re made of who found it amusing to hurt and frighten other people, who
had done them no harm....

And now the voice of Scab Major rang out distinctly: "After _that_
exhibition, he'll jolly well salaam to the lot of us, turn about. If
he's never learnt, we'll show him how."

The word salaam enlightened Roy. Yesterday there had been a buzz of
curiosity over the belated arrival of a new boy--an
Indian--weedy-looking and noticeably dark, with a sullen mouth and
shifty eyes. Roy, though keenly interested, had not felt drawn to him;
and a new self-protective shrinking had withheld him from proferring
advances that might only embroil them both. He had never imagined the
boy's colour would tell against him. Was _that_ what it meant--making
him salaam?

At the bare suspicion, shrinking gave place to rage. Beasts, they were!
If only he could take a flying leap on to them, or roll a few stones
down and scare them out of their wits. But he could not stir without
giving away his secret. And while he hesitated, his eye absently
followed a moving speck far off on the shining sand.

It was a boy on a bicycle--hatless, head in air, sitting very erect.
There was only one boy at St Rupert's who carried his head that way and
sat his bicycle just so. From the first Roy had watched him covertly,
with devout admiration; longing to know him, too shy to ask his name.
But so far the godlike one, surrounded by friends, had hardly seemed
aware of his existence.

Swiftly he came nearer; and with a sudden leap of his pulses, Roy knew
he had seen----

Springing off his bicycle, he flung himself into the little group of
tormentors, hitting out vigorously right and left. Sheer surprise and
the fury of his onslaught gave him the advantage; and the guilty
consciences of the less aggressive were his allies....

This was not cruelty, but championship: and Roy, determined to see all,
lay flat on his front--danger of discovery forgotten--grabbing the edge
of the cliff, that curved inward, exulting in the triumph of the
deliverer and the scattering of the foe.

Bennet Major, one of the first to break away, saw and seized the
prostrate bicycle. At that Roy lost his head; leaned perilously over and
shouted a warning, "Hi! Look out!"

But the Scab was off like the wind: and the rest, startled by a voice
from nowhere, hurriedly followed suit.

Roy, raising himself on his hands, gave a convulsive wriggle of
joy--that changed midway, into a backward je