Page:Hornung - Fathers of Men.djvu/357

 for that. I'm not sure, Chips, that I should have done so differently now even if I'd known. I liked him even in the old days when we were kids. Must you go?"

The question was asked in a very wistful tone. Chips felt, rather uneasily, that in these few minutes he had ousted Evan and taken his old place. He could not help it if he had. It had not been his intention on coming into the room. It was no use regretting it now. "I told Heriot I wouldn't stay very long," he answered. "I'll get him to let me come up again."

"And you won't tell him anything about Evan?"

"How do you mean?"

"You won't tell him a single word about our having seen him and Sandham that day?"

Chips was silent.

"Surely you wouldn't go getting them bunked as well as me?"

"Well—no—not exactly."

"I should think not! It wouldn't do any good, you see, even if you did," said Jan, suddenly discovering why he had looked so mysterious some minutes back. "You forget that Evan and I used to go about together quite as much as he and Sandham have been doing all this year. What if it was me that first started playing the fool in Yardley Wood? What if old Mulberry knows more against me than anybody else? It wouldn't do me much good to put them in the same boat, would it?"

"But does he, Jan, honestly?"

"Honestly, I'm sorry to say."

"It's too awful!"

"But you will hold your tongue about the other two, won't you, Chips?"

"If you like."

"You promise?"