Coles returned to his study in a very bad temper. There had been one precious minute during the meeting when he had found himself suddenly thinking: “My word! Supposing they should elect me!”
Never before had he seriously considered himself captain of Rugby football; but now that he did so he found the sensation peculiarly delightful. In these fleeting moments he imagined himself the most important man in the school, a veritable maker of laws. He pictured the favours he would be able to win from other fellows by withholding or bestowing colours. He would be respected in the town. He would be able to get things on tick. He might even be awarded a money prize by his proud father.
All these possibilities had flashed before his mind’s eye whilst other names were being suggested. Then that well-meaning but misguided individual had risen really and truly to propose his own and the chance was altogether too much for him. He had jumped to his feet.... There remained now nothing but the memory of being called an ass.
After all, he was the best drop-kick in the school. He could not for the life of him see why it should be so very absurd to suppose him captain. It is, of course, at such times as this that the close observer may discern the subtle difference between one who is instinctively a gentleman and one who is not. Coles was not a young man of good taste and that’s all there is to it.
83At all events he was very angry, and the first butt upon whom he could vent his feelings happened to be Bobbie Carr, who was waiting obediently outside his study. Coles pounced upon him eagerly. To Bobbie his nose looked longer than ever, and more beak-like; his prominent cheek-bones, too, were touched with the hectic flush of indignation.
He pointed at Bobbie fiercely.
“What are you doing here? Why are you hanging about outside my study? When I want you I call for you. Nothing will annoy me so much as to see you when I don’t want you.”
“You told me to come,” said Bobbie mildly.
Coles, who had turned, spun round upon him instantly, his whole countenance darkening like the sky before a storm.
“You’d argue, would you? I told you to come, did I? Well, now I tell you to go, so GO!”
He made a threatening gesture towards Bobbie, but as Bobbie did not flinch he emitted a sound of utter passion and went noisily into his study, slamming the door behind him.
Once inside, he threw himself into a chair and began to brood. And, brooding, he came to a sudden decision.
Coles had certain friends, and it was his custom to entertain these friends during the early part of each term. Afterwards they, in their turn, entertained him. But he liked to be the first to issue an invitation. For one thing, this enabled him to cut a dash whilst he still had a fair amount of money; and having duly impressed the said friends with the way in which he believed in doing things, he was then able to enjoy their hospitality on a similarly lavish scale during times when he himself was rather hard up, entirely free of cost.
These entertainments were not feeds as feeds are generally understood. That is to say, expense and 84provender were never pooled. The inclusion of parcels from home was rather scorned if anything. It would have implied that the host was unable to provide a really sumptuous repast out of his own pocket, and had had to resort to a means of entertaining which is available to every junior. To Coles and his friends this would never have done. You will gather that Coles and his friends were snobs and you will be correct. But there was something else. They were, in addition, fools. None of these repasts was complete without one special item. There is no use hiding the fact. The item was drink. Under these circumstances it is surprising, of course, that Coles should have succeeded in getting into the First Fifteen the previous year. Coles was, however, passably clever. Very few in the school knew that he was addicted to this particular form of vice, and he took care that very few should. He posed as a connoisseur of whisky only to those friends who shared it with him. To all appearances he trained conscientiously, and he was sufficiently skilful to avoid giving any outward signs that he was not always fit. In addition, he indulged in drink only after matches, so that on Saturdays he was usually fit enough to pass muster. Indeed, whenever he had felt at all off colour he had found it easy enough to plead a cold.
The idea came to him now that he would vent his feelings in entertaining his friends to a really good evening. It should take place in his study, and he would drown his bitterness in fiery spirits flowing from a teapot. He did not like whisky, but it was supposed to be a good comforter once you had got it down, and besides, it was great to be able to take the stuff slightly stronger than the next man.
He came to this decision suddenly, and he reflected only for a few moments. He could scarcely have 85chosen a better night for the party. The deputation would be visiting the Head that evening and he expected that the school would retire to bed in something of an uproar. There might be a house demonstration in favour of Rouse. It was, moreover, very unlikely that there would be a Rugby match under present circumstances for a full week. Everything was to the good. He began to cheer up. At last he went to the door, opened it, and let out a piercing cry.
There was no answer at all. The corridor was absolutely silent.
It was only a very few minutes since he had sent Carr away, and to find now that when he really wanted him he had entirely disappeared was more than Coles could bear. He choked back a sob of despair and tried again. This time he shouted, if possible, more loudly and more angrily. Still there was silence. He muttered: “Where is he?” in a sort of stage whisper full of threatening significance, almost as if he believed Carr might be hiding a few yards away and, hearing him, would come out. He was really very like a spoilt child. It is said that walls have ears. If so, one must pity the wall which received the full blast of Coles’ next cry. Coles meant to attract attention or burst, and to do one or the other he richly deserved. As it happens, he attracted the attention of Rouse, who appeared round the corner with an expression of extreme annoyance.
“Are you ill?” said he. “Do you want help?”
“I want my fag,” snapped Coles. “He was here only a minute ago, the jackass.”
“The chances are that your first shout knocked him flat on his face,” said Rouse, “and he’s lying round the corner in a fit. It nearly had that effect on me. I thought you’d been taken queer. If it’s 86only your fag you want would you mind stopping that unholy row, or else only make it at stated times, so that a fellow could know it was coming and be ready for it?”
Coles began to go pink and white by turns. He was very nearly losing all control of himself. He badly wanted to hit somebody in the eye, and the only consideration that kept him from doing so at once was uncertainty as to whether it would be altogether a good thing to start on Rouse.
Had he known what had actually happened he might, however, have even risked this.
Rouse had met Carr down the corridor on his way back from the meeting and had stopped for a minute to speak to him, bent on displaying good spirits at all costs in case the boy might already have heard what had happened. In the middle of his conversation Coles’ first shout had reached their ears, and Bobbie Carr had moved as if to go in answer to it. Before he had time to start, however, the second cry had come, and Rouse had turned in the direction from which it came almost angrily.
“What’s he making that row for?” said he. “Don’t go. That fellow ought to learn how to treat a fag before he has one. You push off. I’ll tell him I sent you on an errand. I’ll go and tick him off.”
Bobbie Carr seemed a little uncertain.
“I’d better answer him,” said he at last.
At that moment the third shout reached their ears.
“Listen to that,” said Rouse. “He’s off his head. If you go to him now the first thing he’ll do will be to catch you a whack across the face, and then I shall have to come in and intervene. It’s hardly fair to Coles. You go. I’ll go along and see if I can calm him down by means of the honeyed word.”
Eventually Bobbie saw that Rouse meant it and moved slowly away, though, if Rouse’s forecast were true, it seemed to him a little like funking.
87Rouse looked at Coles now with cool forbearance.
“As a matter of fact,” said he, “I met Carr a short while back, and as he’d got nothing to do I sent him on a little errand. You would have shouted like that all night and he wouldn’t have heard you. See how silly you make yourself.”
Coles made an idiotic gesture.
“Sent him on an errand?” said he. “But Carr’s my fag!”
“Well, well,” said Rouse, “if you have anything you really want doing permit me to do it for you. I notice you want your neck washing.”
Coles stepped forward, and leaned towards Rouse until his face was barely an inch away from his. Then he spoke through clenched teeth.
“I don’t want any of that,” said he. “Understand, I don’t want it. Whether you’re captain of footer or not, I don’t want any of that.” He paused. “Otherwise you and I will come to blows. You’ve always thought it funny to pull my leg. It’s time it stopped.”
At the time he presumably forgot that he had never failed to avail himself of any chance that had presented itself to him of insulting or annoying Rouse; nor that on two of the more recent occasions upon which Henry Hope had assisted Terence and Rouse out of a hole it had been he himself who had been instrumental in getting them into it.
“You rather ask for it,” said Rouse gently. “If you could only see how perfectly childish you look in these tempers of yours you’d realise that a chap does you a good turn by trying to cure you. One of these days you’ll do something in a passion of fury that you’ll be sorry for.”
Coles slowly withdrew his face. He then drew back a step and indicated Rouse with a warning finger.
“Take care what you say,” said he darkly. “You be very careful.”
88Rouse sighed.
“Before I go,” said he, “there’s one other thing. I’m going to see Morley to-day with a view to asking if I can have Carr for my fag and give you my own. Ludlow would be rather more suited to your temperament than............