"Will you solemnly swear on human blood that you will boss the geography
paper and let me get the prize?"
And to show him how much in earnest I was, I took out my knife there and
then, and he pricked his finger and I pricked mine, and then I swore
that I would let him have the geography prize, and he swore that he
would refuse to fight me.
I felt that was a pretty good day's work, and so did he; but I felt it
all the time, whereas Andrews only felt it in stray moments and, between
whiles, was jolly savage with himself for swearing the blood oath. He
was frightfully scorned for not fighting me, and the only thing that
comforted him, and that only in secret, was that his mother and
grandmother would be full of rejoicing in the holidays and richly reward
him for winning the geography prize.
In fact, he kept on so obstinately about his mother, that I began to
think about mine, and the sad grief it would be to her if I did not win
this prize as usual. After a time I realized that I had actually put
Andrews before my own dear mother, and I felt very shocked to think of
what I had done.
The end of the term began to get nearer and nearer, and the exams. were
going to begin soon. I tried hard not to think about geography and not
to think about my mother, but Andrews found the only subjects that
interested him were these subjects; and at last I simply had to avoid
Andrews, because he kept on to such a sickening extent about what a
score it would be to win it.
Very strange thoughts came over me during those days and I got more and
more undecided as to what was right to do. There was my duty to
Andrews, who, in a vague sort of way, had got the right to win the
geography prize, and there was my duty to my father, who paid Dr.
Dunstan a lot of money for letting me come to Merivale and naturally
expected me to do my best; which I always did do, I'm sure. Then there
was my duty to Dr. Dunstan; and to deceive him deliberately about my
knowledge of geography was, of course, a very wrong thing to do. And,
greatest of all, there was my own conscience, which is the 'still small
voice' of the Bible. Besides, I'd been very careful to say that Andrews
should have the geography prize, not that he should win it. No chap
ever tried harder than me to do the right thing, and what made it so
difficult was that my conscience and my duty to everybody but Andrews
was on one side, while the stupid affair with Andrews was on the other
side. Of course a blood oath is all nonsense if you are a Christian,
and not in the least binding to a religious person. In fact, only
savages believe in it at all. Therefore, as far as that went, I did not
feel in the least bound to Andrews. If I had not been coming back the
next term, I should have seen my way clearer very likely; but I was; and
so was Andrews.
Somehow I couldn't decide till the actual day of the geography exam.,
and then, strangely enough, the paper seemed simply to have been made
for me. I knew the answer to everything, and question No. 6 gave me a
chance of saying some jolly good and peculiar things about Spain and the
Holy Inquisition not generally known at all. Probably not a soul at
Merivale but the Doctor and me knew them.
Somehow I felt it would be mean and wicked to pretend not to know all
these things. My conscience simply cried out to me to do the paper as
well as possible and leave the result in Higher Hands, because if
Providence meant Andrews to win, he would win. So I did my best, as I
usually do; and when the result was put up it was found that I had
beaten Andrews by one hundred and ten marks, and Andrews was a long way
ahead of everybody else.
Naturally Andrews, not understanding what it is to have such delicate
feelings as me, was a good bit annoyed; but I was ready for him, and
though I did not tell of my secret struggles to do right, which he would
not have understood, I did explain that I had acted from proper motives.