Seymour's house took in one copy of the _Sportsman_ daily. On themorning after the Aldershot competition Linton met the paper-boy at thedoor on his return from the fives courts, where he had been playing acouple of before-breakfast games with Dunstable. He relieved him of thehouse copy, and opened it to see how the Wrykyn pair had performed inthe gymnastics. He did not expect anything great, having a rootedcontempt for both experts, who were small and, except in the gymnasium,obscure. Indeed, he had gone so far on the previous day as to express ahope that Biddle, the more despicable of the two, would fall off thehorizontal bar and break his neck. Still he might as well see wherethey had come out. After all, with all their faults, they were humanbeings like himself, and Wrykinians.

　　The competition was reported in the Boxing column. The first thing thatcaught his eye was the name of the school among the headlines.

　　"Honours", said the headline, "for St Paul's, Harrow, and Wrykyn".

　　"Hullo," said Linton, "what's all this?"Then the thing came on him with nothing to soften the shock. He hadfolded the paper, and the last words on the half uppermost were,"_Final. Sheen beat Peteiro_".

　　Linton had often read novels in which some important document "swambefore the eyes" of the hero or the heroine; but he had neverunderstood the full meaning of the phrase until he read those words,"Sheen beat Peteiro".

　　There was no mistake about it. There the thing was. It was impossiblefor the _Sportsman_ to have been hoaxed. No, the incredible,outrageous fact must be faced. Sheen had been down to Aldershot and wona silver medal! Sheen! _Sheen!!_ Sheen who had--who was--well,who, in a word, was SHEEN!!!

　　Linton read on like one in a dream.

　　"The Light-Weights fell," said the writer, "to a newcomer Sheen, ofWrykyn" (Sheen!), "a clever youngster with a strong defence and abeautiful straight left, doubtless the result of tuition from themiddle-weight ex-champion, Joe Bevan, who was in his corner for thefinal bout. None of his opponents gave him much trouble except Peteiroof Ripton, whom he met in the final. A very game and determined fightwas seen when these two met, but Sheen's skill and condition discountedthe rushing tactics of his adversary, and in the last minute of thethird round the referee stopped the encounter." (Game and determined!

　　Sheen!!) "Sympathy was freely expressed for Peteiro, who has thus beenrunner-up two years in succession. He, however, met a better man, andpaid the penalty. The admirable pluck with which Sheen bore hispunishment and gradually wore his man down made his victory the mostpopular of the day's programme."_Well!_Details of the fighting described Sheen as "cutting out the work","popping in several nice lefts", "swinging his right for the point",and executing numerous other incredible manoeuvres.