CHAPTER XIV
THE CHAMPION OF HIS FORM
Paul, as may be imagined, was as much startled by Newall's proposal thathe should be the champion of the Form as at the readiness with which itwas taken up by his class-mates.
"Well, Percival"--the voice of Hasluck broke the silence which hadfollowed as they waited eagerly Paul's answer--"you've heard what Newallhas said, and what the Form thinks of it. What's your answer?"
A keen struggle went on in Paul's mind as the question came to him. Hehad come there to settle a dispute--to ward off a meeting betweenMoncrief and Newall. And now, by an adroit move on the latter's part, hehad been forced to accept or decline a challenge from outside. If herefused, he would have to eat his own words about the honour of theschool; he would be regarded as a contemptible coward; and the quarrelbetween Newall and Moncrief would still remain unsettled. If heaccepted, he would be held in honour by his Form, and, in fighting itsbattle, he might be able to settle the quarrel between Moncrief andNewall. So, coming to a swift decision, he turned to the latter:
"If I fight for the Form, will that settle the quarrel between you andMoncrief? Will you shake hands with him?"
"Yes," came the prompt answer.
"Very well; then I'll do my best to keep up the honour of the Form atthe sand-pit to-morrow."
"Bravo--bravo; hip, hip, hurrah!" cried Devey, jumping on the box inwhich Plunger was concealed, and waving his cap wildly.
The cheers were taken up by most of the Form, but Parfitt, who took nopart in the cheering, remarked, loud enough for all to hear:
"Seems to me we'd better save our shouting till to-morrow afternoon."
"For once I agree with Parfitt," answered Paul calmly. "Keep yourshouting till to-morrow afternoon."
"And even then it may all be on the other side," added Parfitt, with asneer.
"Trust Parfitt for throwing cold water on anything," said Devey, jumpingdown from the box. "He must have been born in a refrigerator."
He gave the box an indignant kick. Plunger shivered. He was glad thatDevey's foot came on the box instead of on him.
The meeting was over, and the boys went in twos and threes from the sheddiscussing the forthcoming battle in the sand-pit. Plunger, greatlyexcited at all he had heard, was waiting eagerly the moment he couldemerge from his hiding-place, when he heard Arbery shout:
"Don't all run off without lending a hand. We shall have to get theboxes back, and the shed ship-shape. Devey and I can't do all the work."
Plunger groaned. He knew what Arbery's appeal meant. One by one theboxes were shifted back to their places; then it came to the turn of thebox in which Plunger was concealed, and once again he was bumped aboutfrom side to side till he got painfully mixed ideas as to where he beganand where he ended--as to which was his head and which were his feet,and whether he would ever be able to stand straight again.
At last the box was rolled back to the corner in which it had previouslyreposed, and Arbery and his assistants followed in the footsteps oftheir companions. When Plunger could gather together his scatteredsenses, he raised the lid of the box and scrambled out.
"My!" he groaned, as he leaned against the side of the shed and felt hislimbs. "Seems to me I'm all bruises. It's a wonder I've come out alive.I'd just like to put the fellow who's been putting my frontispiece onthat pane inside the box I've come from for half an hour!"
Gradually, however, the worried look on Plunger's face gave place to oneof satisfaction as he remembered that he was the only one outside theFifth who knew what had taken place at the meeting, and that he aloneknew what was to take place on the morrow. He had no chance of relatingto his companions the secret which was burning within him till hereached the dormitory that night.
"Well," asked Baldry breathlessly, as soon as lights were out, "how didyou get on, Freddy? What happened?"
"You'd never guess. There's to be a fight to-morrow between one of theFifth fellows and a Beetle."
Every ear in the dormitory pricked up at this unexpected piece ofinformation.
"Who's our fellow?" demanded Sedgefield, breaking the silence whichfollowed this announcement.
"Percival."
Baldry gave a prolonged whistle of surprise.
"How's that? Why, Percival has always set his back against fighting, andall the fellows are saying that it was to keep Moncrief major fromfighting Newall that he called a meeting of his form."
"I dare say. He seemed to be steering that way till that littleturncoat, Mellor, came on the scene with a challenge from the Beetles."
"A challenge from the Beetles!" cried Baldry. "Tell us all about it."
Plunger told them all about it. And never had any one more attentivelisteners than Plunger had as he related to them all that had happenedat the meeting in the shed. Not the least interested were Harry Moncriefand Hibbert.
"Paul going to fight," Harry repeated to himself. "I do so hope he'llwin!" Then, remembering the words in which his father had once spoken ofPaul, he added: "Win or lose, I'm certain Paul will bear himselfbravely."
Hibbert closed his eyes in the darkness, and prayed: "Watch overPercival--keep him from harm. For Christ's sake. Amen."
The boy had not forgotten Paul's kindness to him. It stood out as theone bright spot in his memory since he had come to Garside. For once hewas allowed to sleep without pillows being thrown at him, the clothespulled from him by means of a carefully-arranged cord, and playfultricks of that sort, of which both he and Harry had been the victims asthe latest recruits to the dormitory. The great event of the morrowcaused everything else to be forgotten.
Paul, meantime, had not had a very pleasant time of it. It had been withthe greatest difficulty he had induced Stanley to stay away from themeeting of his form. After the meeting, one or two pointed allusionswere made to his absence by his class-mates, and to make these cut thedeeper, he overheard Parfitt say to Devey:
"You were quite right in shouting for Percival. He came out better thanI thought. It's the other fellow who's so contemptible--getting hisfriend to call a meeting to white-wash him, and do all the dirty work.He'd be hounded out of any decent school."
These remarks were made loud enough for Stanley to hear, and for hisspecial benefit. Though he knew well enough that he was "the otherfellow" referred to, he could not speak. Nevertheless, he felt angrywith himself for allowing Paul to persuade him to stay away from themeeting. Then, from feeling angry with himself, he felt angry with Paul,and the reception he gave him on his return was not a very cordial one.
"What have you been saying about me?" he demanded.
"Nothing that could harm you," smiled Paul. "It's all right between youand Newall. The quarrel's settled."
"But how is it settled? You haven't made me swallow dirt, have you?"
"I think not," answered Paul, wounded at the suggestion. "You ought toknow me better than that."
For the first time there was a rift between the two friends. Paul didnot tell Stanley what had happened at the meeting, but left him to findout. He heard all about it from Waterman--the easy-going, indolentWaterman.
"Going to fight a Beetle, is he?" said Stanley, when Waterman had ended."It was good of him to take my part, but I wish he hadn't let me downso."
But when he met Paul in the dormitory that night, he only rememberedthat he was his friend, and that he was going to fight for the honour ofthe Form on the morrow.
"I'm sorry I spoke so hastily, Paul," he whispered. "Forgive me."
The next afternoon was a holiday for both Garside and St. Bede's. It wasfor this reason that the challenge had been fixed for that date.Cranstead Common was midway between the two schools, and the sand-pitwas in an open part of the common, where the ground for some littledistance round was destitute of grass or furze.
The Fifth Form had kept to themselves the fact that an encounter was totake place in the sand-pit, for fear it might reach the ear of some ofthe masters, and be stopped. They were not aware that Plunger knew allthat had transpired
at the meeting. Plunger was as loyal to his Form asthe Fifth were to theirs, and the secret of what was to happen at thesand-pit was communicated in confidence to them on the distinctunderstanding that it wasn't to travel farther.
When, therefore, the afternoon came, and the boys of the Fifth set outin little parties of three or four to make for the sand-pit, they couldnot understand how it was that little parties of the Third were found tobe travelling in the same direction. Still more curious were the variousarticles borne by these little bands of stragglers. One group bore afootball; another shouldered a butterfly net, without regard to the factthat butterflies had not been seen for many weeks; a third groupfishing-rods, and so on.
Freddy Plunger was amongst the anglers. He was talking loudly about hisachievements at different times with rod and line, when Devey, Arbery,and Leveson came up with him.
"What are you fishing for, Plunger?" asked Devey, catching him gently bythe ear. "Whales?"
"No--eels!" retorted Plunger snappily, having good cause to rememberDevey the night before. "Slippery things, eels, aren't they?"
"Not half so slippery as you are, Mr. Plunger. But don't be cheeky."
"Never am, Mr. Devey. That's my fault--always too polite. Born like it,so can't help myself. Where are you going to, Mr. Devey?"
"That's my business, Mr. Plunger. Little boys shouldn't askquestions--they should be seen and not heard. If you have a good catch,ask us to supper, won't you? Ta-ta, Plunger!"
And Devey and his companions went on, leaving Plunger and his companionschuckling in their sleeves.
"Mr. Devey thinks himself mighty clever now, but he looked an awful assin the shed last night when all the fellows turned on him for laughinglike a paroquet," grinned Plunger. "I nearly killed myself trying tokeep my feelings under. It was enough to make a cat scream. Oh, dear;oh, my!"
And Plunger went off at the recollection, till he received a dig in theribs from Baldry which made him gasp.
"Shut up, Freddy; here comes the noble champion of the Fifth! He doesn'tlook over-pleased with himself."
As he spoke, Paul and Stanley passed them. Baldry was not far wrong.Paul was far from pleased with himself. He was going to fight in coldblood a boy with whom he personally had no quarrel, and he had not theslightest notion who his opponent was. He might be a noble-heartedfellow, as much averse to quarrelling and fighting as he was, butcompelled to fight--as he had been--for "the honour of the Form."He--Paul--had faced danger, and had not shrunk from it; but somehow, heshrunk from the encounter before him.
"Look! There's quite a crowd at the sand-pit already," exclaimedStanley, who was a great deal more excited at the coming encounter thanPaul was.
By this time they had come within sight of the sand-pit. Paul, lookingup, saw that on one side had gathered most of the boys of the Fifth,while on the other side were the boys from St. Bede's.
The Hero of Garside School Page 15
