"Wait till I've seen the geography questions."
"What's the joke?" asked Tom Moon.
"Haven't you heard of the Angel's little dodge? Why, they fairly screamed over it at the Deanery."
"Look here, Moon," said Dick, without a twinkle in his big blue eyes; "it was a beastly shame, and they treated me most unfairly. We had to write an account of a trip up the Ganges and a visit to Benares. Well, you know there was a horrible plague at Benares just then, and I couldn't afford to risk my valuable life in the town, so I skipped it, stating my reasons. And what do you think they said?"
"Can't guess."
"Why, that 'twas a fake, because I didn't know anything about the blessed old town." And he looked so solemn that Moon was half inclined to think he had been badly treated.
"Did you really put that down?" asked one of the boys in the group.
"Of course I did!" answered Dicky, in a tone of surprise. "They couldn't expect me to go to a plague-spot like that!"
"Didn't I hear some yarn, too, about a dead passenger?" asked Temple.
"Very likely," said the Angel calmly; "that was another misfortune. You see, we had to describe a voyage from London to Odessa, and a very nice little trip, too. Well, my passenger started in a yacht, and had a jolly good time, jotting down his descriptions every night. At last he got into the Adriatic, and the poor fellow fell overboard. The skipper fished him out, but he was quite dead; and so, of course, the trip ended. Now, what do you think the inspector had the conscience to ask me? 'Boden,' said he, 'couldn't you remember any more of the coast-line?' Just as if I'd play a trick like that!"