A SCREW LOOSE IN THE SIXTH.
For the time being the three friends forgot their own troubles in their
eagerness to hear "Rat's" description of certain events which had
happened during their absence from Ronleigh.
"Look sharp; out with it!" they exclaimed. "What's happened?"
"Well," began Rathson, "it all came out through young Bayley acting the
fool and spraining his ankle. You know we had the paper-chase this
morning, and the hares ran out to Arrow Hill, and back again round by
the canal and Birksam Church. Just after we'd rounded the hill, young
Bayley jumped off the top of a high hedge, and twisted his foot so badly
that he couldn't stand up. As it happened, there was a check just then,
and Carton ran forward and told Allingford what had happened. He and
Oaks came back, and said the only thing would be to get him
to Chatton station, and so home by train. It was awfully decent of
those chaps. They carried Bayley all the way, and then Oaks went home
with him, and Allingford walked back, and so, of course, they missed
half the run. Awfully brickish of them I call it, considering that it
was only a kid like Bayley."
The Triple Alliance gave a murmur of assent.
"Was that what the row's about?" asked Diggory.
"Oh, bless you, no; I haven't come to that yet. After he'd seen Oaks
and Bayley into the train, old Ally started to walk home. There's a
little 'pub' about half a mile out of Chatton called the Black Swan, and
he thought he'd call and ask if they'd seen the fellows pass. You know
Thurston the prefect, that chap who came to the door when we were having
that meeting in the 'old lab.' Well, now, if he and Mouler, and two or
three more of that sort, weren't sitting in the taproom, smoking, and
drinking beer, and having a regular high old time. They'd lagged behind
on purpose. Of course Allingford kicked them all out, and he and
'Thirsty' had a frightful row. They say the big chaps want to hush the
matter up as far as they can, and not report it to old Denson, for fear
he'd make it an excuse to put a stop to paper-chasing. Ally slanged
Thurston right and left, and told him that if he chose to drink beer in
a low 'pub' with the biggest blackguards in the school, he needn't
expect that the fellows in the Sixth would have anything to do with him,
and that he ought to send in his resignation as a prefect."
On entering the school buildings, our three friends were convinced of
the truth of their comrade's story, and on their way to the schoolroom
the question was repeated at least half a dozen times--"Have you heard
about old 'Thirsty' being cobbed in the Black Swan?" Diggory thought of
the conversation he had overheard in Acton's study, and mentioned it to
Carton.
"Yes," answered the latter. "Big Fletcher's a beast. I know Thurston's
very chummy with him, but I don't see that's got much to do with it.
My brother, who left last term, said that 'Thirsty' used to be rather a
jolly chap, only he's got a fearful temper when he's crossed. Most of
the chaps like him as a prefect, because as long as you don't interfere
with him he doesn't seem to care much what any one does. The real thing
is he's going to the dogs, and, as Allingford says, he ought to resign."
Away in one of the Sixth Form studies the subject of their conversation
was sitting with his hands in his pockets, frowning at the fire. He was
roused from his reverie by some one putting his head round the corner of
the door and exclaiming,--
"Hullo, 'Thirsty!'"
"Hullo, Fletcher! where on earth have you been all the evening?"
The new-comer was tall and lanky; he had a sharp, foxy-looking face,
with thin, straight lips, and two deep lines which looked almost like
scars between the eyebrows. He shut the door, and dragging forward a
chair, sat down with his feet on the fender, and commenced warming his
hands at the fire.
"Oh, I've been nowhere in particular," he answered, laughing. "But I
say, young man, you seem to have raised a pretty good hornets' nest
about your ears along this corridor."
"Yes, I know; they've had the cheek to send me that!"
He leaned back as he spoke, and taking a piece of paper from the table,
tossed it across to his friend. It was a letter signed by most of the
prefects, suggesting that he should send in his resignation.
"Humph!" said Fletcher; "that's a nice sort of a round robin, don't you
call it? Well, what are you going to do?"
"Oh, I shall resign and have done with it. I'm sick of having to
masquerade about as a good boy. I mean to do what I like."
"Pooh!" returned the other. "Now that you are a prefect, I wouldn't
give up all the privileges and the right to go out and come in when you
like just because a strait-laced chap like Allingford chooses to take
offence at something you do. They can't force you to resign unless they
go to the doctor, and they won't do that. I know what I'd do: I'd tell
them pretty straight to go and be hanged, and keep their sermonizing to
themselves."
Thurston turned on the speaker with a sudden burst of anger.
"Oh yes!" he exclaimed; "you're always saying you'd do this and do that,
but when the time comes you turn tail and sneak away. Look here: you
were the one who proposed going into the Black Swan this morning, and
when young Mouler said Allingford was coming, you slipped out of the
back door and left us to face the shindy."
"Well," returned the other, laughing, "I thought you chaps were going to
bolt too. I hopped over the wall at the back into the field, and waited
there for about a quarter of an hour, and then, as no one came, I made
tracks home."
"That's all very fine. You took precious good care to save your own
bacon; you always do."
"Oh, go on!" answered Fletcher, rising from his chair; "you're in a wax
to-night. Well, ta, ta! Don't you resign."
This little passage of arms was not the first of the kind that had taken
place between Fletcher and Thurston, and it did not prevent a renewal of
their friendship on the morrow.
The latter, following either his own inclination or the advice of his
chum, decided not to resign his position as a prefect, and in a few
days' time the majority of the school had wellnigh forgotten the
fracas at the Black Swan.
Among those in high places, however, the affair was not so easily
overlooked. The big fellows kept their own counsel, but it soon became
evident that Thurston was being "cut" and cold-shouldered by the other
members of the Sixth; while he, for his part, as though by way of
retaliation, began to hob-nob more freely than ever with boys lower down
in the school and of decidedly questionable character.
"It's awfully bad form of a chap who's a prefect chumming up with a
fellow like Mouler in the Upper Fourth," said Carton one afternoon.
"I wonder old 'Thirsty' isn't ashamed to do it. And now he's hand
and glove with those chaps Hawley and Gull in the Fifth; they've both
got heaps of money, but they're frightful cads."
From the morning following their return to Ronleigh the Triple Alliance
had been kept in a continual state of uneasiness and suspense, wondering
what action Noaks would take regarding his discovery of their visit to
The Hermitage.
The days passed by, and still he made no further reference to the
matter, and took no notice of any of the three friends when he happened
to pass them in the passages. The fact was that for the time being his
attention was turned in another direction. Like most fellows of his
kind, Noaks was a regular toady, ready to do anything in return for the
privilege of being able to rub shoulders occasionally with some one in a
higher position than himself, and he eagerly seized the opportunity
which his friendship with Mouler afforded him of becoming intimate with
Thurston. It was rather a fine thing for a boy in the Upper Fourth to
be accosted in a familiar manner by a prefect, and asked sometimes to
visit the latter in his study; and when such things were possible, it
was hardly worth while to spend time and attention in carrying on a feud
with youngsters in the Third Form. But Noaks had never forgotten the
double humiliation he had suffered at Chatford--first in being sent off
the football field, and again in the disastrous ending to the attempted
raid on the Birchites' fireworks; nor had he forgiven the Triple
Alliance for the part which they had played, especially on the latter
occasion, in bringing shame and confusion on the heads of the
Philistines.
One morning, nearly a month after the half-term holiday, the three
friends were strolling arm in arm through the archway leading from the
quadrangle to the paved playground, when they came face to face with
their old enemy. He was about to push past them without speaking; then,
seeming suddenly to change his mind, he pulled up, took something from
his pocket, and handing it to Jack Vance, said shortly,--
"There! I thought you'd like to see that; it seems a good chance to
earn some pocket-money."
The packet turned out to be a copy of the Todderton weekly paper.
"I've marked the place," added Noaks, turning on his heel with a
sneering laugh; "you needn't give it me back."
A cross of blue chalk had been placed against a short paragraph
appearing under the heading "Local Notes." Jack read it out loud for the
edification of his two companions.
"We notice that Mr. Fossberry has offered a reward of 50 pounds for any
information which shall lead to the arrest of the thieves who entered
his house some few weeks ago, and stole a valuable collection of coins.
As yet the police have been unable to discover any further traces of the
missing property, but it is to be hoped that before long the offenders
will be discovered and brought to justice."
There was a moment's silence.
"I wish I'd told my guv'nor," muttered Jack Vance.
"Well, tell him now," said Diggory.
"Oh no, I can't now; he'd wonder why I hadn't done it sooner. Besides,
I believe Noaks is only doing this to frighten us; he can't prove that
we stole the coins, because we didn't. All the same, it would be very
awkward if he sent the police that jack-knife, and told them he'd seen
us climbing out of the old chap's window."
"Yes," answered Diggory; "I suppose it would look rather fishy.
Bother him! why can't he leave us alone?"