Page:Hornung - Fathers of Men.djvu/93

 "Rather! Aren't you?"

"I've been. I came out again."

"Because of the crib?"

"Yes."

"Did you tell them so, Chips?"

"I had to; and—and of course they heaved me out, Tiger! And I'll never do another line with the brutes!"

He turned away; he was quite husky. Jan watched him with a shrug and a groan, hesitated, and then slammed his door.

"Aren't you going, Tiger?" cried Chips, face about at the sound. "Don't mind me, you know! I can sweat it out by myself."

"Well you're not going to," growled Jan, flinging the little red book upon the table. "I'd rather work with an old ass like you, Chips, than a great brute like Shockley!"

So that alliance was cemented, and Chips at any rate was Jan's friend for life. But Jan was slower to reciprocate so strong a feeling; his nature was much less demonstrative and emotional; moreover, the term he had applied to Carpenter was by no means one of mere endearment. There was in fact a good deal about Chips that appealed to Jan as little as to the other small boys in the house. He was indubitably "pi"; he thought too much of his study; he took in all kinds of magazines, and went in for the competitions, being mad about many things including cricket, but no earthly good at fives, and not allowed to play football. He had some bronchial affection that prevented him from running, and often kept him out of first school. "Sloper" and "sham" were neither of them quite the name for him; but both became unpleasantly familiar in the ears of Carpenter