CHAPTER VI
The Plea of Peter Mawdster
The complete failure of the first number of their Rooke's House Rag gave Dick and Roger rather a wretched night. But with the morning-time there came a ray of hope.
Luke Harwood brought in a whole sheaf of subscriptions which he had voluntarily collected from Holbeck's House. There was a fine spirit of sportsmanship about his unsought assistance, which almost betrayed the grateful Captain into a display of emotion. O'er Roger Cayton's head it heaped coals of fire indeed!
"'Pon my word, Harwood, you're real jannock," Dick managed to stammer. "What hours you must have spent on this collecting stunt! It—it's downright brickish of you."
"Oh, cut that out," said Harwood, with a laugh. "To be honest, it was a jolly good excuse for dodging 'prep.'. I didn't feel like swotting last night."
"But I say, you know, you shame me. I never thought of doing anything like this for you, Harwood!"
"The cases don't run on all fours, old man. I took over The Foxonian as a going concern. Generations of Foxonians had edited it before me. It was almost as old and venerable as Nelson's monument. You had competition to face—your Rag was an infant in arms. I love rivalry—it stimulates me. Let nothing discourage you, old boy—keep right on making each number better than the last."
He faded away with his customary grace, leaving behind him a completely captivated Dick and a non-plussed and sour-visaged Roger.
"How now, Stormy Petrel!" cried Dick. "It's amusing to what extremes you carry your prejudice against Luke Harwood, Roger. Bears you no malice whatever for the hard knocks you gave him in your 'Sauce for the Gander' column. Now, Roger, knuckle under, old man! He's our Good Samaritan."
"Who appointed him our collector, anyway?" said Roger. "Sly impertinence, I call it. Well," he added, relenting at sight of Dick's crestfallen face, "perhaps I am rather a graceless churl to-night. I'll put this bagful of money safely away in the locker, and then start raking the subscriptions in myself before some other voluntary helper queers my pitch!"