In these hustling times it is not always easy to get ten minutes'
conversation with an acquaintance in private. There was drill in thedinner hour next day for the corps, to which Kennedy had to godirectly after lunch. It did not end till afternoon school began. Whenafternoon school was over, he had to turn out and practise scrummagingwith the first fifteen, in view of an important school match which wascoming off on the following Saturday. Kennedy had not yet received hiscap, but he was playing regularly for the first fifteen, and wasgenerally looked upon as a certainty for one of the last places in theteam. Fenn, being a three-quarter, had not to participate in thispractice. While the forwards were scrummaging on the second fifteenground, the outsides ran and passed on the first fifteen ground overat the other end of the field. Fenn's training for the day finishedearlier than Kennedy's, the captain of the Eckleton fifteen, who ledthe scrum, not being satisfied with the way in which the forwardswheeled. He kept them for a quarter of an hour after the outsides haddone their day's work, and when Kennedy got back to the house and wentto Fenn's study, the latter was not there. He had evidently changedand gone out again, for his football clothes were lying in a heap in acorner of the room. Going back to his own study, he met Spencer.
"Have you seen Fenn?" he asked.
"No," said the fag. "He hasn't come in.""He's come in all right, but he's gone out again. Go and ask Taylor ifhe knows where he is."Taylor was Fenn's fag.
Spencer went to the junior dayroom, and returned with the informationthat Taylor did not know.
"Oh, all right, then--it doesn't matter," said Kennedy, and went intohis study to change.
He had completed this operation, and was thinking of putting hiskettle on for tea, when there was a knock at the door.
It was Baker, Jimmy Silver's fag.
"Oh, Kennedy," he said, "Silver says, if you aren't doing anythingspecial, will you go over to his study to tea?""Why, is there anything on?"It struck him as curious that Jimmy should take the trouble to sendhis fag over to Kay's with a formal invitation. As a rule the head ofBlackburn's kept open house. His friends were given to understand thatthey could drop in whenever they liked. Kennedy looked in for teathree times a week on an average.
"I don't think so," said Baker.
"Who else is going to be there?"Jimmy Silver sometimes took it into his head to entertain weird beingsfrom other houses whose brothers or cousins he had met in theholidays. On such occasions he liked to have some trusty friend by himto help the conversation along. It struck Kennedy that this might beone of those occasions. If so, he would send back a polite but firmrefusal of the invitation. Last time he had gone to help Jimmyentertain a guest of this kind, conversation had come to a deadstandstill a quarter of an hour after his arrival, the guest refusingto do anything except eat prodigiously, and reply "Yes" or "No", asthe question might demand, when spoken to. Also he had declined tostir from his seat till a quarter to seven. Kennedy was not going tobe let in for another orgy of that nature if he knew it.
"Who's with Silver?" he asked.
"Only Fenn," said Baker.
Kennedy pondered for a moment.
"All right," he said, at last, "tell him I'll be round in a fewminutes."He sat thinking the thing over after Baker had gone back toBlackburn's with the message. He saw Silver's game, of course. Jimmyhad made no secret for some time of his disgust at the coolnessbetween Kennedy and Fenn. Not knowing all the circumstances, heconsidered it absolute folly. If only he could get the two togetherover a quiet pot of tea, he imagined that it would not be a difficulttask to act effectively as a peacemaker.
Kennedy was sorry for Jimmy. He appreciated his feelings in thematter. He would not have liked it himself if his two best friends hadbeen at daggers drawn. Still, he could not bring himself to treat Fennas if nothing had happened, simply to oblige Silver. There had been atime when he might have done it, but now that Fenn had started adeliberate campaign against him by giving Wren--and probably, thoughtKennedy, half the other fags in the house--leave down town when heought to have sent them on to him, things had gone too far. However,he could do no harm by going over to Jimmy's to tea, even if Fenn wasthere. He had not looked to interview Fenn before an audience, but ifthat audience consisted only of Jimmy, it would not matter so much.
His advent surprised Fenn. The astute James, fancying that if hementioned that he was expecting Kennedy to tea, Fenn would make a boltfor it, had said nothing about it.
When Kennedy arrived there was one of those awkward pauses which areso difficult to fill up in a satisfactory manner.
"Now you're up, Fenn," said Jimmy, as the latter rose, evidently withthe intention of leaving the study, "you might as well reach down thattoasting-fork and make some toast.""I'm afraid I must be off now, Jimmy," said Fenn.
"No you aren't," said Silver. "You bustle about and make yourselfuseful, and don't talk rot. You'll find your cup on that shelf overthere, Kennedy. It'll want a wipe round. Better use the table-cloth."There was silence in the study until tea was ready. Then Jimmy Silverspoke.
"Long time since we three had tea together," he said, addressing theremark to the teapot.
"Kennedy's a busy man," said Fenn, suavely. "He's got a house to lookafter.""And I'm going to look after it," said Kennedy, "as you'll find."Jimmy Silver put in a plaintive protest.
"I wish you two men wouldn't talk shop," he said. "It's bad enoughhaving Kay's next door to one, without your dragging it into theconversation. How were the forwards this evening, Kennedy?""Not bad," said Kennedy, shortly.
"I wonder if we shall lick Tuppenham on Saturday?""I don't know," said Kennedy; and there was silence again.
"Look here, Jimmy," said Kennedy, after a long pause, during which thehead of Blackburn's tried to fill up the blank in the conversation bytoasting a piece of bread in a way which was intended to suggest thatif he were not so busy, the talk would be unchecked and animated,"it's no good. We must have it out some time, so it may as well behere as anywhere else. I've been looking for Fenn all day.""Sorry to give you all that trouble," said Fenn, with a sneer. "Gotsomething important to say?""Yes.""Go ahead, then."Jimmy Silver stood between them with the toasting-fork in his hand, asif he meant to plunge it into the one who first showed symptoms offlying at the other's throat. He was unhappy. His peace-makingtea-party was not proving a success.
"I wanted to ask you," said Kennedy, quietly, "what you meant bygiving the fags leave down town when you knew that they ought to cometo me?"The gentle and intelligent reader will remember (though that miserableworm, the vapid and irreflective reader, will have forgotten) that atthe beginning of the term the fags of Kay's had endeavoured to showtheir approval of Fenn and their disapproval of Kennedy by applying tothe former for leave when they wished to go to the town; and that Fennhad received them in the most ungrateful manner with blows instead ofexeats. Strong in this recollection, he was not disturbed by Kennedy'squestion. Indeed, it gave him a comfortable feeling of rectitude.
There is nothing more pleasant than to be accused to your face ofsomething which you can deny on the spot with an easy conscience. Itis like getting a very loose ball at cricket. Fenn felt almostfriendly towards Kennedy.
"I meant nothing," he replied, "for the simple reason that I didn't doit.""I caught Wren down town yesterday, and he said you had given himleave.""Then he lied, and I hope you licked him.""There you are, you see," broke in Jimmy Silver triumphantly, "it'sall a misunderstanding. You two have got no right to be cutting oneanother. Why on earth can't you stop all this rot, and behave likedecent members of society again?""As a matter of fact," said Fenn, "they did try it on earlier in theterm. I wasted a lot of valuable time pointing out to them with aswagger-stick--that I was the wrong person to come to. I'm sorry youshould have thought I could play it as low down as that."Kennedy hesitated. It is not very pleasant to have to climb down afterstarting a conversation in a stormy and wrathful vein. But it had tobe done.
"I'm sorry, Fenn," he said; "I was an idiot."Jimmy Silver cut in again.
"You were," he said, with enthusiasm. "You both were. I used to thinkFenn was a bigger idiot than you, but now I'm inclined to call it adead heat. What's the good of going on trying to see which of you canmake the bigger fool of himself? You've both lowered all previousrecords.""I suppose we have," said Fenn. "At least, I have.""No, I have," said Kennedy.
"You both have," said Jimmy Silver. "Another cup of tea, anybody? Saywhen."Fenn and Kennedy walked back to Kay's together, and tea-d together inFenn's study on the following afternoon, to the amazement--and evenscandal--of Master Spencer, who discovered them at it. Spencer likedexcitement; and with the two leaders of the house at logger-heads,things could never be really dull. If, as appearances seemed tosuggest, they had agreed to settle their differences, life wouldbecome monotonous again--possibly even unpleasant.
This thought flashed through Spencer's brain (as he called it) when heopened Fenn's door and found him helping Kennedy to tea.
"Oh, the headmaster wants to see you, please, Fenn," said Spencer,recovering from his amazement, "and told me to give you this.""This" was a prefect's cap. Fenn recognised it without difficulty. Itwas the cap he had left in the sitting-room of the house in the HighStreet.
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