There was only one thing that at all worried Gordon just now, and that
was the behaviour of the Hazlitt brethren. Mention has already been made
of this couple. During their first few terms they gave every promise of
developing into the very worst types that banality and athletic success
can produce, and these expectations had been abundantly fulfilled. The
elder brother had his points, but they were few, the chief one being
that he was fairly good at games, which, after all, is but a negative
quality. But the younger, who was as useless as he was generally
officious, was entirely devoid of any redeeming feature. His ways were
the ways of a slum child playing in the gutter, and his sense of humour
was limited to shouting rude remarks after other people, knocking off
hats, and then running away. His language was foul enough to disgust
even a Public School's taste. Gordon loathed him. One evening he and
Lovelace discussed the child.
"Look here," said Gordon, "it's no good, this. That unutterable little
tick Hazlitt knocked off my hat as I was looking at the notice-board
to-day, and I am not going to stand it. By the time I had turned round
he was half-way across the courts."
"The little swine! He is not fit to be in a decent school. If he can't
get rid of the habits he learnt with street cads in the holidays of his
own accord, he'll have to be kicked out of them. We will wait for him
one day, and if we see him knock a School House straw off, my God, we
will boot him to blazes!"
"Right you are. It won't be bullying. It will be treating a dirty beast
in the only way he can understand."
About three days later, from their study window, they saw Hazlitt minor
proceeding to the notice-board after lunch. They left their study and
walked into the cloisters.
Hazlitt minor read the notices, discovered that, as he was posted on no
game, he must of necessity take himself to the "pick-up," and then
looked round. Davenham was conscientiously perusing a notice, although
there was no likelihood of his own name appearing on any. (It is almost
true to say that nobody looked at the board except the people about whom
there are no notices to read.) There was an announcement four days old
to the effect that C.J. Mansell had been presented with his First
Fifteen colours. Davenham seemed to find it vastly interesting. Hazlitt
stole up behind, and knocked his hat flying across the cloister. In a
second Gordon and Lovelace were on him. They did not care in the very
least what happened to Davenham. He played no part in their life. But a
School House man had been "cheeked" by a filthy little outhouse swab.
These aliens had to be taught their place.
"What do you mean by that, you awful tick?" shouted Lovelace. "Davenham,
go and fetch a hockey stick from Tester's study."
Hazlitt let out with his feet and caught Gordon on the ankle, but the
horrible hack he got in return quieted him.
Davenham appeared with a hockey stick.
Gordon managed to get Hazlitt's head between his knees, and Lovelace
began to give that worthy a beating he was never likely to forget. In a
few minutes he was blubbering for mercy. Fletcher passed by.
"Here you are, Archie," yelled Gordon; "come and have a shot at this
swine Hazlitt; we are teaching him that he can't go about knocking off
School House hats with impunity."
"Right you are, my lads."
By the time Archie had finished, Hazlitt had almost collapsed. Gordon
let him go, and with a hefty boot sent him flying into the cloisters.
"I don't think we shall have any more of him for a bit," said Lovelace,
with satisfaction.
"No; these outhouse lads want showing their place from time to time. The
School House, after all, is _the_ place. We are like Rome, the mother
city; the other outhouses are merely provinces of ours. Jolly good of us
to let them use our buildings at all. Come and change; we have done a
good deed, my friends."
But the matter did not end there. That evening in Buller's dormitories
Hazlitt told a story of how Caruthers had been bullying him for no
reason, and hacking him till he could hardly sit down. He left out
Lovelace's name, because Lovelace was popular with the Buller's crowd.
News of this reached Felston, the second prefect. He fumed with rage,
and sought Gregory, the Buller's house captain.
"Have you heard the latest? That swine Caruthers has been bullying
Hazlitt. He drove him all round the cloisters, hitting him with a hockey
stick."
"Good God, the swine! Did he really! My word, I'll lay him out in the
Three Cock. You wait, that's all. When he plays in the Three Cock, I'll
lay him out for dead in the first ten minutes."
In due course this story found its way to the Buller's day-room, where
was great rejoicing. So Caruthers was going to be laid out, was he? How
damned funny! Hazlitt's heart leapt within him. His evil little mind
pictured Gordon being carried off the field, absolutely smashed up. He
gloated.
Gordon laughed when he heard of it.
"Oh, well, at any rate I shall have my shot at them first in the Thirds
and Two Cock."
He was secretly rather pleased to see that even his enemies had not the
slightest doubt about his getting a place in the Three Cock. A House cap
was just then his great ambition. But for all that he suffered
considerable annoyance. Whenever he went up to the tuck-shop a voice
from the Buller's doorway croaked: "Wait for the Three Cock!"
At first it was rather amusing. But soon it got distinctly tiresome.
Deep in his heart he cursed the tick Hazlitt and the whole Buller crowd.
A joke could be carried to an extreme. And it slowly dawned on him that,
if he did play in the Three Cock, he was in for a remarkably thin time.
Almost the last words he heard as the eight-forty swept out of Fernhurst
station on the last morning, with its waving hands and shoutings, was a
shriek from the Buller's day-room: "Wait for the Three Cock!" Gordon
laughed for a second, and then looked bored. The jest had ceased to have
a shred of humour left upon it. It was naked and ought to be ashamed.
The Easter term opened in the conventional way with rain, slush and
influenza. The fields were flooded, the country a lake; the bare
branches dripped incessantly. But for all that the first round of the
Thirds began on the first Saturday.
Buller's drew Rogers's. There was no doubt as to the result. It would be
a walk-over for Buller's, though Burgoyne might get over the line once
or twice.
There was a crowd in front of the pavilion.
"Well, do something, at any rate," said Gordon. "Don't let Buller's get
above themselves. You keep them in order."
"Oh yes, we'll sit on them!" laughed Burgoyne. "By the way, I think it
would be rather a good scheme to lay out Hazlitt minor, don't you?"
Never did any forward in any house match at Fernhurst take the field
without the sworn intention of laying out some hated opponent.
Nevertheless during the whole time Gordon was at school only one boy was
hurt so badly that he had to leave the field. And that was an accident.
He broke his collar-bone, falling over by the goal-posts. It had become
almost a custom to state whom you were going to lay out before the
match. The idea sounds brutal, but it never led to anything. Gordon knew
this as well as anyone.
"Good man! And look here, if you do, I'll give you a bob."
"A bargain?"
"Of course."
"Right, my lad. We will have a good supper to-night in my study."
The match followed the ordinary course. Frenzied juniors rushed up and
down the touch-line inarticulate with excitement; the bloods, strolling
arm in arm, patronised the game mildly. Buller's won very easily.
Hazlitt played quite decently and scored once. Burgoyne went
supperless.
The second and third rounds were played; everywhere Buller's triumphed.
No house was beaten by less than forty points. Not a try was scored
against them. Christy's, who had lost by forty-four points to nil, had,
as the least unsuccessful house, the doubtful honour of joining forces
with Buller's to play the School House in the final.
The betting was fairly even. Buller's thought they would win; the House,
as usual, was certain of victory. The school expected a level game, and
on the whole wanted to see a School House win. Buller's had had too much
success of late years; and envy was inevitably at work.
The selection of the combined outhouse side caused a lot of
consideration. There was once an idea of playing Hazlitt minor, but much
to the annoyance of the House this plan was, from the outhouse point of
view, wisely dropped. And now Jack Whitaker--he was always known as
Jack--enters the story.
Jack was a very decent sort of kid, much (in the School House
estimation) above the standard of Buller's day-room. He was a little
rowdy and ostentatious, but had the justification of being really good
at something. He was a promising half-back, and his cricket was so good
that there was talk of his getting a trial for the School Eleven. Gordon
and he got on rather well. But he was very young; under fifteen, in
fact, and very impetuous.
About a week before the Thirds "the Bull" was discussing the match in
the dormitories. Jack was very full of words.
"I say, sir, isn't it awfully lucky for Hazlitt that he is not playing?"
"The Bull" was surprised. Only that evening he had been talking with
Hazlitt, and telling him how sorry he was that there was no place for
him in the side.
"Why, Jack? I don't know what you mean."
"Oh, well, you see, sir, all the School House fellows had sworn to lay
him out!"
"You must not talk like that, Jack. It is not sporting. And it stirs up
ill feeling in the school. You can't honestly believe that any gentleman
would play a game in that spirit. You have no proof of what you say
except mere rumour, I suppose. You mustn't talk like that."
"The Bull" was not at all pleased, and walked away to turn out the
light. Whitaker saw he had gone too far and had said more than he meant
to. But he couldn't stand the idea that "the Bull" should think he had
been repeating merely idle chatter.
"But, sir, I know for certain that in the Christy's match the School
House men were offering money to Christy's to lay Hazlitt out."
Buller stopped with his hand on the gas-tap.
"That is a very serious accusation, Jack. Are you telling me that any
Fernhurst boys so lack sportsmanlike feeling as to bribe boys in other
houses to lay out their rivals, so that it will be easier for them to
win."
"Oh, sir, I don't think that they meant that."
"Well, you said it, at any rate."
The gas went out suddenly. "The Bull" strode out without saying
good-night. In his study he turned over in his mind the extraordinary
story he had heard. If what Jack had told him was the truth, Fernhurst
football, which was to him, and to many others, the finest thing in the
world, had become little better than league professionalism. Bribes were
being offered for men to be laid out. He had never heard of such a
thing. There was no one to remind him that the offering of bribes means
little to a schoolboy, and the mere talk of "laying people out" still
less. It is all a question of custom, of the sense in which phrases are
used by the particular speakers who use them.
There are certain words which to-day are vulgar and disgusting, but
which in the days of Shakespeare would have been used in any company
without a blush. And this is so merely because time has given the words
a different significance. Indeed, from the point of view of the average
person, to leave schoolmasters out of the question, the idea of offering
bribes to lay out athletes is revolting. And so it is. It is
unsportsmanlike, unworthy of English traditions. But when Gordon offered
Burgoyne a shilling to lay out Hazlitt, although he said it was a
bargain, he meant nothing at all by his offer. He knew that Burgoyne,
once he got on the field, could think of nothing but the game, and would
forget all about Hazlitt and himself. Everyone offered bribes, but no
one had been known to receive a penny of them. Still, Buller could not
be expected to know this. He saw in the affair a menace to the future of
Fernhurst sport. Jack's story might be only idle chatter, or it might
have some foundation. At any rate he had got to go to the bottom, and
sift out the truth for the good of Fernhurst.
After evening chapel on the Sunday before the match the Chief sent for
Gordon; when Gordon arrived he found Harding, the head of the House,
there too. The Chief looked worried. There was a row in prospect. Gordon
racked his brain to think of anything that could possibly have been
found out about him. Of course there were many old troubles that might
have been raked up. He had always realised that the hand of the past
would still be near the shoulder of the present. Yet, what had he been
doing recently?
"Isn't Hazelton coming, Harding?" The Chief was speaking.
"Yes, sir; but I believe he is collecting chapel cards."
Hazelton too. Complications, forsooth. There was an awkward pause. Then
Hazelton came in, quite at his ease.
"Sir, the chapel cards; and I believe you wanted to see me, sir?"
"Ah, yes, Hazelton; put the cards on my desk. Now, Caruthers, I want to
ask you a question before the head and captain of the House that I hope
you will answer truthfully. Did you offer a boy in Mr Christy's house
money to 'lay out,' I believe that was the phrase, a boy in Mr Buller's
house in the recent house match."
Gordon thought for a moment. Had he? It was quite likely he had; but he
could not remember. Then the scene came back. The crowd in front of the
pavilion. Burgoyne: Hazlitt in the offing.
"Yes, sir," he replied, after the instant's hesitation.
"You seem rather doubtful about it."
"Well, sir, I was trying to remember whether I had or not."
The Chief was nettled by such apparent callousness.
"You talk as if you were in the habit of offering such rewards. Are
you?"
"Well, sir, it is the sort of thing any fellow might do."
"That is neither here nor there. I doubt the truth of your statement
very much. But even if the school had become so generally demoralised as
you suggest, that would not be any excuse for you. As a matter of fact,
how much did you offer the boy?"
"A shilling, sir."
"Was that a genuine offer, now? If he had done what you wanted him to,
would you have paid him?"
Gordon was now well out of his depth. Explanation seemed impossible. Had
the offer been genuine? He supposed it had. If the tick had been laid
out, Gordon would have been so delighted that he would have stood the
whole of Christy's drinks all round.
"Yes, sir," he said quite cheerfully.
A smile that rose to Hazelton's lips was instantly suppressed.
"Ah! rather like hiring assassins in the cheap novelettes. What was your
idea? Did you think Hazlitt would have been a help to the School side?"
"No, sir. I hardly think he would have been of much assistance to them."
The idea of Hazlitt being of any use to anyone was very amusing. Gordon
always saw the funny side of everything. As a ghost, he would probably
have found something cynically amusing in his own funeral.
"Then you did it merely out of spite, I suppose. Do you consider that
the football field is a suitable opportunity for the paying-off of old
scores?"
Now, suppose Gordon had poured out the story of how Felston had sworn to
lay him out in the Three Cock, and how Hazlitt and others had flung the
words "Three Cock" into his face for half a term, it would have been
certainly an extenuation. But he realised that Hazelton was present. It
would not be the proper thing, it would indeed be unpardonable cheek,
for him to talk in the presence of the House captain as though his
chances of playing in the Three Cock were to be taken for granted. It
would be madness to imperil his chances on the football field, merely
because he wanted an excuse for a silly little row.
And so he did not answer.
"Well, Caruthers, I sha'n't want you any more. Thank you for being so
frank in the matter. As far as I can see, it is the only extenuating
circumstance. Harding, Hazelton, one minute."
Gordon returned to the studies amused rather than disconcerted. He quite
saw that the Chief, with his high ideals, would refuse to allow two
blacks to make a white, even if that black were of the grey-black shade
of which colour boys were allowed to get their school suits made, and
which produced anything from light grey to dark brown. He understood and
respected the Chief's point of view entirely. But with "the Bull" he was
furious. No one but "the Bull" could have reported him; and, "the Bull"
after all, was an old Fernhurstian. He knew the school customs, and
unless his memory was decaying, must have remembered the wild way in
which boys boast. He must have known it; but "for the sake of
Fernhurst," Buller would say, "this leprosy has to be rooted out."
Gordon began to wonder whether it was really a love of Fernhurst that
was his standard for all actions, or simply a supreme egotism, which
embraced alternately his own interest, his house's interest, and
Fernhurst's interest, but never, under any circumstances, never the
School House interest!
Hazelton thought much the same. At the Chief's request he made a
characteristic speech to the House after prayers.
"Someone who imagines himself a sportsman, and who refuses to disclose
his name, but whose identity we can only guess at, has been making some
silly remarks about certain play and behaviour in the House. Of course
that is all rot. But people have strange ideas, especially those in
authority, and we have to be very careful. So for heaven's sake don't go
shouting out that you are going to lay everyone out. It only means a
row, and, after all, you can do it just as well without talking about
it."
There was a roar of laughter; the old system survived.
Next morning in break Gordon passed Buller on his way to the tuck-shop.
"The Bull" cut him dead.
The day after, the Chief having made up his mind on the matter, told
Gordon that his Sixth Form privileges had been taken away.
Before a large crowd, in full view of Chief's study window, Gordon that
afternoon burnt his straw hat with the Sixth form ribbon on it, and
stood over the smouldering ashes proclaiming in tragic tones: "The glory
has departed from Israel." His old passion for a theatrical piece of
rodomontade was not yet subdued.
* * * * *
For a short time Gordon was rather worried about "l'affaire Hazlitt," as
Tester called it. But he soon forgot it entirely in the excitement of
the approaching match. Everyone talked about it; there was no other
topic of conversation. The night before the match Lovelace could not sit
still for a minute. He strode up and down the study murmuring to
himself: "We can't lose; we can't; we can't!" Someone looked in to ask
if he was going to prepare the Livy.
"Livy?" he gasped. "Who could do any work the night before a house
match?"
The someone retired discomforted.
"You know it's absurd," Lovelace went on, "for a master to imagine
anyone could do work when the house matches are on. The other day
Claremont had me up and asked me why my work had been so bad lately. I
told him that the house matches were so exciting that I could not
concentrate my mind on anything else. He looked at me vacantly and said:
'Well, are they really? I don't know whom they excite; they don't excite
me.'"
"Dear old poseur; he's keen enough on his own house," Gordon answered
drowsily from the depths of the hammock, in which he had almost fallen
asleep. He felt incapable of thought. For weeks he had looked forward to
the match, and now it was so close he felt strangely languorous, tired
in brain and body.
Rain fell steadily all night, and though it cleared off about break, the
ground was already under water. It was a cold, gusty day.
By lunch the whole House was unbalanced. There was much loud laughter,
then sudden silences; an atmosphere of restlessness lay over everyone.
Very slowly the minutes dragged by. Gordon sat silent in a far corner of
the pavilion. At last the whistle blew, the magenta and black jerseys
trailed out on to the field. A cheer rose from the line.
The next hour passed in a whirl of white jerseys, gradually turned black
with mud, of magenta forms dashing on to the School forwards, of wild,
inarticulate black insects bawling on the touch-line. The pervading
impression was mud. Everything was mud; he was mud, the ball was mud.
Lovelace was indistinguishable. His own voice leading the scrum seemed
strangely unreal. There was a vague feeling of disquiet when, early in
the first half, he found himself standing under the posts, while the
Buller's half placed the ball for Whitaker to convert. Nothing tangible;
then the disquiet passed, the magenta jerseys swept forward, dirty white
forms came up and went down before them. Morgan rolled over the line. A
kick failed. Half-time came, Hazelton came on, and said a lot of things
to him, which he answered unconsciously.
A whistle blew. Once more the magenta jerseys swept everything before
them. There seemed no white jerseys at all. Numberless times he watched
Lovelace taking the place kick. He thought he heard Mansell shrieking:
"Heave it into them! Well done! Now you've got them!" Once he had a
sensation of kicking the ball past the halves; he seemed clear, the
full-back rushed up and fell in front of him, the ball stopped for a
second, then rolled on. He heard someone coming up behind him; the line
grew dimly white under his feet; he fell on the ball; there was a roar
of cheering. The whistle went in short, sharp blasts. The game was over.
And then he realised that the House had won, that his hopes were
satisfied, that the Buller crowd had been routed, that the cup would
shimmer on the mantelpiece. A wave of wild exultation came over him. The
House poured over the touch-line, yelling and shouting. It was all "a
wonder and a wild desire."
Then came the glorious reaction, "the bright glory of after battle
wine." The tea in the tuck-shop. They were out of training. Then the
perfect laziness of lying full-length in his hammock, talking of the
splendid victory. Then came the House tea. It was much like the Roman
triumph. The whole House sat in their places ten minutes before six.
Tablecloths were removed; everyone took down heavy books, boots, sticks.
Then when the Abbey struck six, Lovelace led the side into hall, up to
the dais, to the Sixth Form table. Everyone shouted, roared, beat the
tables. Dust arose. It was very hard to breathe. The Chief came and made
a speech. There was more shouting, more shrieking, more beating of
tables.
At last hall came with its gift of real rest. Gordon lay in the hammock,
Lovelace reposed with his feet on the table. Everyone came in to
congratulate them. Hazelton invited them in second hall to supper in the
games study; the gramophone played rag-time choruses. Gordon sang all of
them. Everyone was gloriously, unutterably happy.
Meredith sent a wire: "Well done, House: now for the Two Cock."
In the dormitory Hazelton was talking over the match.
"By Jove, when that side is the Three Cock, we shall win by fifty
points. Lord, I do envy you, Caruthers! You will see the day, and be in
at the finish. I shall only shout from the touch-line." And he added:
"My God, I shall shout, too."
There was nothing to mar the extreme joyousness of life. The world lay
at Gordon's feet. He had only to stoop to pick it up.