"Yes," said Heathcote, flinging himself into his hardly-regained garments.
The "Templeton Tub," as the bathing place was colloquially termed, was a small natural harbour among the rocks at the foot of the cliff on which the school stood. It was a picturesque spot at all times; but this bright spring morning, with the distant headlands lighting up in the rising sunlight, and the blue sea heaving lazily among the rocks as though not yet awake, Heathcote thought it one of the prettiest places he had ever seen.
The "Tub" suited all sorts of bathers. The little timid waders could dip their toes and splash their hair in the shallow basin in-sh.o.r.e. The more advanced could wade out shoulder-deep, and puff and flounder with one foot on the ground and the other up above their heads, and delude the world into the notion they were swimming. For others there was the spring-board, from which to take a header into deep water; and, further out still, the rocks rose in ledges, where practised divers could take the water from any height they liked, from four feet to thirty. Except with leave, no boy was permitted to swim beyond the harbour mouth into the open. But leave was constantly being applied for, and as constantly granted; and perhaps every boy, at some time or other, cast wistful glances at the black buoy bobbing a mile out at sea, and wondered when he, like Pontifex and Mansfield, and other of the Sixth, should be able to wear the image of it on his belt, and call himself a Templeton "shark?"
Heathcote, on his first appearance at the "Tub," acquitted himself creditably. He took a mild header from the spring-board without more than ordinary splashing, and swam across the pool and back in fair style. Gosse, who only went in from the low ledge, and swam half-way across and back, was good enough to give him some very good advice, and promise to make a good swimmer of him in time. Whereat Heathcote looked grateful, and wished d.i.c.k had been there to astonish some of them.
One or two of the Fifth, including Swinstead and Birket, arrived as the youngsters were dressing.
"Hallo!" said Swinstead to Heathcote, "you here? Where"s your chum?"
"Asleep," said Heathcote, quite pleased to think he should be able to tell d.i.c.k he had been having a talk with Swinstead that morning.
"Have you been in?"
"Yes."
"Can you swim?"
"Yes, a little," said Gosse, answering for him. "We"re about equal."
Heathcote couldn"t stand the barefaced libel meekly.
"Why, you can"t swim once across!" he said, scornfully, "and you can"t go in off the board!"
The Fifth-form boys laughed.
"Ha, ha!" said Swinstead, "he"s letting you have it, Gossy."
"He"s telling beastly crams," said Gosse, "and I"ll kick him when we get back."
"I"ll swim you across the pool and back, first!" said Heathcote.
The seniors were delighted. The new boy"s spirit pleased them, and the prospect of taking down the junior pleased them still more.
"That"s fair," said Birket. "Come on, strip."
Heathcote was ready in a trice. Gosse looked uncomfortable.
"I"m not going in again," he said; "I"ve got a cold."
"Yes, you are," replied Birket; "I"ll help you."
This threat was quite enough for the discomfited junior, who slowly divested himself of his garments.
"Now then! plenty of room for both of you on the board."
"No," said Gosse; "I"ve not got any cotton wool for my ears. I don"t care about going in off the board unless I have."
"That"s soon remedied," said Swinstead, producing some wool from his pocket and proceeding to stuff it into each of the boy"s ears.
Poor Gosse was fairly cornered, and took his place on the board beside Heathcote, the picture of discontent and apprehension.
"Now then, once across and back. Are you ready?" said Birket, seating himself beside his friend on a ledge.
"No," said Gosse, looking down at the water and getting off the board.
"Do you funk it?"
"No."
"Then go in! Hurry up, or we"ll come and help you!"
"I"d--I"d rather go in from the _edge_," said the boy.
"You funk the board then?"
The boy looked at the board, then at his tyrants, then at the water.
"I suppose I do," said he, sulkily.
"Then put on your clothes and cut it," said Swinstead, scornfully.
Then, turning to Heathcote, he shouted. "Now then, young "un, in you go."
Heathcote plunged. He was nervous, and splashed more, perhaps, than usual, but it was a tolerable header, on the whole, for a new boy, and the spectators were not displeased with the performance or the swim across the pool and back which followed.
"All right," said Swinstead; "stick to it, young un, and turn up regularly. Can your chum swim?"
"Rather!" said Heathcote, taking his head out of the towel. "I wish I could swim as well as he can."
"Humph!" said Swinstead, when presently the two Seniors were left to themselves. "Number Two"s modest; Number One"s c.o.c.ky."
"Therefore," said Birket, "Number Two will remain Number Two, and number One will remain Number One."
"Right you are, most learned Plato! but I"m curious to see how Number One gets out of his friendly call on Cresswell. Think he"ll cheek it?"
"Yes; and we shan"t hear many particulars from him."
Birket was right, as he very often was.
d.i.c.k, on waking, was a good deal perplexed, to find his friend absent, and when he heard the reason he was more than perplexed--he was vexed.
It wasn"t right of Heathcote, or loyal, to take advantage of him in this way, and he should complain of it.
Meanwhile he had plenty to occupy his mind in endeavouring to recover his "baby"s" wardrobe, a quest which, as time went on and the chapel bell began to sound, came to be exciting.
However, just as he was about to go to the matron and represent to her the delicate position of affairs, a bundle was thrown in through the ventilator over the door, and fell into the middle of the dormitory floor. Where it came from there was no time to inquire.
Aspinall was hustled into his garments as quickly as possible, and then hustled down the stairs and into chapel just as the bell ceased ringing and the door began to close.