Cricket is the great safety valve. If you like the game, and are in a
position to play it at least twice a week, life can never be entirely
gray. As time went on, and his average for Lower Borlock reached the
fifties and stayed there, Mike began, though he would not have admitted
it, to enjoy himself. It was not Wrykyn, but it was a very decent
substitute.
The only really considerable element making for discomfort now was Mr.
Downing. By bad luck it was in his form that Mike had been placed on
arrival; and Mr. Downing, never an easy form master to get on with,
proved more than usually difficult in his dealings with Mike.
They had taken a dislike to each other at their first meeting; and it
grew with further acquaintance. To Mike, Mr. Downing was all that a
master ought not to be, fussy, pompous, and openly influenced in his
official dealings with his form by his own private likes and dislikes.
To Mr. Downing, Mike was simply an unamiable loafer, who did nothing for
the school and apparently had none of the healthy instincts which should
be implanted in the healthy boy. Mr. Downing was rather strong on the
healthy boy.
The two lived in a state of simmering hostility, punctuated at intervals
by crises, which usually resulted in Lower Borlock having to play some
unskilled laborer in place of their star batsman, employed doing
"overtime."
One of the most acute of these crises, and the most important, in that
it was the direct cause of Mike's appearance in Sedleigh cricket, had to
do with the third weekly meeting of the School Fire Brigade.
It may be remembered that this well-supported institution was under Mr.
Downing's special care. It was, indeed, his pet hobby and the apple
of his eye.
Just as you had to join the Archaeological Society to secure the esteem
of Mr. Outwood, so to become a member of the Fire Brigade was a safe
passport to the regard of Mr. Downing. To show a keenness for cricket
was good, but to join the Fire Brigade was best of all.
The Brigade was carefully organized. At its head was Mr. Downing, a sort
of high priest; under him was a captain, and under the captain a
vice-captain. These two officials were those sportive allies, Stone and
Robinson, of Outwood's house, who, having perceived at a very early date
the gorgeous opportunities for ragging which the Brigade offered to its
members, had joined young and worked their way up.
Under them were the rank and file, about thirty in all, of whom perhaps
seven were earnest workers, who looked on the Brigade in the right, or
Downing, spirit. The rest were entirely frivolous.
The weekly meetings were always full of life and excitement.
At this point it is as well to introduce Sammy to the reader.
Sammy, short for Sampson, was a young bull terrier belonging to Mr.
Downing. If it is possible for a man to have two apples of his eye,
Sammy was the other. He was a large, lighthearted dog with a white coat,
an engaging expression, the tongue of an anteater, and a manner which
was a happy blend of hurricane and circular saw. He had long legs, a
tenor voice, and was apparently made of India rubber.
Sammy was a great favorite in the school, and a particular friend of
Mike's, the Wrykynian being always a firm ally of every dog he met after
two minutes' acquaintance.
In passing, Jellicoe owned a clockwork rat, much in request during
French lessons.
We will now proceed to the painful details.
* * * * *
The meetings of the Fire Brigade were held after school in Mr. Downing's
form room. The proceedings always began in the same way, by the reading
of the minutes of the last meeting. After that the entertainment varied
according to whether the members happened to be fertile or not in ideas
for the disturbing of the peace.
Today they were in very fair form.
As soon as Mr. Downing had closed the minute book, Wilson, of the School
House, held up his hand.
"Well, Wilson?"
"Please, sir, couldn't we have a uniform for the Brigade?"
"A uniform?" Mr. Downing pondered.
"Red, with green stripes, sir."
Red, with a thin green stripe, was the Sedleigh color.
"Shall I put it to the vote, sir?" asked Stone.
"One moment, Stone."
"Those in favor of the motion move to the left, those against it to the
right."
A scuffling of feet, a slamming of desk lids and an upset blackboard,
and the meeting had divided.
Mr. Downing rapped irritably on his desk.
"Sit down!" he said. "Sit down! I won't have this noise and disturbance.
Stone, sit down--Wilson, get back to your place."
"Please, sir, the motion is carried by twenty-five votes to six."
"Please, sir, may I go and get measured this evening?"
"Please, sir--"
"Si-_lence!_ The idea of a uniform is, of course, out of the question."
"Oo-oo-oo-oo, sir-r-r!"
"Be _quiet!_ Entirely out of the question. We cannot plunge into
needless expense. Stone, listen to me. I cannot have this noise and
disturbance! Another time when a point arises it must be settled by a
show of hands. Well, Wilson?"
"Please, sir, may we have helmets?"
"Very useful as a protection against falling timbers, sir," said
Robinson.
"I don't think my people would be pleased, sir, if they knew I was going
out to fires without a helmet," said Stone.