The Gold Bat

ibly have made him unpopular had he not justified it byresults. The football of the school had never been in such aflourishing condition as it had attained t

ia-rubber". At firstsight his appearance was not imposing. Paterfamilias, who had heard hisson's eulogies on Trevor's performances during the holidays, and camedown to watch the school play a match, was generally ratherdisappointed on seeing five feet six where he had looked for at leastsix foot one, and ten stone where he had expected thirteen. But then,what there was of Trevor was, as prev

the weather was good--wedgedinto his window in a sitting position, one leg in the study, the otherhanging outside over

the effort, waswhat one naturally expected from Clowes. He

r kids got measles in the last week of the holidays,so they shunted all the beds and things across, and the chaps went backthere instead of to the house."In the winter term the baths were always boarded over and convertedinto a sort of extra gymnasium where

rit movedthem, but he's the only one I've met who breaks them all day longand well into the night simply for amusement. I've often thought ofwriting to the S.P.C.A. about it. I suppose you could call Dexter ananimal all right?""O'Hara's right enough, really. A man like Dexter would make any fellowrun amuck. And then O'Hara's an Irishman to start with, which makes adifference."There is usu

eorderly of their own free will, but disturbances in the junior day-r

business, and took tochicken-farming. And that was the state of things in Dexter's. It wasthe most lawless of the houses. Mr Dexter belonged to a type of masteralmost unknown at a pub

all ofthat match bowled. He was prowling in sequestered lanes and broken-downbarns out of bounds on the off-chance that he might catch some member ofhis house smoking there. As if the whole of the house, from

hing definitely

t to see O'Hara ab

ver cup, vast withal and cunningly decorated with filigreework, and standing on a massive ebony plinth, round which were littlesilver lozenges just big enough to hold the name of the winning houseand the year of grace. This he presented with his blessing to becompeted for by the dozen houses that made up the school of Wrykyn, andit was formally established as the house cricket cup. The question nowarose: what was to be done with the other cup? The School House, whohappened to be the holders at the time, suggested disinterestedly thatit should become the property of the house which had won it last. "N

ain of thewinning team to have and to hold in the manner aforesaid. And, tosingle it out from the others, it was wrought, not of silver, but ofgold. And so it came to pass that at the time of our s

f we hadn't beaten Dexter's in thefinal, O'Hara would have had it himself. So I sent it over next daywith a note asking O'Hara to bring it back with him here.""Oh, well, there's a chance, then, seeing he's only had it so littletime, that he hasn't pawned it yet. You'd better rush off and get itback as soon as possible. It's no good waiting for me. I shan't beready for we

en, who was aDonaldsonite like himself, was one of the few points on which the twohad any real disagreement. Clo

Trevor," s

oing somewhere else.""I wasn't going anywhere in particular. I never know what to do interm-

ere always seemed too

" he said, remembering somethingabou

hven. "Thank goo

ss that hewas not allowed to play games he could find nothing

nce. O'Hara, they wereinformed by a Dexter's f

to come to teatomorrow directly after school, and bring my