cat, King had been too ready to see affront
where none was meant, and the Reverend John, buffer-state and general
confidant, had worked for a week to bring about a good understanding.
He was fat, clean-shaven, except for a big mustache, of an imperturbable
good temper, and, those who loved him least said, a guileful Jesuit.
He smiled benignantly upon his handiwork--four sorely tried men talking
without very much malice.

"Now remember," he said, when the conversation turned that way, "I
impute nothing. But every time that any one has taken direct steps
against Number Five study, the issue has been more or less humiliating
to the taker."

"I can't admit that. I pulverize the egregious Beetle daily for his
soul's good; and the others with him," said King.

"Well, take your own case, King, and go back a couple of years. Do
you remember when Prout and you were on their track for hutting and
trespass, wasn't it? Have you forgotten Colonel Dabney?"

The others laughed. King did not care to be reminded of his career as a
poacher.

"That was one instance. Again, when you had rooms below them--I always
said that that was entering the lion's den--you turned them out."

"For making disgusting noises. Surely, Gillett, you don't excuse--"

"All I say is that you turned them out. That same evening your study was
wrecked."

"By Rabbits-Eggs--most beastly drunk--from the road," said King. "What
has that?"

The Reverend John went on.

"Lastly, they conceive that aspersions are cast upon their personal
cleanliness--a most delicate matter with all boys. Ve-ry good. Observe
how, in each case, the punishment fits the crime. A week after your
house calls them 'stinkers,' King, your house is, not to put too fine a
point on it, stunk out by a dead cat who chooses to die in the one
spot where she can annoy you most. Again the long arm of coincidence!
_Summa_. You accuse them of trespass. Through some absurd chain of
circumstances--they may or may not be at the other end of it--you and
Prout are made to appear as trespassers. You evict them. For a time your
study is made untenable. I have drawn the parallel in the last case.
Well?"

"She was under the centre of White's dormitory," said King. "There are
double floor-boards there to deaden noise. No boy, even in my own house,
could possibly have pried up the boards without leaving some trace--and
Rabbits-Eggs was phenomenally drunk that other night."

"They are singularly favored b