The White Feather

old, much unpopularity in the neighbourhood of one's crime; while robbing a church will get one cordially disliked especially by the v

ike being a ghost in a living world. That disagreeable experience of being looked through, as if one were invisible, comes to the average person, it may be half a dozen times in his life. Sheen had to put up with it a hundred times a day. People

d unspeakable might have been his acts, it would hardly do to treat him as if he were a junior. And the scheme had been definitely discouraged by Drummond, who had stated, without wrapping the gist of his remarks in elusive phrases, that in the event of a

he Gotford would be coming on in a few weeks, and the more work he could do for it, the better. Though Stanning was the only one of his rivals whom he feared, and though he was known to be taking

he Conservative candidate for Wrykyn: and Bruce's conversation had been limited to two remarks. He had said, "You might play that again, will you?" and, later, "Thanks". He had come into the music-room while Sheen was practising one afternoon, and had sat do

ch he had put his head in front of Drummond's left on that memorable occasion, the scarlet-haired one was at present dry-docked for repairs. The story in the school-it had grown with the days-was that Drummond had laid the enemy out on the pavement with a sickening crash, and that he had still been there at, s

ion has been made of a certain St Jude's, between which seat of learning a

one of the pillars of t

-brow'

moments, a

. The Judies wore mortar-boards, and it was an enjoyable pastime sending these spinning into space during one of the usual rencontres in the High Street. From the fact that he and his friends were invariably outnumbered, there was a sporting element in these affairs, though occasionally this inferiority of num

o avenge th

to his ally, Painter. It was ju

ht," sai

High Street," sugges

get a few more cha

f the School House, a useful man to have by you in an emergency. It was Tomlin who, on one occasion, attacked by two terrific champions of St Jude's in a narrow passage, had v

venture, until, by common consent, it stopped at the

of their favourite recreations was marbles. The juniors at Wrykyn believed that it was to hide these excesses from the gaze of the public that the playground wall had been made so high. Eye-witnesses, who had peeped through th

y got the marbles in the

pped, and looked i

omething at them?" s

ver the road," said To

dicated, and reappeared a few mom

waste," suggested th

thought I was rotting him when I asked if he'd got any bad o

e top of the wall. He drew ou

of the wall. Then a howl of wrath went up to

he last orange sped on its wa

he doorway in the wall there poured forth a stream of mortar-boarded

for the invaders-Painter had lost his cap, and Tomlin three waistcoat buttons-when the eye of Jackson, roving up and down the street, was caught by a Seymo

enuous onslaught of the Judies, the latter, almost with one accord, turned and bolted into their pl

left of the road there had debouched on to the fi

rt's calibre would have troubled to attack such small game, but it was the firm

y contented themselves with shouting a

caught sig

advanced at the double. Hi

e town with this very situation in his mind. A wild idea of doing something to restore his self-respect and his credit in the eyes of the hou

It was a poor blow from a scientific point of view, but Sheen's fives had given him muscle, and it checked Albert. That youth, however, recovered rapidly, and the next few moments passed in a whirl