orst of the two, always up
to it, she is--she got hold of my old hat and had it in bits before you
could say knife. John upset a china vase in one of the bedrooms chasing
a mouse, and they got on the coffee-room table and ate half a cold
chicken what had been left there. So I says to myself, 'I'll have a game
with Mr. Jellicoe over this,' and I sits down and writes off saying the
little dogs have eaten a valuable hat and a chicken and what not, and
the damage'll be five pounds, and will he kindly remit same by Saturday
night at the latest or I write to his headmaster. Love us!" Mr. Barley
slapped his thigh, "he took it all in, every word--and here's the five
pounds in cash in this envelope here! I haven't had such a laugh since
we got old Tom Raxley out of bed at twelve of a winter's night by
telling him his house was afire."

It is not always easy to appreciate a joke of the practical order if one
has been made even merely part victim of it. Mike, as he reflected that
he had been dragged out of his house in the middle of the night, in
contravention of all school rules and discipline, simply in order to
satisfy Mr. Barley's sense of humor, was more inclined to be abusive
than mirthful. Running risks is all very well when they are necessary,
or if one chooses to run them for one's own amusement, but to be placed
in a dangerous position, a position imperiling one's chance of going to
the 'Varsity, is another matter altogether.

But it is impossible to abuse the Barley type of man. Barley's enjoyment
of the whole thing was so honest and childlike. Probably it had given
him the happiest quarter of an hour he had known for years, since, in
fact, the affair of old Tom Raxley. It would have been cruel to damp
the man.

So Mike laughed perfunctorily, took back the envelope with the five
pounds, accepted a ginger beer and a plateful of biscuits, and rode off
on his return journey.

* * * * *

Mention has been made above of the difference which exists between
getting into an inn after lockup and into a private house. Mike was to
find this out for himself.

His first act on arriving at Sedleigh was to replace his bicycle in the
shed. This he accomplished with success. It was pitch-dark in the shed,
and as he wheeled his machine in, his foot touched something on the
floor. Without waiting to discover what this might be, he leaned his
bicycle against the wall, went out, and locked the door, afte