Tales of St. Austin's

ed from two hundred lines to two extra lessons. The venomous characteristic of extra lesson was that it cut into one's football, for the criminal was turned into a form-room from two till fou

otball season-it was now February-to be in extra lesson meant a total loss of everything that makes life endurable, and the

e had merely met Harrison out of bounds, and it had been possible to have overlooked him, he would have done so. But such a proceeding in the interior of a small shop was impossible. There was nothing to palliate the crime. The tobacconist also kept the wolf from the door, and lured the juvenile population of the neighbourhood to it, by selling various weird brands of sweets, but it was only too obvious that Harrison was not after these. Guilt was in his eye,

ews when Charteris came to see him on the eveni

etting on?' as

well. It's r

' Charteris absently reach

t b

't have to d

N

u're having a jolly good time.

w, being alo

al conversation all the more whe

omething

Greek Prose Composition, if y

ad 'em,

here never was such a man as Homer, you know, and that the Iliad and the Ody

y starving for something to r

read a

elch got

e wants to read. I'll tell yo

ha

borrow something from

ge do

hat's not a

al of Adamson's ever since I had the flu. I go to tea with him occasionally, and we talk medical sh

t anything

ever tried anythin

something,' said Tony doubtf

ography of James Payn, he wrote a hundred books, and they're all simply ripping, and Adamson has got a good many of them, and I'm hoping to borrow a couple-any two will do-and yo

y. 'But Stapleton's o

give you lea

ris. 'I shan't ask him.

distance by road was almost exactly one mile. If you went by

would have remained in. Would Charteris come in and wait? Charteris rather thought he would. He waited for half an hour, and then, as the absent medico did not appear to be coming, took two boo

inished. Charteris strolled along the High Street observing these and other phenomena with an attentive eye. Opposite the Town Hall he was button-holed by a perfect stranger, whom, by his conversation, he soon recognized as the Stapleton 'character'. There is a 'character' in every small country town. He is not a bad character; still less is he a good character. He is just a 'character' pure and simple. This particular man-or rather, this man, for he was anything but particular-apparently took a great fancy to Charteris at first sight. He backed him gently against a wall, and insisted on telling him an interminable anecdote of his shady past, when, it seemed, he had been a 'super' in some travelling company. The plot of the story, as far as Charteris could follow it, dealt wi

Charteris ha

ns, and, to judge from the scowl on that ge

said the secretary

so,' said

nds,' obser

chnical lore on the part of a total outsi

w about bounds?'

ome 'ere, and you'll get it 'o

an't tell him, and I'm sure

iled in a wi

the man,

definitely to apply the closure to any argument. At least, I h

fably, 'don't let me keep

the man once mo

aid Charteris. 'I can see that, but I w

out of

can't get off that bounds business. How

quiries,' said

s splendid. You're a regular sleuth-hound. I d

id the man, 'or

two contingencies is probable. Well, I'm awfully

goin'

in

nt to 'ave

ould jolly well advise you

o St Austin's. The secretary of the Old Crockfor

when they were on the r

r fast. I'm

uch panting. It was evident that he was not in training. Charteris began to feel that the walk home might be amusing in its way. After they had raced some three hundr

edge of legal minutiae, 'it'll be a technical assault, and yo

d matters, and elec

every distance. After a game struggle he dropped to the rear, and finished a hundred yards behind in considerable straits. Ch

ll, there have been all sorts of fresh developments.

en to Stapleton? Did Me

didn't

will go straight to the Old Man and run y

us I d

e saw you co

ave had a better view

t just run up with t

he found Welch mor

t once. He's just sent over for you. I say, look here, if i

te touched by thi

said, 'but it doesn't matter,

ater he retur

elch, 'what's

was out of bounds. "Sir," says I, "I've known it from childhood's earliest hour." "Ah," says he to me, "did

el

s, and finally told me I must go

ought

of my youth," I replied courteously, "you are perfectly correct. As always. Mr Merevale did not give me leave, but," I added suavely, "Mr Dacre did." And I came away, chanting hymns of triumph in a mellow baritone, and leaving him in a dead faint on the sofa. And