s head one must run the risk of being
bowled; and I didn't believe in sticking in and doing nothing. 'Get on
or get out,' and, well, I've got out." He laughed rather hysterically.

Again silence.

Slowly Jeffries got up.

"Well, good-bye, you men." He shook hands. As he opened the door he
paused for a second, laughed to himself: "Oh, it's funny, bloody funny,"
he murmured. "Not fit for Fernhurst.... Bloody funny." He laughed again,
bitterly. The door closed slowly.

Jeffries' footsteps could be heard on the stairs. They grew fainter; the
door leading to the Chief's side of the House slammed. Down the study
passage a gramophone struck up _Florrie was a Flapper_.

In Study 34 there was an awful stillness.

That evening on the way down to supper Gordon overheard Armour say to
Meredith:

"What a fool that man Jeffries is, getting bunked, and mucking up the
grovel. Damned ass, the man is."

Meredith agreed.

Gordon didn't care very much just now about the result of a House match.
He had lost a friend. Armour had lost a cog in a machine.

* * * * *

As was expected, the Three Cock proved a terribly one-sided game. The
House played pluckily, and for the first half kept the score down to
eight points; but during the last twenty minutes it was quite impossible
to keep out the strong outhouse combination. The side became
demoralised, and went absolutely to pieces. Armour did not give a single
House cap.

After the Three Cock there was a period of four weeks during which the
best athletes trained for the sports, while the rest of the school
played hockey. It was generally considered a sort of holiday after the
stress of house matches. Usually it served its purpose well, but for the
welfare of the House this year it was utterly disastrous. The whole
house was in a highly strung, discontented state; it had nothing to work
for; it had only failures to look back upon. The result was a general
opposition to authority. For a week or so there was a continuous row
going on in the studies. Window-frames were broken; chairs were smashed;
nearly every day one or other member of the House was hauled before the
Chief, for trouble of some sort. But things did not reach a real head
till one night in hall, just before Palm Sunday. There was a lecture for
the Sixth Form; Armour was taking hall; and the only prefect in the
studies was Sandham, who had a headache and had got leave off the
lecture. It di