been
known to be from his birth, and that he probably cheated at Bridge;
and he told me to jolly well disprove his accusation by fetching you
along. I explained they were making beasts of themselves over this
Ray business--"

"It would have been more sporting of you," said Doe, drawing on his
trousers and thanking Heaven that he was not as other men, nor even
as this Pennybet, "if you'd stuck by Rupert and defied the
prefects."

"My dear Gray Doe," this statesman expounded, "I go in for nothing
that I can't win. And if you want to win, you must always make sure
that the adverse conditions are beatable. I like to tame
circumstances to my own ends (hear, hear), but if they aren't
tamable I let them alone. So now you know. But about these prefects.
They've got their cane ready, so push your shirt well down."

Doe studiously refused to hurry over his dressing, and, having
assumed his jacket, went to a mirror and took great pains with his
hair. At this moment, though the hand which held the brush trembled,
he was almost happy: for he was playing, I know, at being a French
Aristocrat going to the guillotine dressed like a gentleman.

"My time is valuable," hinted Penny. "Still, by all means let us be
spotless.... That's right. Now you look ripping. Come along, and
I'll stand you a drink when it's over."

For Penny, the callous opportunist, had a sort of patronising
tenderness for his two acolytes.

Doe followed his conductor in a silence which not only saved him
from betraying timidity by a trembling voice, but also suited the
dignity of a French Aristocrat. But no--at this point, I think, he
was a Christian martyr walking to the lions.

"Come, my lamb, to the slaughter-house," said Penny, in the best of
spirits, "and don't try that looking-defiant game, 'cos it won't
pay. They're not taking any to-day, thank you. That's their tone....
There's the door. Now remember not to say a word on your own behalf,
for with these bally prefects anything that you say will be taken
down in evidence against you.... Enter the prisoner, gentlemen.
Sorry to be so long, but we had to make ourselves presentable.
Anything else in the same line to-day?"

Penny paused for breath, but showed no desire to leave the Prefects'
Room. He wanted to see at least the commencement of judicial
proceedings. They looked so promising. All the Bramhall prefects
were there--Bickerton, Kepple-Goddard, and the prosecuting counsel,
Banana-Skin; and Stanl