he past few days must have had a stimulating effect
on Mike's mind--shaken it up, as it were, for now, for the second time
in two days, he displayed quite a creditable amount of intuition. He
might have been misled by Adair's apparently deprecatory attitude toward
Sedleigh, and blundered into a denunciation of the place. Adair had
said, "a small school like this" in the sort of voice which might have
led his hearer to think that he was expected to say, "Yes, rotten little
hole, isn't it?" or words to that effect. Mike, fortunately, perceived
that the words were used purely from politeness, on the Chinese
principle. When a Chinese man wishes to pay a compliment, he does so by
belittling himself and his belongings.

He eluded the pitfall.

"What rot!" he said. "Sedleigh's one of the most sporting schools I've
ever come across. Everybody's as keen as blazes. So they ought to be,
after the way you've sweated."

Adair shuffled awkwardly.

"I've always been fairly keen on the place," he said. "But I don't
suppose I've done anything much."

"You've loosened one of my front teeth," said Mike, with a grin, "if
that's any comfort to you."

"I couldn't eat anything except porridge this morning. My jaw still
aches."

For the first time during the conversation their eyes met, and the
humorous side of the thing struck them simultaneously. They began
to laugh.

"What fools we must have looked," said Adair.

"_You_ were all right. I must have looked rotten. I've never had the
gloves on in my life. I'm jolly glad no one saw us except Smith, who
doesn't count. Hello, there's the bell. We'd better be moving on. What
about this match? Not much chance of it from the look of the sky
at present."

"It might clear before eleven. You'd better get changed, anyhow, at the
interval, and hang about in case."

"All right. It's better than doing Thucydides with Downing. We've got
math till the interval, so I don't see anything of him all day; which
won't hurt me."

"He isn't a bad sort of chap, when you get to know him," said Adair.

"I can't have done, then. I don't know which I'd least soon be, Downing
or a black beetle, except that if one was Downing one could tread on the
black beetle. Dash this rain. I got about half a pint down my neck just
then. We shan't get a game today, or anything like it. As you're
crocked, I'm not sure that I care much. You've been sweating for years
to get the match on, and it would be rather rot playi