"Well, mule, then," said Acton, cheerfully. "Anything to oblige you, Chalmers, bar your waltzing down the touch-line to perdition. You"re not a Ba.s.sett nor a Bell yet, you know."
Chalmers would dearly have liked to have struck Acton, but Worcester looked so utterly disgusted at the whole business, that I fancy it was d.i.c.k"s eye that suggested to Chalmers his getting into his coat and sweater. He did so, and stalked angrily off the field.
Now, Chalmers really liked the game, and did not fancy being crossed out of the eleven, which Acton would almost certainly proceed to do; so that night after tea, he went to Worcester"s study, and boarded d.i.c.k.
"Apologize to Acton," said d.i.c.k.
"But he called me an a.s.s!"
"You were one," said d.i.c.k, dryly. "Acton"s putting in a lot of work over the slackest house that ever disgraced the old school, and this is how he"s treated. a.s.s is a mild term."
Chalmers went to Raven.
"Apologize," said Raven.
"He called me a mule," urged Chalmers, despairingly.
"So you were. I quite expected to see the kicking begin, really. Acton"s sweating no end to screw us up to concert-pitch, and flat mutiny is his reward. Apologize, and help us win the Fifth to-morrow."
So Chalmers moved reluctantly across to Acton"s and made his apology.
"Don"t mention it," said Acton, cheerfully. "Sorry I upset you, Chalmers, but you elected me captain, and I do want a little success in the houses, and how can we get it if the fellows don"t combine? Say no more about it; I was rather afraid you weren"t going to come, which is the unadorned truth."
This last delicate touch, which showed Chalmers that, without the apology, his captain had meant to cut him adrift, _sans_ hesitation, and yet contained a pretty little compliment to his footer, embarra.s.sed Chalmers more than a little; but Acton offered his forward tea and m.u.f.fins, and five minutes afterwards Chalmers was finding out what a nice fellow Acton really could be. The next day Chalmers smoothed his ruffled feelings by piling on three goals against the Fifth, who sneaked off the Acres five goals to the bad. This was the first time for ages that Biffen"s had tasted blood, and the news of the victory staggered others besides the victims. There was quite a flutter among the house captains, and Acton, by the way, had no more mutinies.
"Without haste, without rest," Biffen"s captain started his second project for the elevation of his house. He had noticed what none of the other fellows would condescend to see, that two of the despised n.i.g.g.e.rs of Biffen"s were rather neat on the bars. He spent a quarter of an hour one evening quietly watching the two in the gym, and he went away thoughtful.
Singh Ram and Mehtah thereupon each received a polite note, and "could they call about seven in Acton"s study?" They came, and Acton talked to them briefly but to the point. When they sought their quarters again they were beaming, and "Singed" Ram carried a fat book of German physical exercises under his arm.
"Am I not coming out strong?" said Acton, laughing to himself, "when I set the very n.i.g.g.e.rs a-struggling for the greater glory of Biffen"s--or is it Acton"s? Then, there"s that exhibition, which we must try to get for this double-superlative house. Raven must beat that Sixth prig Hodgson, the very bright particular star of Corker"s. Would two hours" cla.s.sics, on alternate nights, meet his case? He shall have "em, bless him! He shall know what crops Horace grew on his little farm, and all the other rot which gains Perry Exhibitions. Hodgson may strong coffee and wet towel _per noctem_; but, with John Acton as coach, Raven shall upset the apple-cart of Theodore Hodgson. There"s Todd in for the Perry, too, I hear. Hodgson may be worth powder and shot, but I"m hanged if Raven need fear Cotton"s jackal! If only half of my plans come off, still that will put Philip Bourne in a tighter corner than he"s ever been in before.
Therefore--_en avant!_"
CHAPTER V
COTTON AND HIS JACKAL
As I said before, the victory of the despised Biffenites over the Fifth Form eleven--a moderate one, it is true--caused quite a little breeze of surprise to circulate around the other houses, which had by process of time come to regard that slack house as hopeless in the fields or in the schools. Over all the tea-tables that afternoon the news was commented on with full details; how Chalmers had gained in deadliness just as much as he had lost in selfishness, and how Raven and Worcester had worked like horses, and mown down the opposition--"Fifth Form opposition!" said the f.a.gs, with a lift of the eyebrows--like gra.s.s, and as for Biffen"s new captain, well, if there was one player who could hold a candle to him it must be Phil Bourne, and he only.
In the Rev. E. Taylor"s house, Cotton senior, who answered to the name of "Jim" among his familiars, and was "Bully Cotton" to his enemies--every Amorian below the Fifth, and a good sprinkling elsewhere--and Augustus Vernon Robert Todd, who was "Gus" to every one, sat at tea together in Todd"s room. Cotton had been one of the slain that afternoon on the Acres, and was still in his footer clothes, plus a sweater, which almost came up to his ears. There was a bright fire in the grate, and though Todd"s room was not decorative compared with most of the other fellows" dens, yet it was cheerful enough. Cotton had come back from the match hungry and a trifle bruised from a smart upset, only to find his own fire out, and preparations for tea invisible. Having uttered dire threats against his absent, erring f.a.g, he moved into his friend"s room, and the two clubbed together their resources, and the result was a square meal, towards which Cotton contributed something like 19/20, A.V.R. Todd"s share being limited to the kettle, the water, and the fire. When Cotton had satisfied his footer appet.i.te, he turned down his stocking and proceeded vigorously to anoint with embrocation his damaged leg, the pungent scent of the liniment being almost ornamental in its strength.
"How did you get that, Jim?" said Gus, surveying the brawny limb with interest.
"Acton brought me down like a house, my boy."
"Fair?"
"Oh yes; but you"ve got to go down if he catches you in his swing."
"You fellows must have played beautifully to let Biffen"s mob maul you to that extent."
"Gus, my boy, instead of frowsing up here all the afternoon with your books, you should have been on the touch-line watching those Biffenites at their new tricks. Your opinion then would have a little avoirdupois. As it is, you Perry Exhibit, it is worth exactly nothing."
"You"re deucedly cla.s.sical to-night, Jim."
"Oh, I"m sick of this forsaken match and all the compliments we"ve had over it. I"m going now to have a tub, and then we"ll get that Latin paper through, and, thirdly, I"ll have the chessmen out."
"Sony, I can"t, Jim," said Todd, discontentedly. "There is that beastly Perry Scholarship--I must really do something for that!"
"Thomas Rot, Esq.!" said Cotton. "Haven"t you been a-cramming and a-guzzling for that all this afternoon? You"ve a duty towards your chums, Toddy, so I tell you."
"That"s all very well, Jim, for you, who are going to break some crammer"s heart, and then crawl into the Army through the Militia, but my pater wants me to do something in the Perry, I tell you."
"Chess!" said Cotton, disregarding Todd"s bleat, and then, with a sly smile, he added, "Shilling a game, Gus, and you know you always pull off the odd one."
"All right," said Todd, swallowing the bait with forlorn eagerness; "I"ll have the board set out if you must come in."
"Oh, I must!" said Cotton, with a half-sneer at Todd"s anxiety to pick up a small sum. "Clear the table, and we"ll make a snug evening of it."
Todd"s method of clearing a table was novel, if not original. He carried it bodily into Cotton"s room, and then returned with his friend"s mahogany, which was undoubtedly more ornamental than his own.
Acton was absolutely right when he sneeringly called Gus "Cotton"s jackal." Todd was exactly of the material which makes a good jackal, though he never became quite Jim Cotton"s toady. He was a sharp, selfish individual, good-looking in an aimless kind of way, with a slack, feeble mouth, and a wandering, indecisive glance. He had a quick, shallow cleverness, which could get up pretty easily enough of inexact knowledge to pa.s.s muster in the schools. Old Corker knew his capabilities to a hair, and would now and then, when Gus offered up some hazy, specious guess-work, blister him with a little biting sarcasm. Todd feared the Doctor as he feared no one else. Todd"s chief private moan was that he never had any money. His father was a rich man, but had some ideas which were rather rough on his weak-kneed son. He tipped poor Gus as though he were some thrifty hairdresser"s son, and Todd had to try to ruffle it with young Amorians on as many shillings as they had crowns. Not a lad who ever had naturally any large amount of self-respect, the little he had soon went, and he became, while still a f.a.g, a hewer of wood and drawer of water to his better-tipped cronies. His destiny finished when, on his entry into the Fifth, Jim Cotton claimed him, and subsidized him as his man.
At the beginning of the term his father had told him that if he could make a good show in the Perry Exhibition there need not be any more grumbling about his tip. Gus came back to St. Amory"s hysterically anxious to cut out all compet.i.tors for the Perry, but the shackles of his old serfdom were still about him. When he showed signs of being restive to the old claims, and recommended Cotton to do his own cla.s.sics and mathematics, Cotton coolly and calmly demanded repayment of sundry loans contracted of old. Todd had not the pluck to face a term of plain living and high thinking by paying his former patron all he owed him and exhausting all his present tip by so doing, but flabbily, though discontentedly, caved in, and became Cotton"s jackal as before.
Cotton was by no means as bad as his endearing name might make you think.
He was a tall, heavy fellow, with a large, determined-looking face. He was wonderfully stupid in the schools, but was quite clever enough to know it.
He had some good qualities. He was straight enough in all extra-school affairs, did not lie, nor fear any one; kept his word, and expected you to keep yours.
"You can"t beat Hodgson of the Sixth, Gus, so what is the good of sweating all the term? Hodgson"s got the deuce of a pull over you to start with."
"I"m not frightened of Hodgson if you wouldn"t bother, Jim."
"Can"t do without you, old c.o.c.k. You"re just the fellow to lift my Latin and those filthy mathematics high enough out of the mud to keep the beaks from worrying me to death. I tried Philips for a week, but he did such weird screeds in the "unseens" that Merishall smelt a rat, and was most particular attentive to me, but your leverage is just about my fighting weight."
Gus had sniffed discontentedly at this dubious compliment; but Cotton had smiled stolidly, and continued to use Gus as his cla.s.sical and mathematical hack. Besides, there was something about Gus"s easy-going lackadaisical temperament which exactly suited Cotton, and he felt for his grumbling jackal a friendliness apart from Gus"s usefulness to him.
This afternoon had been a fair sample of Todd"s usual half-holiday.
Feeling no heart for any serious work for the Perry, he had spent it in reading half a worthless novel, and skimming through a magazine, and feeling muddled and discontented in consequence. He had the uneasy feeling that he was an arrant a.s.s in thus fooling time away, but had not sufficient self-denial to seize upon a quiet afternoon for a little genuine work.
Cotton soon returned from his bath, and the two cronies spent about an hour in getting up the least modic.u.m of their cla.s.sics which would satisfy Merishall; and then they played chess, by which Gus was one florin richer.
A third game was in progress, but Todd managed to tip over the board when he was "going to mate in five moves." Cotton thereupon said he had had enough, but Gus avariciously tried to reconstruct the positions. He failed dismally, and Cotton laughed sweetly. Now Cotton"s laugh would almost make his chum"s hair curl, so he retorted pretty sweetly himself, "I say, Jim.
I can"t get out of my head that awful hammering you fellows got this afternoon. Think Biffen"s lot likely to shape well in the House matches?"
"There"s no telling, old man. But if they get moderate luck they"ll be waltzing about in the final."