regone
conclusion that Fluff would put the ball into his hands. Then Fluff
faced the bowler. Now for it!

The first ball was half a foot off the wicket, but Fluff let it go by.
The second came true enough. Fluff blocked it. The third flew past
Fluff's leg, but he just snicked it. Desmond started to run, and then
stopped, holding up his hand. Cheers rippled round the ring for the
first hit to the boundary. That was a bit of sheer luck, Fluff
reflected.

After this both boys played steadily for some ten minutes. Then, very
slowly, Caesar began to score. He had made about fifteen when he drove a
ball hard to the on, Fluff backing up. Desmond, watching the travelling
ball, called to him to run. It seemed to Desmond almost certain that the
ball would go to the boundary. Too late he realized that it had been
magnificently fielded. Desmond strained every nerve, but his bat had not
reached the crease when the bails flew to right and left.

Out! And run out!

Three wickets for 41!

A quarter of an hour later Fluff was bowled with a yorker. He had made
eleven runs, and kept up his wicket during a crisis. Harrow cheered him
loudly.

And then came the terrible moment of the morning. Scaife went in when
Fluff's wicket fell. The ground had improved, but it was still
treacherous. The fast bowler sent down a straight one. It shot under
Scaife's bat and spread-eagled his stumps.

The wicket-keeper knows what the Harrow captain said, but it does not
bear repeating. Every eye was on his scowling, furious face as he
returned to the pavilion; and the Rev. Septimus scowled also, because he
had always maintained that any Harrovian could accept defeat like a
gentleman. Upon the other side of the ground the Caterpillar was saying
to his father. "I always said he was hairy at the heel."

* * * * *

It was admitted afterwards that the Duffer's performance was the one
really bright spot in Harrow's second innings. Being a bowler, he went
in last but one. It happened that Fluff's brother was in possession of
the ball. It will never be known why the Duffer chose to treat Cosmo
Kinloch's balk with utter scorn and contempt. The Duffer was tall,
strong, and a terrific slogger. Nobody expected him to make a run, but
he made twenty in one over--all boundary hits. When he left the wicket
he had added thirty-eight to the score, and wouldn't have changed places
with an emperor. The Rev. Septimus followed him into t