Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/143

Rh affairs in the interests of the Crown, he went to the infirmary.

He was admitted to the room where Rupert sat, propped up by a window, rapping on the pane and waving a hand at the boys who happened to be walking past. Belmont started in at once upon his grievance.

"Oh, hold on!" Rupert interrupted him, with a laugh. "Don't be so hard on 'em, Nat. It's all my fault. I asked Frank Windsor to run the eleven, and I particularly asked Joe Herrick to coach the ends."

"Then if you did that, Rupe, I've got to tell you what I suppose you have n't heard about Herrick"—

"Oh, yes, I've heard it. You mean about his tripping me. I heard it from him. He came and told me. And I have reasons for thinking better of Joe Herrick than I ever did before. You let him coach you, Nat, and see if you don't think better of him, too."

Nat Belmont was nonplussed. He did not like to surrender his grievance; but he was not an ill-natured boy, and when he was given