"I wish I"d never come up here at all," moaned Fisher minor.
"Humph. That would have been a bad go for Fellsgarth," said D"Arcy.
"Shut up--Forder"s looking. If we"re lagged we shan"t get in to the meeting."
The dreaded misadventure did not occur; and punctually at the hour our four young gentlemen trooped into Hall. Everything was very quiet there. The place was only half full. The Cla.s.sics had turned up in force, but the mutineering house was so far unrepresented. Presently, however, five juvenile figures might be seen marching arm in arm across the Green, keeping a sharp look-out on every side.
Before they arrived in Hall, a solitary figure wearing the Modern colours had made his way up to the seniors" end. It was Corder, looking very limp and haggard, and with a savage flash of the eyes which told how ill "Coventry" was agreeing with his spirits. The cheers, with which he was greeted, due quite as much to his pluck in coming to-day as to his exploit at the match last Sat.u.r.day, appeared to disconcert rather than please him, and he took a corner seat as far as possible from the Cla.s.sic seniors present. When, however, Percy and Co. entered the Hall, a much livelier demonstration ensued. Cheers and compliments and pats on the back showered fast on the youthful "blacklegs," and tended greatly to exaggerate in their own eyes the importance of their action.
"We shall get jolly well welted for it, you fellows," said Percy, with all the swagger of a popular martyr. "Never mind; we aren"t going to be done out of Hall for anybody."
"At any rate, they won"t hurt _you_ for it," cried Wally, disparaging.
"Kids like you won"t hurt."
"We"ve come to see you cads don"t get it all your own way," said Cash.
"That"s what we"ve come for!"
"Ho, ho! Hope you"ve brought your lunch. You"ll be kept here a day or two, if you"re going to wait for that!"
When Yorke and the other prefects arrived on the scene there were, of course, loud cheers; but as the opposition was not there to make any counter-demonstration, it was not quite as noisy as on former occasions.
Percy did, indeed, attempt to get up a little opposition at this stage by calling for "three cheers for the Moderns"; but as he was left to give them by himself--even his own adherents declining to be drawn into cheers for Clapperton--the display fell rather flat.
The captain"s speech was short and to the point. Of course they knew why the meeting was called. There had been mutiny at Fellsgarth.
Fellows had deliberately set themselves against his authority as captain, which was a minor thing, and against the success of Fellsgarth in sports, which was a low and shabby thing. (Cheers.) He wasn"t going to mention names; but he meant to say this, that they had much better dissolve the club right away--(No, no)--than not all pull together.
Last Sat.u.r.day, as every one knew, they had been left utterly in the lurch; and but for good luck, and the good play of some of the fifteen-- amongst whom, he was glad to say, was one fellow who had had the pluck to act on his own judgment of what was due to the School--(loud and prolonged cheers, in the midst of which Corder perked up, and looked pleased)--they had held their own with a very scratch team. They couldn"t expect to do as much again--(Why not?)--and it _was not_ fair to the School to play matches without all their best men in the team.
The proposal he had to make was that unless the fellows now standing out chose to return to their allegiance to the School within a week, all future matches for the term should be scratched, and the club dissolved.
The captain"s proposal caused considerable consternation. Ridgway rose, and said he considered the motion dealt far too leniently with the mutineers. He would say, drum them out of the club, and reorganise without them.
Denton asked if it would not be more honest and straightforward to summon them to the next match, and if they didn"t turn up give them the thrashing they deserved?
Fisher major said he supported the captain"s proposal. It was nonsense their playing with scratch teams, and letting it be supposed that was the best the School could do. Some of the fellows on strike were no doubt good players, and that made it all the more discreditable of them to try to damage the School record by crippling the team. They no doubt hoped that they would be begged to rejoin on their--own terms. Rather than that, he was in favour of disbanding the club, and letting the fellows devote their energy to running and jumping, and other sports, where each fellow could distinguish himself independently of what any others chose to do. (Hear, hear.)
Ranger also supported Yorke"s motion. Very likely the mutineers would crow, and say the club couldn"t get on without them. No more they could, in a sense. But he, for one, was not going to ask them to come back, and would sooner break up the club, and let them have the satisfaction of knowing they had injured Fellsgarth.
Amid loud cheers Corder followed. He was sorry, he said, there was to be no more football, but supposed there was nothing else they could do.
He was glad to see some Moderns present, even though they were only juniors. (Laughter.) It showed that there were some fellows on the Modern side that stuck by the School. He fancied these youngsters could take care of themselves. He was glad to hear a human voice again.
(Laughter.) It might be fun to some present, but he could a.s.sure them it was none to him. No one had spoken to him for four days. He was cut by his house, and had to thank even some of the juniors present for a.s.sisting to make his life in Forder"s miserable. He didn"t care much, so far. They might make him cave in, in the long run. (No! Stick out!) Let the fellow who cried "Stick out," come and try it. His only offence had been that he had played for the School. To do anything for the School was now considered a crime on the Modern side. (Shame.) Anyhow, he should vote for the captain"s motion; and though he wasn"t particularly sweet on the Cla.s.sics as a body, he was beginning to think they weren"t quite as bad as his own side.
Percy hereupon rose, amid derisive cheers. He didn"t know why the names of him and his lot had been brought in; but he just wanted to say that they were here to-day because they had a right to come, and weren"t going to be kept out by anybody--not if they knew it. (Rather not!) He and his lot thought there wasn"t much to choose between anybody, especially the juniors of the Cla.s.sic side, who thought they were jolly clever, but were about the biggest stuck-uppest louts he-- (Order. Kick him out.) He hoped the meeting would rally round the School shop, where every one was treated alike, and got the best grub for the money of any school going. They were going to get some Ribston-- (Order. Time.) All right. They shouldn"t hear what he was going to say now. (Loud cheers.)
Yorke said they all seemed to be pretty much of the same mind; and he would put his motion to the vote.
This accordingly was done, and carried without a dissentient voice.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
A BELEAGUERED GARRISON.
The decision arrived at by the club meeting speedily came to the ears of the recalcitrant Moderns, and by no means pleased them. They had expected at least that some one would propose that they should be met half-way, and appealed to, for the sake of the School, to abandon their att.i.tude. That would have given them an opportunity of figuring in an heroic light before Fellsgarth, and showing how, for the general good, they could afford even to overlook the slight which had been put upon them.
But now, so far from that, they figured as the party who had wrecked the School clubs for the sake of a petty pique, and in their absence had been quietly deposed along with every one else from office and privilege, and left looking uncommonly foolish and uncommonly ridiculous.
Yorke himself hardly realised, when he made his downright motion, that he was dealing the hardest blow possible at the mutiny. A mutiny is all very well as long as there is some one to mutiny against. But now, even this luxury was denied them.
Naturally the wrath of Clapperton and his friends fell on the traitors in their own camp whose presence at the meeting had made it impossible to discredit it as entirely one-sided in its composition.
That Corder would go, every one was prepared for. He had laid up for himself yet one more rod in pickle, and should punctually taste its quality.
But the mutiny of the juniors was a surprise. No one imagined that their threats at revolt were anything more than the ordinary bl.u.s.ter in which these young braves notoriously dealt. Had they sinned in ignorance it would have mattered less. But they had gone to the meeting in deliberate defiance of their captain"s order, and in the face of his warning as to what the consequences of disobedience would be.
The discipline of the house was at an end if a flagrant act of insubordination like this was to be allowed to pa.s.s unnoticed. Besides, if allowed to spread, other fellows would go over to the enemy, and the "moral" effect of the strike would be at an end.
A peremptory summons was therefore dispatched to Percy and his friends to appear before the prefects of their house that same evening.
"That all?" inquired Percy of the middle-boy who brought the message.
"We hear you. You needn"t stop."
"I"ll tell him you"ll come?" said the messenger.
"I don"t mind what you tell him. Cut out of our room, that"s all. We aren"t particular, me and my chaps; but we draw the line at louts."
"He says if you don"t come--"
"What"s to prevent him saying anything he likes? Look here, young Gamble," (Gamble was at least two years the senior of any boy present), "if you don"t cut your sticks, they"ll be cut for you. So there."
Gamble gave a general invitation to the party to come and try to tamper with his sticks, and departed with a final caution as to the desirability of obeying their captain.
"Lick," said Percy, when he had gone, "how much grub have we got in the room?"
"What are you talking about? You aren"t hungry surely, after that go-in at the shop?"
"Have we got enough for two days?"
The party opened their eyes, and began to suspect the drift of the inquiry.
"No; but Maynard owes us a loaf, and Spanker some b.u.t.ter, and those kids in Reynolds" study half a tongue."
"All right; go out and get it all in, sharp. Sc.r.a.pe up all you can."
"What, are we going to have a blockade?"
"Rather. You don"t suppose we"re going to cave in to Clapperton, do you?"
"But we shan"t want enough for two days, shall we?"