The Gold Bat

ior block a day before the date of thefixture. Both first and second fifteens had matches on the Thursday

that Bryce had left, he thought hemight have a chance of getting into the second. His only real rival, heconsidered, was Crawford, of the School House, who was the other wingthree-quarter of the third fifteen. The first name he saw on the l

other wingthree-quarter was Rand-Brown. If Rand-Brown

ked at t

seeing his name on the list of the firstfifteen. There it was, however, as large as life. "M. Barry." Separatedfrom the rest by a thin red line, but still ther

," said Ba

uth. Heturned to Barry, and imparted his discovery to him in th

for the second.""Of course it does. Well, if you aren't coming, I'm off.""But, look here----"Barry disappea

up?" he

ng," sai

a bun."In the philosophy of M'Todd it was indeed a deep-rooted sorrow thatcould not be

n with beastly buns.""But if you aren't playing----""You ass. I'm playing for the first. Now, do

n going to point out that Barry's tender years--hewas only sixteen--and smallness would make it impossible for him to playwith success for the first fifteen. He refrained owing to

d, and I want to practisetaking passes at full speed. You can trot along at your ordinary pace,and I'll sprint up fro

Paget used to do it awfully welllast term, and I know Trevor expects his wing to. So I'll buck along,and you ra

ter get somebody

y."And, as M'Todd always did exactly as Barry wished, he gave in, ands

lternative that facedM'Todd. His allegiance to Barry demanded that he should consent to thescheme. On the other hand, his allegiance to afternoon tea--equallystrong--called him back to the house, where there was cake, and alsomuffins. In the end the question

luck went he had enough for two, and whenthe whistle blew for no-side he had not let Paget through once, andTrevor felt that his inclusion in the team had been justified. Therewas another scratch game on the Saturday. Barry played in it, and didmuch better. Paget had gone away by an early train, and the man he hadto mark now was one of the masters, who had been good in his time, butwas getting a trifle old for football. Barry scored twice, and on oneoccasion, by passing back to Trevor after the manner of P

n, Clowes camechuckling to Trevor's study after pr

r heard of the

or pon

think so,"

"Work! By Jove, I should think it did. Chaps who previously couldn'tget through the day without making some wretched kid's life not worthliving used to go about as nervous as cats, looking over theirshoulders every other second. There was one man in particular, a chapcalled Leigh. He was hauled out of bed one night, blindfolded, andducked in a cold bath. He was in the School House.""Why did the League bust up?""Well, partly because the fellows left, but chiefly because they didn'tstick to the philanthropist idea. If anybody did anything they didn'tlike, they used to go for him. At last they put their foot into itbadly. A chap called Robinson--in this house by the way--offended themin some way, and one morning he was

. "Anybodymight have ragged his study.""That's just what I thought. He's just the sort of man th

s a small card. It looked like an ordinary visiting card. On it,in

dClowes. "I've seen some of them. What do you think of that?""I t

nk twice about sacking a chap of that sort.""A chap of that sort," said Clowes, "will take j

kfast, he found a letter by hisplate. It was printed, as the card had been. It was signed "ThePresident of the