Page:Stalky and co - Kipling (1908).djvu/112

100 a couple of years. Do you remember when Prout and you were on their track—for hutting and trespass, wasn't it? Have you forgotten Colonel Dabney?'

The others laughed. King did not care to be reminded of his career as a poacher.

'That was one instance. Again, when you had rooms below them—I always said that that was entering the lion's den—you turned them out.'

'For making disgusting noises. Surely, Gillett, you don't excuse'

'All I say is that you turned them out. That same evening your study was wrecked.'

'By Rabbits-Eggs—most beastly drunk—from the road,' said King. 'What has that?'

The Reverend John went on.

'Lastly, they conceive that aspersions are cast upon their personal cleanliness—a most delicate matter with all boys. Ve-ry good. Observe how, in each case, the punishment fits the crime. A week after your house calls them "stinkers," King, your house is, not to put too fine a point on it, stunk out by a dead cat who chooses to die in the one spot where she can annoy you most. Again the long arm of coincidence! Summa. You accuse them of trespass. Through some absurd chain of circumstances—they may or may not be at the other end of it—you and Prout are made to appear as trespassers. You evict them. For a time your study is made untenable. I have drawn the parallel in the last case. Well?'

'She was under the centre of White's dormitory,' said King. 'There are double floor-boards