"Damn!" said Gordon.
"In excelsis gloria," said Davenport.
"And it was a rotten crib, too," said Gordon.
By next morning the story was all round the school.
"You will be birched for certain," was Tester's cheerful comment, "and serve you right for getting caught."
"I sha'n't be such a fool again," growled Caruthers.
And certainly he profited by his experience. A year later the House Tutor came into his study when he was preparing Vergil with the aid of Dr Giles' text. He put a piece of blotting-paper over the crib, and chatted for a few minutes quite easily about the chances of the Eleven v. Tonford.
But when we are in trouble, there are few of us who can see so far ahead as to feel thankful at the thought that we have learnt something that will be a help to us in the future. Gordon was thoroughly fed up. But it was not his game to show his feelings. He went about laughing as though nothing had happened at all; he treated the whole thing as a colossal joke. Sydenham was, however, very nervous, and showed it. Gordon ragged him mercilessly.
"My good man, what the hell does it matter? Chief's not much of a bircher, and don't gas about disgrace, and such muck. This isn't a St Winifred's sort of school. It will only mean a bad report."
In School that day Gordon was in great form. By the end of the morning he had accumulated in all three hundred lines from various sources for ragging.