Besides, one can't go into their study like a form-room.""What swine!" McTurk listened. "Where's the fun of it? I suppose Clewer's faggin'
for them."
"They aren't prefects. That's one good job," said Stalky, with his war-grin. "Sefton and Campbell! Um! Campbell and Sefton! Ah! One of 'em's a crammer's pup."The two were precocious hairy youths between seventeen and eighteen, sent to the school in despair by parents who hoped that six months' steady cram might, perhaps, jockey them into Sandhurst. Nominally they were in Mr. Prout's house; actually they were under the Head's eye; and since he was very careful never to promote strange new boys to prefectships, they considered they had a grievance against the school.
Sefton had spent three months with a London crammer, and the tale of his adventures there lost nothing in the telling. Campbell, who had a fine taste in clothes and a fluent vocabulary, followed his lead in looking down loftily on the rest of the world. This was only their second term, and the school, used to what it profanely called "crammers' pups," had treated them with rather galling reserve. But their whiskers--Sefton owned a real razor--and their mustaches were beyond question impressive.
"Shall we go in an' dissuade 'em?" McTurk asked. "I've never had much to do with 'em, but I'll bet my hat Campbell's a funk.""No--o! That's _oratio_directa_," said Stalky, shaking his head. "I like _oratio_obliqua_. 'Sides, where'd our moral influence be then? Think o' that!""Rot! What are you goin' to do?" Beetle turned into Lower Number Nine form-room, next door to the study.
"Me?" The lights of war flickered over Stalky's face. "Oh, I want to jape with 'em.
Shut up a bit!"
He drove his hands into his pockets and stared out of window at the sea, whistling between his teeth. Then a foot tapped the floor; one shoulder lifted; he wheeled, and began the short quick double-shuffle--the war-dance of Stalky in meditation.
Thrice he crossed the empty form-room, with compressed lips and expanded nostrils, swaying to the quick-step. Then he halted before the dumb Beetle and softly knuckled his bead, Beetle bowing to the strokes. McTurk nursed one knee and rocked to and fro. They could hear Clewer howling as though his heart would break.
"Beetle is the sacrifice," Stalky said at last, "I'm sorry for you, Beetle. 'Member Galton's 'Art of Travel' [one of the forms had been studying that pleasant work] an'
the kid whose bleatin' excited the tiger?"
"Oh, curse!" said Beetle uneasily. It was not his first season as a sacrifice.
"Can't you get on without me?"
"'Fraid not, Beetle, dear. You've got to be bullied by Turkey an' me. The more you howl, o' course, the better it'll be. Turkey, go an' covet a stump and a box-rope from somewhere. We'll tie him up for a kill--_a'_la_ Galton. 'Member when 'Molly'
Fairburn made us cock-fight with our shoes off, an' tied up our knees?""But that hurt like sin."
"Course it did. What a clever chap you are, Beetle! Turkey'll knock you all over the place. 'Member we've had a big row all round, an' I've trapped you into doin' this.
Lend us your wipe." Beetle was trussed for cock-fighting; but, in addition to the transverse stump between elbow and knee, His knees were bound with a box-rope. In this posture, at a push from Stalky he rolled over sideways, covering himself with dust.
"Ruffle his hair, Turkey. Now you get down, too. 'The bleatin' of the kid excites the tiger.' You two are in such a sweatin' wax with me that you only curse. 'Member that. I'll tickle you up with a stump. You'll have to blub, Beetle.""Right O! I'll work up to it in half a shake," said Beetle.
"Now begin--and remember the bleatin' o' the kid.""Shut up, you brutes! Let me up! You've nearly cut my knees off. Oh, you _are_beastly cads! _Do_ shut up. 'Tisn't a joke!" Beetle's protest was, in tone, a work of art.
"Give it to him, Turkey! Kick him! Roll him over! Kill him! Don't funk, Beetle, you brute. Kick him again, Turkey.""He's not blubbin' really. Roll up, Beetle, or I'll kick you into the fender,"roared McTurk. They made a hideous noise among them, and the bait allured their quarry.
"Hullo! What's the giddy jest?" Sefton and Campbell entered to find Beetle on his side, his head against the fender, weeping copiously, while McTurk prodded him in the back with his toes.
"It's only Beetle," Stalky explained. "He's shammin' hurt. I can't get Turkey to go for him properly." Sefton promptly kicked both boys, and his face lighted. "All right, I'll attend to 'em. Get up an' cock-fight, you two. Give me the stump. I'll tickle 'em. Here's a giddy jest! Come on, Campbell. Let's cook 'em."Then McTurk turned on Stalky and called him very evil names.
"You said you were goin' to cock-fight too, Stalky. Come on!""More ass you for believin' me, then!" shrieked Stalky.
"Have you chaps had a row?" said Campbell. "Row?" said Stalky. "Huh! I'm only educatin' them. D'you know anythin' about cock-fighting, Seffy?""Do I know? Why, at Maclagan's, where I was crammin' in town, we used to cock-fight in his drawing-room, and little Maclagan daren't say anything. But we were just the same as men there, of course. Do I know? _I_'ll show you.""Can't I get up?" moaned Beetle, as Stalky sat on his shoulder.
"Don't jaw, you fat piffler. You're going to fight Seffy.""He'll slay me!"
"Oh, lug 'em into our study," said Campbell. "It's nice an' quiet in there. I'll cock-fight Turkey. This is an improvement on young Clewer.""Right O! I move it's shoes-off for them an' shoes-on for us," said Sefton joyously, and the two were flung down on the study floor. Stalky rolled them behind an arm-chair. "Now I'll tie you two up an' direct the bull-fight. Golly, what wrists you have, Seffy. They're too thick for a wipe; got a box-rope?" said he.
"Lots in the corner," Sefton replied. "Hurry up! Stop blubbin', you brute, Beetle.
