"Of course you didn't. You can't help being an a.s.s, but don't swagger or brag about it. Go easy--and, by the way, whatever you do, forget you're an exhibitioner. It's not your fault, I know, but it's a sort of thing to be lived down up here. Be n.o.body, that's the rule! then you'll worry through."

"But _you_ were an exhibitioner, Tempest," I suggested, "weren't you?"

"Yes, but I kept it dark. Do you know the chap who asked me to tea?"

"No."

"He's Pridgin--in the Eleven--makes beastly bad jokes, but not a bad chap. You'll like f.a.gging for him."

"What--am I to f.a.g?" said I, undergoing another shock. I had made quite sure exhibitioners were exempt from that indignity.

"There you go again. What did I tell you?" said Tempest, in tones of mild menace; "you're putting it on again already. You'd better fish out that cane again, there's a good chap."

"Oh, please don't--I didn't mean, Tempest! All right, I'll f.a.g for him."

Tempest regarded first me, then the cricket box where the cane lay, doubtfully.

"I tell you he's not half a bad chap. Bother it," added he, picking up the cane, "I must do it, kid. Awfully sorry, but it would be low to let you off because I know you. Look alive. One, middling warm, on each hand, that's all. Thanks."

He was quite unnecessarily grateful. His idea of middling warm, I could not help thinking, was not very different from hot. And yet I felt I could stand it better from him than from most.

"Some chaps," said he, after returning me the cane to put back in its place, "would say that this sort of thing pained them more than it does you. It didn't me. I fancy you felt it more than I did. Anyhow, you'll remember what I said, won't you? Pridgin's not half a bad chap."

"If you want any one to f.a.g for you. Tempest--"

I began.

"Oh, I've got one--a beauty--young Trimble; he sat next to you at register to-day. You'll hit it off with him to a T. Talking of tea, by the way, it's time we showed up at Pridgin's. Come along, and I'll introduce you."

The reader may not believe it, but my interview with Tempest helped to knock the nonsense out of me more than any treatment I had yet undergone. It was not so much the caning (which, by the way, I afterwards discovered to be a wholly unauthorised proceeding on my old comrade's part), but his plain advice, and the friendly way in which it was all given. It made me realise that he really meant to stick by me and pull me through my troubles, and the sense of his interest in me made up wonderfully for the loneliness which had been growing on me ever since I entered Low Heath that morning.

Pridgin, as became a member of the Eleven, received me with dignity quite devoid of curiosity. He informed Tempest that he considered it was playing it pretty low down on him to let an idiot like me loose on him. Still, times were bad, and one must put up with what one could get.

Whereat I had the good sense to grin appreciatively, and was thereupon permitted to boil my new master's eggs and stand by the kettle until it was ready for the tea.

CHAPTER NINE.

ACQUAINTANCES, HIGH AND LOW.

I was at first too much concerned in my important culinary occupations to bestow much attention on the company. It was only when the eggs were boiled and the teapot filled that I had leisure to make a few observations.

The host, Pridgin, my new master, was not a very formidable sort of person at first blush. True he was in the Eleven and a fine all-round athlete. True he was fairly well up in the Sixth, and one of the boys Low Heath was proud of. These things did not strike one in beholding him. What did strike one was his air of lazy humour, which seemed to regard life as a huge joke, if only one could summon up the energy to enjoy it. Pridgin did indeed enjoy his share of it, but one could not help feeling that, were he to choose, that share would be a great deal larger than it really was.

It was plain to see he was fond of Tempest; a weakness which reconciled me to him from the first. Tempest, however, seemed, if anything, to prefer the third member of the party present, who was in every way a contrast to his genial host.

Wales struck one as a far more imposing person than Pridgin, but not quite as attractive. He was dressed in what seemed to me the top of the fashion, and had the appearance of a youth who made a point of having everything of the best. He had the reputation, as I discovered afterwards, of possessing the most expensive bats and racquets, the best-bound books, the best-fitting clothes, of any one in Low Heath. It was also rumoured that he spent more than any boy in the town shops, and gave the most extravagant entertainments in his study. Fellows were a little shy of him for this very reason. He forced the pace in the matter of money, and there were only a few fellows who could stand it.

Tempest was not one of these, and yet he seemed very thick with Wales.

It was certainly not for the sake of his money, for Tempest was one of those fellows who never care for a fellow for the same reason that any one else would. He had begun by being amused with Wales's dandyism and extravagance, and had ended in encouraging him in them.

"I expect," said Wales, as the three heroes sat discussing their tea, "we're in for a pretty lively term, if it's true what I hear, that Redwood is to be captain."

"Why shouldn't he be?" asked Pridgin; "he's a hot man in the fields, as well as in cla.s.sics."

"My dear fellow, he's a town-boy."

"What of that?"

"What of that? First of all, the town-boys are most of them sn.o.bs.

Sons of hard-up people who come to live at Low Heath so as to get them into the school cheap. Then they can't possibly keep up with what goes on in school when they are away every evening."

"There's more in the second objection than the first," said Tempest. "I don't see why a fellow should be out of it because he's poor. If so, I can cut my lucky here. But it does seem a swindle to stick a town-boy over all of us."

"I don't see it," said Pridgin. "He's one of us. The only difference is, he goes home to sleep instead of tucking up in a cubicle here. No, what seems to me the cool thing is this talk of a town-boys' club, that brags it's going to lick the school clubs into fits. I hope it's not true, for if it is, we shall have to sit up, and I loathe sitting up."

His guests laughed. It was notorious that Pridgin when he did bring himself to "sit up" was a person worth reckoning with.

"For the matter of that," said Wales, "Redwood's not likely to trouble himself much. He'll take all the glory and do none of the work. The captain of Low Heath ought to have his hand in everything, and not let everything slide."

"You'll find Redwood can be awkward enough when he chooses. You can never tell how far he'll let things go on. But when his back once gets up he'll stiffen pretty hard."

"All I can say is," said Tempest, "if I'm to be c.o.c.k of this house this term--and I've no right to be--"

"Yes, you have, old chap," said Pridgin.

"You know you purposely ran for second place last term, so as to get out of the f.a.g of c.o.c.king the house," retorted his friend. "Anyhow, if I _am_ to be c.o.c.k, I mean to stand up for our rights, and see we're not done out of them by town-boys, of all people."

"Hear, hear," said Pridgin; "stick up for your rights. I don't exactly know what rights we're got more than any other Low Heathens, but stick up for them certainly. Nothing like having a grievance, if you can only find one."

"What do you say to Jarman for one?" said Wales.

The faces of all three clouded at the mention of this name.

"Ah, I'd forgotten about that. Is it true he's to be a sort of general discipline master, and have the right of pulling up any fellow, senior or junior, without even saying a word to his house prefects?"

"He won't do it here, if I can help," said Tempest, with a frown.

"Well, have some more tea," said Pridgin, "before you begin operations.

Here, kid, make a fresh brew, sharp, and then cut."

What I had heard had been quite enough to satisfy me that things were not running altogether smoothly at Low Heath, and that Tempest was not beginning his new duties as head of his house in the best of tempers. I confess I felt a little uneasy. For I knew my old chief's impulsive, generous nature well enough to be sure that he might easily get himself into trouble for the sake of other people. His friends were evidently glad enough to let him fight their battles, but were not likely, at least so it seemed to me, to take much trouble to help him through with them.

I was wandering rather disconsolately down the pa.s.sage when it occurred to me I did not know what I was expected to do or where I was expected to go.

I therefore ventured to accost a senior who was lounging about at the head of the stairs.