“I thought he’d let you new kids off, but he didn’t. It’s just as well. It’ll do you good, and make you sit up.”
“Jolly sell for that cad Dangle,” said D’Arcy. “He thought Yorke was going to shirk it.”
“He can’t say that now,” said Ashby, rubbing the palm of his hand up and down his thigh.
Dangle, meanwhile, had returned to his quarters with the unsatisfactory report of his mission.
“Bother them!” said Clapperton. “They take advantage of us whenever there’s a chance. Now they’ve offered a new election, and licked the youngsters, the wind is out of our sails.”
“When it comes to the time, I shall decline to be nominated,” said Brinkman.
“That won’t be much good. You’ll get some of our fellows voting for you whether you stand or not. And if some vote, all must.”
“We shall have to see all our men turn up,” said Dangle. “It was a tight enough shave for the secretaryship.”
“Yes. If we don’t carry it now, we’d much better have left it alone. I only wish we had.”
“There’s this to be said,” said Dangle, anxious to make the best of his mistake; “if we do get three officers to their one, there should be no doubt about our getting properly represented in the fifteen next week.”