“Come here,” said Bevis; Charlie ran back delighted.
“Well, you have done it,” said Mark in a rage. “Now Ted will have another twice as big. What’s the use of my trying when you are so stupid! I never did see. We shall be whopped anyhow.”
Quite heedless of these reproaches, Bevis asked Ted who were to be his lieutenants.
“I shall have Val and Phil,” said Ted.
“And I shall have Mark and Cecil,” said Bevis. “Let us count. How many are there on each side? Mark, write down all ours. Haven’t you a pocket-book? well, do it on the back of the map. Ted, you had better do the same.”
“Phil,” said Ted, who was not much of a student, “you put down the names.”
Phil, a reader in a slow way, did as he was bidden. There were fifteen on Bevis’s side, and fourteen on Ted’s, who was to choose another to make it even.
“There’s the muster-roll,” said Mark, holding up the map.
“But how shall we know one another?” said George.
“Who’s friends, and who’s enemies,” said Fred.