendous number of fellows +who had done this. At one time or another, it seemed, half the School +had opposed Dencroft's in the ranks of a scratch side. It began to +dawn on Eckleton that in an unostentatious way Dencroft's had been +putting in about seven times as much practice as any other three +houses rolled together. No wonder they combined so well. + +When the School House, with three first fifteen men in its team, fell +before them, the reputation of Dencroft's was established. It had +reached the final, and only Blackburn's stood now between it and the +cup. + +All this while Blackburn's had been doing what was expected of them by +beating each of their opponents with great ease. There was nothing +sensational about this as there was in the case of Dencroft's. The +latter were, therefore, favourites when the two teams lined up against +one another in the final. The School felt that a house that had had +such a meteoric flight as Dencroft's must--by all that was +dramatic--carry the thing through to its obvious conclusion, and pull +off the final. + +But Fenn and Kennedy were not so hopeful. A certain amount of science, +a great deal of keenness, and excellent condition, had carried them +through the other rounds in rare style, but, though they would +probably give a good account of themselves, nobody who considered the +two teams impartially could help seeing that Dencroft's was a weaker +side than Blackburn's. Nothing but great good luck could bring them +out victorious today. + +And so it proved. Dencroft's played up for all they were worth from +the kick-off to the final solo on the whistle, but they were +over-matched. Blackburn's scrum was too heavy for them, with its three +first fifteen men and two seconds. Dencroft's pack were shoved off the +ball time after time, and it was only keen tackling that kept the +score down. By half-time Blackburn's were a couple of tries ahead. +Fenn scored soon after the interval with a great run from his own +twenty-five, and for a quarter of an hour it looked as if it might be +anybody's game. Kennedy converted the try, so that Blackburn's only +led by a single point. A fluky kick or a mistake on the part of a +Blackburnite outside might give Dencroft's the cup. + +But the Blackburn outsides did not make mistakes. They played a +strong, sure game, and the forwards fed them well. Ten minutes before +No-side, Jimmy Silver ran in, increasing the lead to six points. And +though Dencroft's never went to pieces, and continued to show fight to +the very end, Blackburn's were not to be denied, and Challis scored a +final try in the corner. Blackburn's won the cup by the comfortable, +but not excessive, margin of a goal and three tries to a goal. + +Dencroft's had lost the cup; but they had lost it well. Their credit +had increased in spite of the defeat. + +"I thought we shouldn't be able to manage Blackburn's," said Kennedy, +"What we must do now is win that sports' cup." + + + + +XXIV + +THE SPORTS + + +There were certain houses at Eckleton which had, as it were, +specialised in certain competitions. Thus, Gay's, who never by any +chance survived the first two rounds of the cricket and football +housers, invariably won the shooting shield. All the other houses sent +their brace of men to the range to see what they could do, but every +year it was the same. A pair of weedy obscurities from Gay's would +take the shield by a comfortable margin. In the same way Mulholland's +had only won the cricket cup once since they had become a house, but +they had carried off the swimming cup three years in succession, and +six years in all out of the last eight. The sports had always been +looked on as the perquisite of the School House; and this year, with +Milligan to win the long distances, and Maybury the high jump and the +weight, there did not seem much doubt at their success. These two +alone would pile up fifteen points. Three points were given for a win, +two for second place, and one for third. It was this that encouraged +Kennedy in the hope that Dencroft's might have a chance. Nobody in the +house could beat Milligan or Maybury, but the School House second and +third strings were not so invincible. If Dencroft's, by means of +second and third places in the long races and the other events which +were certainties for their opponents, could hold the School House, +Fenn's sprinting might just give them the cup. In the meantime they +trained hard, but in an unobtrusive fashion which aroused no fear in +School House circles. + +The sports were fixed for the last Saturday of term, but not all the +races were run on that day. The half-mile came off on the previous +Thursday, and the long steeplechase on the Monday after. + +The School House won the half-mile, as they were expected to do. +Milligan led from the start, increased his lead at the end of the +first lap, doubled it half-way through the second, and finally, with a +dazzling sprint in the last seventy yards, lowered the Eckleton record +by a second and three-fifths, and gave his house three points. +Kennedy, who stuck gamely to his man for half the first lap, was +beaten on the tape by Crake, of Mulholland's. When sports' day came, +therefore, the score was School House three points, Mulholland's two, +Dencroft's one. The success of Mulholland's in the half was to the +advantage of Dencroft's. Mulholland's was not likely to score many +more points, and a place to them meant one or two points less to the +School House. + +The sports opened all in favour of Dencroft's, but those who knew drew +no great consolation from this. School sports always begin with the +sprints, and these were Dencroft's certainties. Fenn won the hundred +yards as easily as Milligan had won the half. Peel was second, and a +Beddell's man got third place. So that Dencroft's had now six points +to their rival's three. Ten minutes later they had increased their +lead by winning the first two places at throwing the cricket ball, +Fenn's throw beating Kennedy's by ten yards, and Kennedy's being a few +feet in front of Jimmy Silver's, which, by gaining third place, +represented the only point Blackburn's managed to amass during the +afternoon. + +It now began to dawn upon the School House that their supremacy was +seriously threatened. Dencroft's, by its success in the football +competition, had to a great extent lived down the reputation the house +had acquired when it had been Kay's, but even now the notion of its +winning a cup seemed somehow vaguely improper. But the fact had to be +faced that it now led by eleven points to the School House's three. + +"It's all right," said the School House, "our spot events haven't come +off yet. Dencroft's can't get much more now." + +And, to prove that they were right, the gap between the two scores +began gradually to be filled up. Dencroft's struggled hard, but the +School House total crept up and up. Maybury brought it to six by +winning the high jump. This was only what had been expected of him. +The discomforting part of the business was that the other two places +were filled by Morrell, of Mulholland's, and Smith, of Daly's. And +when, immediately afterwards, Maybury won the weight, with another +School House man second, leaving Dencroft's with third place only, +things began to look black for the latter. They were now only one +point ahead, and there was the mile to come: and Milligan could give +any Dencroftian a hundred yards at that distance. + +But to balance the mile there was the quarter, and in the mile Kennedy +contrived to beat Crake by much the same number of feet as Crake had +beaten him by in the half. The scores of the two houses were now +level, and a goodly number of the School House certainties were past. + +Dencroft's forged ahead again by virtue of the quarter-mile. Fenn won +it; Peel was second; and a dark horse from Denny's got in third. With +the greater part of the sports over, and a lead of five points to +their name, Dencroft's could feel more comfortable. The hurdle-race +was productive of some discomfort. Fenn should have won it, as being +blessed with twice the pace of any of his opponents. But Maybury, the +jumper, made up for lack of pace by the scientific way in which he +took his hurdles, and won off him by a couple of feet. Smith, +Dencroft's second string, finished third, thus leaving the totals +unaltered by the race. + +By this time the public had become alive to the fact that Dencroft's +were making a great fight for the cup. They had noticed that +Dencroft's colours always seemed to be coming in near the head of the +procession, but the School House had made the cup so much their own, +that it took some time for the school to realise that another +house--especially the late Kay's--was running them hard for first +place. Then, just before the hurdle-race, fellows with "correct cards" +hastily totted up the points each house had won up-to-date. To the +general amazement it was found that, while the School House had +fourteen, Dencroft's had reached nineteen, and, barring the long run +to be decided on the Monday, there was nothing now that the School +House must win without dispute. + +A house that will persist in winning a cup year after year has to pay +for it when challenged by a rival. Dencroft's instantly became warm +favourites. Whenever Dencroft's brown and gold appeared at the +scratch, the school shouted for it wildly till the event was over. By +the end of the day the totals were more nearly even, but Dencroft's +were still ahead. They had lost on the long jump, but not +unexpectedly. The totals at the finish were, School House +twenty-three, Dencroft's twenty-five. Everything now depended on the +long run. + +"We might do it," said Kennedy to Fenn, as they changed. "Milligan's a +cert for three points, of course, but if we can only get two we win +the cup." + +"There's one thing about the long run," said Fenn; "you never quite +know what's going to happen. Milligan might break down over one of the +hedges or the brook. There's no telling." + +Kennedy felt that such a remote possibility was something of a broken +reed to lean on. He had no expectation of beating the School House +long distance runner, but he hoped for second place; and second place +would mean the cup, for there was nobody to beat either himself or +Crake. + +The distance of the long run was as nearly as possible five miles. The +course was across country to the village of Ledby in a sort of +semicircle of three and a half miles, and then back to the school +gates by road. Every Eckletonian who ran at all knew the route by +heart. It was the recognised training run if you wanted to train +particularly hard. If you did not, you took a shorter spin. At the +milestone nearest the school--it was about half a mile from the +gates--a good number of fellows used to wait to see the first of the +runners and pace their men home. But, as a rule, there were few really +hot finishes in the long run. The man who got to Ledby first generally +kept the advantage, and came in a long way ahead of the field. + +On this occasion the close fight Kennedy and Crake had had in the mile +and the half, added to the fact that Kennedy had only to get second +place to give Dencroft's the cup, lent a greater interest to the race +than usual. The crowd at the milestone was double the size of the one +in the previous year, when Milligan had won for the first time. And +when, amidst howls of delight from the School House, the same runner +ran past the stone with his long, effortless stride, before any of the +others were in sight, the crowd settled down breathlessly to watch for +the second man. + +Then a yell, to which the other had been nothing, burst from the +School House as a white figure turned the corner. It was Crake. +Waddling rather than running, and breathing in gasps; but still Crake. +He toiled past the crowd at the milestone. + +"By Jove, he looks bad," said someone. + +And, indeed, he looked very bad. But he was ahead of Kennedy. That was +the great thing. + +He had passed the stone by thirty yards, when the cheering broke out +again. Kennedy this time, in great straits, but in better shape than +Crake. Dencroft's in a body trotted along at the side of the road, +shouting as they went. Crake, hearing the shouts, looked round, almost +fell, and then pulled himself together and staggered on again. There +were only a hundred yards to go now, and the school gates were in +sight at the end of a long lane of spectators. They looked to Kennedy +like two thick, black hedges. He could not sprint, though a hundred +voices were shouting to him to do so. It was as much as he could do to +keep moving. Only his will enabled him to run now. He meant to get to +the gates, if he had to crawl. + +The hundred yards dwindled to fifty, and he had diminished Crake's +lead by a third. Twenty yards from the gates, and he was only +half-a-dozen yards behind. + +Crake looked round again, and this time did what he had nearly done +before. His legs gave way; he rolled over; and there he remained, with +the School House watching him in silent dismay, while Kennedy went on +and pitched in a heap on the other side of the gates. + + * * * * * + +"Feeling bad?" said Jimmy Silver, looking in that evening to make +inquiries. + +"I'm feeling good," said Kennedy. + +"That the cup?" asked Jimmy. + +Kennedy took the huge cup from the table. + +"That's it. Milligan has just brought it round. Well, they can't say +they haven't had their fair share of it. Look here. School House. +School House. School House. School House. Daly's. School House. +Denny's. School House. School House. _Ad infinitum_." + +They regarded the trophy in silence. + +"First pot the house has won," said Kennedy at length. "The very +first." + +"It won't be the last," returned Jimmy Silver, with decision. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Head of Kay's, by P. G. 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