felt his throat hammering and his head becoming stupid, as he read the
terse little note in the fresh morning air of Jesus Lane.

It ran as follows:

"DEAR JACK,

"It's no good, and I'm off early! That ass Mackintosh went and
wired to my people directly I left him. I tracked him down. And
there'll be the devil to pay unless I clear out. So I can't
come to breakfast. Sorry.

"Yours,
"F.G.

"P.S.--By the way, you might as well go round to the little man
and try to keep him quiet. Tell him it'll make a scandal for
Trinity College, Cambridge, if he makes a fuss. That'll stop
him, perhaps. And you might try to rescue my saddle from the
porter. He's probably got it by now."

Three minutes later a figure in a sweater, gray trousers, canvas shoes,
Third Trinity blazer and no cap, stood, very inarticulate with
breathlessness, at the door of the Senior Dean's rooms, demanding of a
scandalized bed-maker to see the official in question.

"'E's in his barth, sir!" expostulated the old woman.

"Then he must come out of it!" panted Jack.

"--That is, if 'e's out o' bed."

"Then he can stop in it, if he isn't.... I tell you--"

Jack gave up arguing. He took the old lady firmly by the shoulders, and
placed her in the doorway of the audience-room; then he was up the inner
stairs in three strides, through the sitting-room, and was tapping at
the door of the bedroom. A faint sound of splashing ceased.

"Who's there? Don't--"

"It's me, sir--Kirkby! I'm sorry to disturb you, but--"

"Don't come in!" cried an agitated voice, with a renewed sound of water,
as if someone had hastily scrambled out of the bath.

Jack cautiously turned the handle and opened the door a crack. A cry of
dismay answered his move, followed by a tremendous commotion and
swishing of linen.

"I'm coming in, sir," said Jack, struggling between agitation and
laughter. It was obvious from the sounds that the clergyman had got into
bed again, wet, and as God made him. There was no answer, and Jack
pushed the door wider and went in.

It was as he had thought. His unwilling host had climbed back into bed
as hastily as possible, and the bed-clothes, wildly disordered, were
gathered round his person. A face, with wet hair, looking very odd and
childlike without his glasses, regarded him with the look of one who
sees sacrilege done. A