did swallow I couldn't taste. I was glad
when at five o'clock something definite could be done like going to
the baths, selecting a cabin, and beginning to undress. Four minutes
were scarcely sufficient for me to undo my braces, such was the
trembling of my hand. I longed for the moments to pass, so that the
time to dive in could come; every delay ruffled me; I wished the
whole thing were over. It didn't lessen my suffering to watch the
gallery filling with excited boys, and to see the crowd on the
ground-floor make way for Salome himself, followed by Fillet and
Radley as representatives of Bramhall, and Upton as house-master of
Erasmus. Perspiration beaded my forehead. My heart fluttered, and I
began to fear some failure in that quarter. At one moment, when I
was _in extremis_, I would willingly have exchanged positions with
the humblest of the onlookers: at another I caught a faint gleam of
hope in the thought that the end of the world might yet come before
I was asked to do anything publicly. And I conceived of happier boys
who had died young.

The baths were prepared for the event. Across the water, thirty feet
from the diving-station, a large beam was fixed, which the
competitors must reach and touch, before turning round and swimming
back to the starting point. More boys were allowed to crowd into the
gallery and the cabins. Very conspicuous was the expansive white
waistcoat of old Dr. Chapman, who was busy backing Erasmus when
talking to the boys of Erasmus, and Bramhall when questioned by
Bramhallites. Fillet, as master of Bramhall; Upton, as master of
Erasmus; and Jerry Brisket, as a neutral, were appointed judges.

White gathered the Bramhall four into his cabin and arranged with
sanguine comments that we should swim in this order:

1. Himself--to give us a good start.

2. Johnson--to lose as little as possible of the fine lead
established.

3. Ray--to make the position absolutely certain.

4. Cully--to maintain the twenty-yards' lead secured by Ray.

"See, Ray," he said to me, after he had dismissed the others, "you
swim third--last but one."

"Ye--es," I stuttered.

"Nervous?" he inquired softly.

I smiled and made a grimace. "Beastly."

He gripped my hand in his powerful fist and whispered: "Rot! you are
certain to do everything for us. My heart is set on winning this and
staggering the school."

I smiled again. "You're a ripping chap, and I'm sorry if I've ever
cheeked you."

Sudden chee