"H'm!" grunted Stanley. "How did you know where you could find your thousand lines so that you could tear them up?"
"I don't know what you mean. You're bluffing now."
"Hallo!" cried Banana-Skin. "Didn't you hear him say 'You're bluffing now'? That shows that he was bluffing before."
"Oh, that's a bit too clever!" objected Stanley. "Give the kid a chance."
There's nothing like sympathy for provoking misery and starting tears, and, as Stanley uttered that sentence, I decided that God had gone over to the prefects, and I would very much like to cry. To drive back the tears I called to my aid all the callousness and sulkiness which I possess. My face was the portrait of a sulky schoolboy as Stanley continued:
"Now, Ray, which door did you leave the dormitory by?"
"I didn't leave it."
"I say," suggested Kepple-Goddard, "couldn't we send Bickerton to ask all the boys who sleep in the same dormitory whether they saw him leave it?"
"But they'd have been asleep, you ox!" put in Banana-Skin.
"Not necessarily."