This polite epistle, it may be mentioned, was a revised version of theone which Drummond originally wrote in reply to Sheen's request. Hisfirst impulse had been to answer in the four brief words, "Don't be afool"; for Sheen's letter had struck him as nothing more than acontemptible piece of posing, and he had all the hatred for poses whichis a characteristic of the plain and straightforward type of mind. Itseemed to him that Sheen, as he expressed it to himself, was trying to"do the boy hero". In the school library, which had been stocked duringthe dark ages, when that type of story was popular, there were numerousschool stories in which the hero retrieved a rocky reputation bythrashing the bully, displaying in the encounter an intuitive butoverwhelming skill with his fists. Drummond could not help feeling thatSheen must have been reading one of these stories. It was all very fineand noble of him to want to show that he was No Coward After All, likeLeo Cholmondeley or whatever his beastly name was, in _The Lads ofSt. Ethelberta's_ or some such piffling book; but, thought Drummondin his cold, practical way, what about the house? If Sheen thought thatSeymour's was going to chuck away all chance of winning one of theinter-house events, simply in order to give him an opportunity of doingthe Young Hero, the sooner he got rid of that sort of idea, the better.
If he wanted to do the Leo Cholmondeley business, let him go and chucka kid into the river, and jump in and save him. But he wasn't going tohave the house let in for twenty Sheens.
Such were the meditations of Drummond when the infirmary attendantbrought Sheen's letter to him; and he seized pencil and paper andwrote, "Don't be a fool". But pity succeeded contempt, and he tore upthe writing. After all, however much he had deserved it, the man hadhad a bad time. It was no use jumping on him. And at one time they hadbeen pals. Might as well do the thing politely.
All of which reflections would have been prevented had Sheen thought ofmentioning the simple fact that it was Joe Bevan who had given him thelessons to which he referred in his letter. But he had decided not todo so, wishing to avoid long explanations. And there was, he felt, achance that the letter might come into other hands than those ofDrummond. So he had preserved silence on that point, thereby wreckinghis entire scheme.
It struck him that he might go to Linton, explain his position, and askhim to withdraw in his favour, but there were difficulties in the wayof that course. There is a great deal of red tape about the athleticarrangements of a house at a public school. When once an order has goneforth, it is difficult to get it repealed. Linton had been chosen torepresent the house in the Light-Weights, and he would carry outorders. Only illness would prevent him appearing in the ring.
Sheen made up his mind not to try to take his place, and went throughthe days a victim to gloom, which was caused by other things besideshis disappointment respecting the boxing competition. The Gotfordexamination was over now, and he was not satisfied with hisperformance. Though he did not know it, his dissatisfaction was dueprincipally to the fact that, owing to his isolation, he had beenunable to compare notes after the examinations with the others. Doingan examination without comparing notes subsequently with one's rivals,is like playing golf against a bogey. The imaginary rival against whomone pits oneself never makes a mistake. Our own "howlers" stand out inall their horrid nakedness; but we do not realise that our rivals haveprobably made others far worse. In this way Sheen plumbed the depths ofdepression. The Gotford was a purely Classical examination, with theexception of one paper, a General Knowledge paper; and it was in thisthat Sheen fancied he had failed so miserably. His Greek and Latinverse were always good; his prose, he felt, was not altogether beyondthe pale; but in the General Knowledge paper he had come down heavily.
As a matter of fact, if he had only known, the paper was anexceptionally hard one, and there was not a single candidate for thescholarship who felt satisfied with his treatment of it. It was toquestions ten, eleven, and thirteen of this paper that Cardew, of theSchool House, who had entered for the scholarship for the sole reasonthat competitors got excused two clear days of ordinary school-work,wrote the following answer:
See "Encylopaedia Britannica," _Times_ edition.
If they really wanted to know, he said subsequently, that was theauthority to go to. He himself would probably misinform themaltogether.
In addition to the Gotford and the House Boxing, the House Fives nowcame on, and the authorities of Seymour's were in no small perplexity.
They met together in Rigby's study to discuss the matter. Theirdifficulty was this. There was only one inmate of Seymour's who had achance of carrying off the House Fives Cup. And that was Sheen. Thehouse was asking itself what was to be done about it.
"You see," said Rigby, "you can look at it in two ways, whichever youlike. We ought certainly to send in our best man for the pot, whateversort of chap he is. But then, come to think of it, Sheen can't verywell be said to belong to the house at all. When a man's been cut deadduring the whole term, he can't be looked on as one of the house verywell. See what I mean?""Of course he can't," said Mill, who was second in command atSeymour's. Mill's attitude towards his fellow men was one of incessanthostility. He seemed to bear a grudge against the entire race.
Rigby resumed. He was a pacific person, and hated anything resemblingrows in the house. He had been sorry for Sheen, and would have beenglad to give him a chance of setting himself on his legs again.
"You see." he said, "this is what I mean. We either recognise Sheen'sexistence or we don't. Follow? We can't get him to win this Cup for us,and then, when he has done it, go on cutting him and treating him as ifhe didn't belong to the house at all. I know he let the house downawfully badly in that business, but still, if he lifts the Fives Cup,that'll square the thing. If he does anything to give the house aleg-up, he must be treated as if he'd never let it down at all.""Of course," said Barry. "I vote we send him in for the Fives.""What rot!" said Mill. "It isn't as if none of the rest of us playedfives.""We aren't as good as Sheen," said Barry.
"I don't care. I call it rot letting a chap like him represent thehouse at anything. If he were the best fives-player in the world Iwouldn't let him play for the house."Rigby was impressed by his vehemence. He hesitated.
"After all, Barry," he said, "I don't know. Perhaps it might--you see,he did--well, I really think we'd better have somebody else. The househas got its knife into Sheen too much just at present to want him as arepresentative. There'd only be sickness, don't you think? Who else isthere?"So it came about that Menzies was chosen to uphold the house in theFives Courts. Sheen was not surprised. But it was not pleasant. He wascertainly having bad luck in his attempts to do something for thehouse. Perhaps if he won the Gotford they might show a littleenthusiasm. The Gotford always caused a good deal of interest in theschool. It was the best thing of its kind in existence at Wrykyn, andeven the most abandoned loafers liked to feel that their house had wonit. It was just possible, thought Sheen, that a brilliant win mightchange the feelings of Seymour's towards him. He did not care for theapplause of the multitude more than a boy should, but he preferred itvery decidedly to the cut direct.
Things went badly for Seymour's. Never in the history of the house, or,at any rate, in the comparatively recent history of the house, hadthere been such a slump in athletic trophies. To begin with, they weresoundly beaten in the semi-final for the House football cup byAllardyce's lot. With Drummond away, there was none to mark the captainof the School team at half, and Allardyce had raced through in a mannerthat must have compensated him to a certain extent for the poor time hehad had in first fifteen matches. The game had ended in a Seymouritedefeat by nineteen points to five.
Nor had the Boxing left the house in a better position. Linton foughtpluckily in the Light-Weights, but went down before Stanning, afterbeating a representative of Templar's. Mill did not show up well in theHeavy-Weights, and was defeated in his first bout. Seymour's werereduced to telling themselves how different it all would have been ifDrummond had been there.
Sheen watched the Light-Weight contests, and nearly danced withirritation. He felt that he could have eaten Stanning. The man wasquick with his left, but he couldn't _box_. He hadn't a notion ofside-stepping, and the upper-cut appeared to be entirely outside hisrange. He would like to see him tackle Francis.
Sheen thought bitterly of Drummond. Why on earth couldn't he have givenhim a chance. It was maddening.
The Fives carried on the story. Menzies was swamped by a Day's man. Hemight just as well have stayed away altogether. The star of Seymour'swas very low on the horizon.
And then the house scored its one success. The headmaster announced itin the Hall after prayers in his dry, unemotional way.
"I have received the list of marks," he said, "from the examiners forthe Gotford Scholarship." He paused. Sheen felt a sudden calm triumphflood over him. Somehow, intuitively, he knew that he had won. Hewaited without excitement for the next words.
"Out of a possible thousand marks, Sheen, who wins the scholarship,obtained seven hundred and one, Stanning six hundred and four,Wilson...."Sheen walked out of the Hall in the unique position of a Gotford winnerwith only one friend to congratulate him. Jack Bruce was the one. Theother six hundred and thirty-three members of the school made nodemonstration.
There was a pleasant custom at Seymour's of applauding at tea anySeymourite who had won distinction, and so shed a reflected glory onthe house. The head of the house would observe, "Well played,So-and-So!" and the rest of the house would express their emotion inthe way that seemed best to them, to the subsequent exultation of thelocal crockery merchant, who had generally to supply at least a dozenfresh cups and plates to the house after one of these occasions. Whenit was for getting his first eleven or first fifteen cap that the luckyman was being cheered, the total of breakages sometimes ran into thetwenties.
Rigby, good, easy man, was a little doubtful as to what course topursue in the circumstances. Should he give the signal? After all, thefellow _had_ won the Gotford. It was a score for the house, andthey wanted all the scores they could get in these lean years. Perhaps,then, he had better.
"Well played, Sheen," said he.
There was a dead silence. A giggle from the fags' table showed that thecomedy of the situation was not lost on the young mind.
The head of the house looked troubled. This was awfully awkward.
"Well played, Sheen," he said again.
"Don't mention it, Rigby," said the winner of the Gotford politely,looking up from his plate.
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