"You'd better meet me here, then, as soon after school as you can."

As he spoke, the car stopped.

"Where are we?" asked Sheen.

"Just at the corner of the road behind the houses."

"Oh, I know. Hullo, there goes the lock-up bell. I shall do it
comfortably."

He jumped down.

"I say, Bruce," he said, "I really am most awfully obliged for the
lift. Something went wrong with my boat, and I couldn't get back in it.
I should have been frightfully in the cart if you hadn't come by."

"That's all right," said Jack Bruce. "I say, Sheen!"

"Hullo?"

"Are you going to practise in the music-room after morning school
tomorrow?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I think I'll turn up."

"I wish you would."

"What's that thing that goes like this? I forget most of it."

He whistled a few bars.

"That's a thing of Greig's," said Sheen.

"You might play it tomorrow," said Bruce.

"Rather. Of course I will."

"Thanks," said Jack Bruce. "Good night."

He turned the car, and vanished down the road. From the sound Sheen
judged that he was once more travelling at a higher rate of speed than
the local police would have approved.

XIV

A SKIRMISH

Upon consideration Sheen determined to see Linton about that small
matter of the boat without delay. After prayers that night he went to
his study.

"Can I speak to you for a minute, Linton?" he said.

Linton was surprised. He disapproved of this intrusion. When a fellow
is being cut by the house, he ought, by all the laws of school
etiquette, to behave as such, and not speak till he is spoken to.

"What do you want?" asked Linton.

"I shan't keep you long. Do you think you could put away that book for
a minute, and listen?"

Linton hesitated, then shut the book.

"Hurry up, then," he said.

"I was going to," said Sheen. "I simply came in to tell you that I know
perfectly well who sunk my boat this afternoon."

He felt at once that he had now got Linton's undivided attention.

"Your boat!" said Linton. "You don't mean to say that was yours! What
on earth were you doing at the place?"

"I don't think that's any business of yours, is it, Linton?"

"How did you get back?"

"I don't think that's any business of yours, either. I daresay you're
disappointed, but I did manage to get back. In time for lock-up, too."

"But I don't understand. Do you mean to say that that was your boat we
took?"

"Sunk," corrected Sheen.

"Don't be a fool, Sheen. What the dickens sh