Page:Hornung - Fathers of Men.djvu/210

 "Going to what?" asked Chips.

"This very fair."

"They must've been fools!" said Jan, raising his voice at last.

"I thought you were asleep?" cried the new boy, who had no sense.

"You keep your thoughts to yourself," growled Jan, "or I'll come and show you whether I am or not."

"They were fools," assented Bingley, "but they were rather sportsmen too. They got out of one of the hill houses at night, and came down in disguise, in bowlers and false beards! But they were spotted right enough, and they'd got to go."

"And serve them jolly well right!" said Jan, cantankerously.

"I don't call it such a crime, Tiger."

"Who's talking about crimes? You've got 'em on the brain, Bingley."

"I thought you said they deserved to be bunked?"

"So they did—for going and getting cobbed."

"Oh, I see! You'd've looked every master in the face, I suppose, without being recognised?"

"I wouldn't've made them look twice at me, by sticking on a false beard," snorted Jan, stung by the tone he had been the first to employ. Chips understood his mood, and liked him too much to join in the discussion. But Bingley had been longer in the school than either of them, and he was not going to knuckle under in a minute.

"It's a pity you weren't here, Tiger," said he, "to show them how to do it."

"It's a thing any fool could do if he tried," returned Jan. "I'd back myself to get out of this house in five minutes."