"Well, seems to me that we should be interferin" with ourselves. We"ve got to get into the Army or--get out, haven"t we? King"s hired by the Council to teach us. All the rest"s gumdiddle. Can"t you see?"
It might have been because he felt the air was a little thunderous that the Head took his after-dinner cheroot to Flint"s study; but he so often began an evening in a prefect"s room that n.o.body suspected when he drifted in pensively, after the knocks that etiquette demanded.
"Prefects" meeting?" A c.o.c.k of one wise eye-brow.
"Not exactly, sir; we"re just talking things over. Won"t you take the easy chair?"
"Thanks. Luxurious infants, you are." He dropped into Flint"s big half-couch and puffed for a while in silence. "Well, since you"re all here, I may confess that I"m the mute with the bowstring."
The young faces grew serious. The phrase meant that certain of their number would be withdrawn from all further games for extra-tuition. It might also mean future success at Sandhurst; but it was present ruin for the First Fifteen.
"Yes, I"ve come for my pound of flesh. I ought to have had you out before the Exeter match; but it"s our sacred duty to beat Exeter."
"Isn"t the Old Boys" match sacred, too, sir?" said Perowne. The Old Boys" match was the event of the Easter term.
"We"ll hope they aren"t in training. Now for the list. First I want Flint. It"s the Euclid that does it. You must work deductions with me.
Perowne, extra mechanical drawing. Dawson goes to Mr. King for extra Latin, and Venner to me for German. Have I damaged the First Fifteen much?" He smiled sweetly.
"Ruined it, I"m afraid, sir," said Flint. "Can"t you let us off till the end of the term?"
"Impossible. It will be a tight squeeze for Sandhurst this year."
"And all to be cut up by those vile Afghans, too," said Dawson.
"Wouldn"t think there"d be so much compet.i.tion, would you?"
"Oh, that reminds me. Crandall is coming down with the Old Boys--I"ve asked twenty of them, but we shan"t get more than a weak team. I don"t know whether he"ll be much use, though. He was rather knocked about, recovering poor old Duncan"s body."
"Crandall major--the Gunner?" Perowne asked.
"No, the minor--"Toffee" Crandall--in a native infantry regiment. He was almost before your time, Perowne."
"The papers didn"t say anything about him. We read about Fat-Sow, of course. What"s Crandall done, sir?"
"I"ve brought over an Indian paper that his mother sent me. It was rather a--hefty, I think you say--piece of work. Shall I read it?" The Head knew how to read. When he had finished the quarter-column of close type everybody thanked him politely.
"Good for the old Coll.!" said Perowne. "Pity he wasn"t in time to save Fat-Sow, though. That"s nine to us, isn"t it, in the last three years?"
"Yes... And I took old Duncan off all games for extra-tu five years ago this term," said the Head. "By the way, who do you hand over the Games to, Flint?"
"Haven"t thought yet. Who"d you recommend, sir?"
"No, thank you. I"ve heard it casually hinted behind my back that the Prooshan Bates is a downy bird, but he isn"t going to make himself responsible for a new Head of the Games. Settle it among yourselves.
Good-night."
"And that"s the man," said Flint, when the door shut, "that you want to bother with a dame"s school row."
"I was only pullin" your fat leg," Perowne returned, hastily. "You"re so easy to draw, Flint."
"Well, never mind that. The Head"s knocked the First Fifteen to bits, and we"ve got to pick up the pieces, or the Old Boys will have a walk-over. Let"s promote all the Second Fifteen and make Big Side play up. There"s heaps of talent somewhere that we can polish up between now and the match."
The case was represented so urgently to the school that even Stalky and McTurk, who affected to despise football, played one Big-Side game seriously. They were forthwith promoted ere their ardor had time to cool, and the dignity of their Caps demanded that they should keep some show of virtue. The match-team was worked at least four days out of seven, and the school saw hope ahead.
With the last week of the term the Old Boys began to arrive, and their welcome was nicely proportioned to their worth. Gentlemen cadets from Sandhurst and Woolwich, who had only left a year ago, but who carried enormous side, were greeted with a cheerful "Hullo! What"s the Shop like?" from those who had shared their studies. Militia subalterns had more consideration, but it was understood they were not precisely of the true metal. Recreants who, failing for the Army, had gone into business or banks were received for old sake"s sake, but in no way made too much of. But when the real subalterns, officers and gentlemen full-blown--who had been to the ends of the earth and back again and so carried no side--came on the scene strolling about with the Head, the school divided right and left in admiring silence. And when one laid hands on Flint, even upon the Head of the Games crying, "Good Heavens! What do you mean by growing in this way? You were a beastly little f.a.g when I left," visible haloes encircled Flint. They would walk to and fro in the corridor with the little red school-sergeant, telling news of old regiments; they would burst into form-rooms sniffing the well-remembered smells of ink and whitewash; they would find nephews and cousins in the lower forms and present them with enormous wealth; or they would invade the gymnasium and make Foxy show off the new stock on the bars.
Chiefly, though, they talked with the Head, who was father-confessor and agent-general to them all; for what they shouted in their unthinking youth, they proved in their thoughtless manhood--to wit, that the Prooshan Bates was "a downy bird." Young blood who had stumbled into an entanglement with a pastry-cook"s daughter at Plymouth; experience who had come into a small legacy but mistrusted lawyers; ambition halting at cross-roads, anxious to take the one that would lead him farthest; extravagance pursued by the money-lender; arrogance in the thick of a regimental row--each carried his trouble to the Head; and Chiron showed him, in language quite unfit for little boys, a quiet and safe way round, out, or under. So they overflowed his house, smoked his cigars, and drank his health as they had drunk it all the earth over when two or three of the old school had foregathered.
"Don"t stop smoking for a minute," said the Head. "The more you"re out of training the better for us. I"ve demoralized the First Fifteen with extra-tu."
"Ah, but we"re a scratch lot. Have you told "em we shall need a subst.i.tute even if Crandall can play?" said a Lieutenant of Engineers with a D.S.O. to his credit.
"He wrote me he"d play, so he can"t have been much hurt. He"s coming down to-morrow morning."
"Crandall minor that was, and brought off poor Duncan"s body?" The Head nodded. "Where are you going to put him? We"ve turned you out of house and home already, Head Sahib." This was a Squadron Commander of Bengal Lancers, home on leave.
"I"m afraid he"ll have to go up to his old dormitory. You know old boys can claim that privilege. Yes, I think little Crandall minor must bed down there once more."
"Bates Sahib "--a Gunner flung a heavy arm round the Head"s neck--"you"ve got something up your sleeve. Confess! I know that twinkle."
"Can"t you see, you cuckoo?" a Submarine Miner interrupted. "Crandall goes up to the dormitory as an object-lesson, for moral effect and so forth. Isn"t that true, Head Sahib?"
"It is. You know too much, Purvis. I licked you for that in "79."
"You did, sir, and it"s my private belief you chalked the cane."
"N-no. But I"ve a very straight eye. Perhaps that misled you."
That opened the flood-gates of fresh memories, and they all told tales out of school.
When Crandall minor that was--Lieutenant R. Crandall of an ordinary Indian regiment--arrived from Exeter on the morning of the match, he was cheered along the whole front of the College, for the prefects had repeated the sense of that which the Head had read them in Flint"s study. When Prout"s house understood that he would claim his Old Boy"s right to a bed for one night, Beetle ran into King"s house next door and executed a public "gloat" up and down the enemy"s big form-room, departing in a haze of ink-pots.
"What d"you take any notice of those rotters for?" said Stalky, playing subst.i.tute for the Old Boys, magnificent in black jersey, white knickers, and black stockings. "I talked to _him_ up in the dormitory when he was changin". Pulled his sweater down for him. He"s cut about all over the arms--horrid purply ones. He"s goin" to tell us about it to-night. I asked him to when I was lacin" his boots."
"Well, you _have_ got cheek," said Beetle, enviously.
"Slipped out before I thought. But he wasn"t a bit angry. He"s no end of a chap. I swear, I"m goin" to play up like beans. Tell Turkey!"
The technique of that match belongs to a bygone age. Scrimmages were tight and enduring; hacking was direct and to the purpose; and around the scrimmage stood the school, crying, "Put down your heads and shove!"
Toward the end everybody lost all sense of decency, and mothers of day-boys too close to the touch-line heard language not included in the bills. No one was actually carried off the field, but both sides felt happier when time was called, and Beetle helped Stalky and McTurk into their overcoats. The two had met in the many-legged heart of things, and, as Stalky said, had "done each other proud." As they swaggered woodenly behind the teams--subst.i.tutes do not rank as equals of hairy men--they pa.s.sed a pony-carriage near the wall, and a husky voice cried, "Well played. Oh, played indeed!" It was Stettson major, white-checked and hollow-eyed, who had fought his way to the ground under escort of an impatient coachman.
"Hullo, Stettson," said Stalky, checking. "Is it safe to come near you yet?"
"Oh, yes. I"m all right. They wouldn"t let me out before, but I had to come to the match. Your mouth looks pretty plummy."
"Turkey trod on it accidental-done-a-purpose. Well, I"m glad you"re better, because we owe you something. You and your membranes got us into a sweet mess, young man."
"I heard of that," said the boy, giggling. "The Head told me."
"Dooce he did! When?"