"Well," said Clapperton, ignoring this bit of sarcasm, "if he was well enough off to buy a cake of soap once a term, it wouldn"t be so bad. I believe when he wants a wash he goes down to Mrs Wisdom and borrows a bit of hers."
"By the way, that reminds me," said Dangle; "did you fellows ever hear about Mrs Wisdom"s boat? The lout had it out the other day in the rapids, and let it go over the falls, and it got smashed up."
"What!" exclaimed everybody.
"Do you mean," said Brinkman, "poor Widow Wisdom has lost her boat owing to that cad? Why, she"ll be ruined? However is she to get a new one?"
"That"s the extraordinary thing," said Dangle. "It was she told me about it. She says that Rollitt went straight away to the lake and bought her a boat that was for sale there; and she"s got it now down in the lower reach; and it"s a better one than the other."
"What!" exclaimed Clapperton, incredulously; "Rollitt bought a new boat!
Bosh!"
"It was a second-hand one for sale cheap. But it cost five pounds. She showed me the receipt."
"Stuff and nonsense. She was gammoning you," said Clapperton.
"All right," said Dangle, snappishly; "you"re not obliged to believe it unless you like."
And there the conversation ended.
The day of the great match came at last. The Rendlesham men, who had to come from a distance, were not due till one o"clock, and, as may be imagined, the interval was peculiarly trying to some of the inhabitants of Fellsgarth. The farce of morning school was an ordeal alike to masters and boys. If gazing up at the clouds could bring down the rain, a deluge should have fallen before 10 a.m. As the hour approached the impatience rose to fever heat. It was the first match of the season.
For the last three years the two teams had met in deadly combat, and each time the match had ended in a draw, with not one goal kicked on either side. Victory or defeat to-day would be a crisis in the history of Fellsgarth. Woe betide the man who missed a point or blundered a kick!
Percy and his friends put on flannels in honour of the occasion and sallied out an hour before the time to look at the ground and inspect the new goal and flag posts which Fisher major, as the first act of his treasurership, had ordered for the School.
It disgusted them somewhat to find that Wally and his friends--also in flannels--were on the spot before them, and, having surveyed the new acquisitions, had calmly bagged the four front central seats in the pavilion reserved by courtesy for the head-master and his ladies.
Since the tea at Mr Stratton"s, the juniors had abated somewhat of their immemorial feud, although the relations were still occasionally subject to tension.
"Hullo, you kids," cried Wally, as his brother approached, "how do you do? Pretty well this morning? That"s right--so are we. Have a seat?
Plenty of room in the second row."
Considering that no one had yet put in an appearance, this was strictly correct. Yet it did not please the Modern juniors.
"You"ll get jolly well turned out when Ringwood comes," said Percy.
"Come on, you chaps," added he to his own friends. "What"s the use of sitting on a bench like schoolboys an hour before the time? Let"s have a trot."
"Mind you don"t dirty your white bags," cried D"Arcy.
"No, we might be mistaken for Cla.s.sic kids if we did," shouted Cottle.
"Ha, ha!"
Whereupon, and not before time, the friends parted for a while.
When Percy and Co. returned, they found the pavilion was filling up, and, greatly to their delight, the front row was empty. The enemy had been cleared out; and serve them right.
"Come on, you chaps," said Lickford; "don"t let"s get stuck in there.
Come over to the oak tree, and get up there. It"s the best view in the field."
Alas! when they got to the oak tree, four friendly voices hailed them from among the leaves.
"How are you, Modern kids? There"s a ripping view up here. Have an acorn? Mind your eye. Sorry we"re full up. Plenty of room up the poplar tree."
The Moderns scorned to reply, and walked back sulkily to the pavilion, not without parting greetings from their friends up the oak tree, and squatted themselves on the steps.
The place was filling up now. Mrs Stratton was there with some visitors. All the little Wakefields were there, of course--"minor, minimus, and minimissima," as they were called--uttering war-whoops in honour of their house. And there was a knot of Rendlesham fellows talking among themselves and generally taking stock of the Fellsgarth form. Mr Stratton, in civilian dress, as became the umpire, was the first representative of the School to show up on the gra.s.s. A distant cheer from the top of the oak tree hailed his arrival, and louder cheers still from the steps of the pavilion indicated that the popular master was not the private property of any faction in Fellsgarth.
To Fisher minor it was amazing how Mr Stratton could talk and laugh as pleasantly as he did with the umpire for the other side. He felt sure _he_ could not have done it himself.
Suddenly it occurred to Fisher minor, by what connection of ideas he could not tell, what an awful thing it would be if Rollitt were to forget about the match. The horror of the idea, which had all the weight of a presentiment, sent the colour from his cheeks, and without a word to anybody he slid down the tree and began to run with all his might towards the school.
"What"s the row--collywobbles!" asked D"Arcy.
But no one was in a position to answer. A fusillade of acorns from the tree, and derisive compliments of "Well run!" "Bravo, Short-legs!" from the pavilion steps, greeted the runner as he pa.s.sed that warm corner.
He didn"t care. Even the captain and his own brother, whom he met going down to the field of battle, did not divert him. He rushed panting up the stairs and into Rollitt"s study.
Rollitt was sitting at the table taking observations of a crumb of bread through a microscope.
"Rollitt," gasped the boy, "the match! It"s just beginning, and you promised to play. Do come, or we shall be licked!"
Rollitt took a further look at the crumb and then got up.
"I forgot," said he; "come on, Fisher minor."
"Aren"t you going to put on flannels?" asked the boy.
"Why!" said Rollitt roughly, stalking out.
Fisher minor wondered if the reason was that he had none. But he was too full of his mission to trouble about that, and, keeping his prize well in sight, for fear he should go astray, had the satisfaction of seeing him arrive on the field of battle just as the opposing forces were taking their places, and just as the Cla.s.sic seniors were inwardly calling themselves fools for having depended for a moment on a hopeless fellow of this sort.
The Cla.s.sic juniors felt a good deal compromised by the champion"s shabby cloth trousers and flannel shirt, but they cheered l.u.s.tily all the same, while the Moderns, having expressed their indignation to one another, relieved their feelings by laughing.
But a moment after, everybody forgot everything but the match.
The Rendlesham men looked very trim and dangerous in their black and white uniform; and when presently their captain led off with a magnificent place-kick which flew almost into the School lines, Cla.s.sics and Moderns forgot their differences and squirmed with a common foreboding. Fullerton promptly returned the ball into _medias res_, and the usual inaugural scrimmage ensued. To the knowing ones, who judged from little things, it seemed that the present match was likely to be as even as any of its predecessors. The forwards were about equally weighted, and the quarter and half-backs who hovered outside seemed equally alert and light-footed.
Presently the ball squeezed out on the School side and gave Ranger the first chance of a run. He used it well, and with Fisher major and Yorke on his flanks got well past the Rendlesham forwards amid loud cheers from the oak tree. But the enemy"s quarter-back pinned him in a moment; yet not before he had pa.s.sed the ball neatly to Fisher on his left.
Fisher struggled on a few yards further with the captain and Dangle backing up, but had to relinquish the ball to the former before he could reach the half-backs. Yorke, always wary and cool-headed, had measured the forces against him, and as soon as he had the ball, ran back a step or two, to break the ugly rush of two of the enemy who were nearest, and then with a sweep distanced them, and charging through their half-backs made a dash for the goal. For a moment friend and foe held their breath. He looked like doing it. But in his _detour_ he had given time for Blackstone, the Rendlesham fast runner, to get under way and sweep down to meet him just as he reeled out of the clutches of the half- backs. Next moment Yorke was down, and Dangle was not there to pick up the ball.
This rush served pretty well to exhibit the strong and weak points of either side. It was evident, for instance, that both Ranger and Yorke were men to be marked by the other side, and that Dangle, on the contrary, was playing slack.
A series of scrimmages followed, in the midst of which the ball gravitated back to the centre of the field. Runs were attempted on either side; once or twice the ball went out into touch, and once or twice a drop-kick sent it flying over the forwards" heads. But it came back inevitably, so that after twenty minutes" hard play it lay in almost the identical spot from which it had first been kicked off.
The onlookers began to feel a little depressed. It was not to be a walk-over for the School, at any rate. Indeed, it seemed doubtful whether from the last and toughest of these scrimmages the ball would ever emerge again to the light of day.
Suddenly, however; it become evident that the _status quo_ was about to give way, and that the fortunes of either side were going to take a new turn. No one in the game, still less outside, could at first tell what had happened. Then it occurred to Yorke and one or two others that Rollitt, who had hitherto been playing listlessly and sleepily, was waking up. His head, high above his fellows, was seen violently agitated in the middle of the scrimmage, and presently it struggled forward till it came to where the ball lay. A moment later, the Rendlesham side of the scrimmage showed signs of breaking, and a moment after that Rollitt, quickly picking up the ball, burst through both friend and foe.
"Back up, Dangle! back up, Ranger!" shouted Yorke.