For the remaining weeks of the winter term, things went as smoothly inKay's as Kay would let them. That restless gentleman still continuedto burst in on Kennedy from time to time with some sensational storyof how he had found a fag doing what he ought not to have done. Butthere was a world of difference between the effect these visits hadnow and that which they had had when Kennedy had stood alone in thehouse, his hand against all men. Now that he could work off theeffects of such encounters by going straight to Fenn's study andpicking the house-master to pieces, the latter's peculiar methodsceased to be irritating, and became funny. Mr Kay was always ferretingout the weirdest misdoings on the part of the members of his house,and rushing to Kennedy's study to tell him about them at full length,like a rather indignant dog bringing a rat he has hunted down into adrawing-room, to display it to the company. On one occasion, when Fennand Jimmy Silver were in Kennedy's study, Mr Kay dashed in to complainbitterly that he had discovered that the junior dayroom kept mice intheir lockers. Apparently this fact seemed to him enough to cause anepidemic of typhoid fever in the place, and he hauled Kennedy over thecoals, in a speech that lasted five minutes, for not having detectedthis plague-spot in the house.
"So that's the celebrity at home, is it?" said Jimmy Silver, when hehad gone. "I now begin to understand more or less why this house wantsa new Head every two terms. Is he often taken like that?""He's never anything else," said Kennedy. "Fenn keeps a list of thethings he rags me about, and we have an even shilling on, each week,that he will beat the record of the previous week. At first I used toget the shilling if he lowered the record; but after a bit it struckus that it wasn't fair, so now we take it on alternate weeks. This ismy week, by the way. I think I can trouble you for that bob, Fenn?""I wish I could make it more," said Fenn, handing over the shilling.
"What sort of things does he rag you about generally?" inquiredSilver.
Fenn produced a slip of paper.
"Here are a few," he said, "for this month. He came in on the 10thbecause he found two kids fighting. Kennedy was down town when ithappened, but that made no difference. Then he caught the seniordayroom making a row of some sort. He said it was perfectly deafening;but we couldn't hear it in our studies. I believe he goes round thehouse, listening at keyholes. That was on the 16th. On the 22nd hefound a chap in Kennedy's dormitory wandering about the house at onein the morning. He seemed to think that Kennedy ought to have sat upall night on the chance of somebody cutting out of the dormitory. Atany rate, he ragged him. I won the weekly shilling on that; anddeserved it, too."Fenn had to go over to the gymnasium shortly after this. Jimmy Silverstayed on, talking to Kennedy.
"And bar Kay," said Jimmy, "how do you find the house doing? Anybetter?""Better! It's getting a sort of model establishment. I believe, if wekeep pegging away at them, we may win some sort of a cup sooner orlater.""Well, Kay's very nearly won the cricket cup last year. You ought toget it next season, now that you and Fenn are both in the team.""Oh, I don't know. It'll be a fluke if we do. Still, we're hoping. Itisn't every house that's got a county man in it. But we're breakingout in another place. Don't let it get about, for goodness' sake, butwe're going for the sports' cup.""Hope you'll get it. Blackburn's won't have a chance, anyhow, and Ishould like to see somebody get it away from the School House. They'vehad it much too long. They're beginning to look on it as their right.
But who are your men?""Well, Fenn ought to be a cert for the hundred and the quarter, tostart with.""But the School House must get the long run, and the mile, and thehalf, too, probably.""Yes. We haven't anyone to beat Milligan, certainly. But there are thesecond and third places. Don't forget those. That's where we're goingto have a look in. There's all sorts of unsuspected talent in Kay's.
To look at Peel, for instance, you wouldn't think he could do thehundred in eleven, would you? Well, he can, only he's been too slackto go in for the race at the sports, because it meant training. I hadhim up here and reasoned with him, and he's promised to do his best.
Eleven is good enough for second place in the hundred, don't youthink? There are lots of others in the house who can do quite decentlyon the track, if they try. I've been making strict inquiries. Kay'sare hot stuff, Jimmy. Heap big medicine. That's what they are.""You're a wonderful man, Kennedy," said Jimmy Silver. And he meant it.
Kennedy's uphill fight at Kay's had appealed to him strongly. Hehimself had never known what it meant to have to manage a hostilehouse. He had stepped into his predecessor's shoes at Blackburn's muchas the heir to a throne becomes king. Nobody had thought of disputinghis right to the pl............