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‘Tell us what happened.’

‘I’ll tell thee everything I can,’ said Charteris. ‘There’s little to relate. I saw an aged, aged man a-sitting on a gate. Where do you want me to begin?’

‘At the beginning. Don’t rot.’

‘I was born,’ began Charteris, ‘of poor but honest parents, who sent me to school at an early age in order that I might acquire a grasp of the Greek and Latin languages, now obsolete. I–‘

‘How did you lose?’ enquired the Babe.

‘The other man beat me. If he hadn’t, I should have won hands down. Oh, I say, guess who I met at Rutton.’

‘Not a beak?’

‘No. Almost as bad, though. The Bargee man who paced me from Stapleton. Man who crocked Tony.’

‘Great Scott!’ cried the Babe. ‘Did he recognize you?’

‘Rather. We had a very pleasant conversation.’

‘If he reports you,’ began the Babe.

‘Who’s that?’

Charteris looked up. Tony Graham had entered the study.

‘Hullo, Tony! Adamson told me to remember him to you.’

‘So you’ve got back?’

Charteris confirmed the hasty guess.

‘But what are you talking about, Babe?’ said Tony. ‘Who’s going to be reported, and who’s going to report?’

The Babe briefly explained the situation.

‘If the man,’ he said, ‘reports Charteris, he may get run in tomorrow, and then we shall have both our halves away against Dacre’s. Charteris, you are a fool to go rotting about out of bounds like this.’

‘Nay, dry the starting tear,’ said Charteris cheerfully. ‘In the first place, I shouldn’t get kept in on a Thursday anyhow. I should be shoved into extra on Saturday. Also, I shrewdly conveyed to the Bargee the impression that I was at Rutton by special permission.’

‘He’s bound to know that that can’t be true,’ said Tony.

‘Well, I told him to think it over. You see, he got so badly left last time he tried to compass my downfall, that I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if he let the job alone this journey.’

‘Let’s hope so,’ said the Babe gloomily.

‘That’s right, Babby,’ remarked Charteris encouragingly, nodding at the pessimist.

‘You buck up and keep looking on the bright side. It’ll be all right. You see if it won’t. If there’s any running in to be done, I shall do it. I shall be frightfully fit tomorrow after all this dashing about today. I haven’t an ounce of superfluous flesh on me. I’m a fine, strapping specimen of sturdy young English manhood. And I’m going to play a very selfish game tomorrow, Babe.’

‘Oh, my dear chap, you mustn’t.’ The Babe’s face wore an expression of horror. The success of the House-team in the final was very near to his heart. He could not understand anyone jesting on the subject. Charteris respected his anguish, and relieved it speedily.

‘I was only ragging,’ he said. ‘Considering that our three-quarter line is our one strong point, I’m not likely to keep the ball from it, if I get a chance of getting it out. Make your mind easy, Babe.’

The final House-match was always a warmish game. The rivalry between the various Houses was great, and the football cup especially was fought for with immense keenness. Also, the match was the last fixture of the season, and there was a certain feeling in the teams that if they did happen to disable a man or two, it would not matter much. The injured sportsman would not be needed for School-match purposes for another six months. As a result of which philosophical reflection, the tackling was ruled slightly energetic, and the handing-off was done with vigour.

This year, to add a sort of finishing touch, there was just a little ill-feeling between Dacre’s and Merevale’s. The cause of it was the Babe. Until the beginning of the term he had been a day boy. Then the news began to circulate that he was going to become a boarder, either at Dacre’s or at Merevale’s. He chose the latter, and Dacre’s felt slightly aggrieved. Some of the less sportsmanlike members of the House had proposed that a protest should be made against his being allowed to play, but, fortunately for the credit of Dacre’s, Prescott, the captain of the House Fifteen, had put his foot down with an emphatic bang at the suggestion. As he sagely pointed out, there were some things which were bad form, and this was one of them. If the team wanted to express their disapproval, said he, let them do it on the field by tackling their very hardest. He personally was going to do his best, and he advised them to do the same.