“Is Wilson in too?”

“No. He got a hundred lines.”

Stone and Robinson were quite concerned.

“What a beastly swindle!”

“That’s because you don’t play cricket. Old Downing lets you do what you like if you join the Fire Brigade and play cricket.”

“‘We are, above all, a keen school,’” quoted Stone. “Don’t you ever play?”

“I have played a bit,” said Mike.

“Well, why don’t you have a shot? We aren’t such flyers here. If you know one end of a bat from the other, you could get into some sort of a team. Were you at school anywhere before you came here?”

“I was at Wrykyn.”

“Why on earth did you leave?” asked Stone. “Were you sacked?”