Coggs, and, let me see,
yes, Bultitude, you all know your way. Walk on and tell Mrs. Grimstone
we are coming."

Paul Bultitude was perhaps more relieved than disappointed by this
postponement of a disagreeable interview, though, if he had seen Coker
dig Coggs in the side with a chuckle of exultant triumph, he might have
had misgivings as to the prudence of trusting himself alone with them.

As it was he almost determined to trust the pair with his secret. "They
will be valuable witnesses," he said to himself, "that, whoever else I
may be, I am not Dick."

So he went on briskly ahead over a covered bridge and down some
break-neck wooden steps, and passed through the wicket out upon the
railed-in space, where the cabs and omnibuses should have been, but
which was now a blank spectral waste with a white ground-fog lurking
round its borders.

Here he was joined by his companions, who, after a little whispering,
came up one on either side and put an arm through each of his.

"Well," said Paul, thinking to banter them agreeably; "here you are,
young men, eh? Holidays all over now! Work while you're young, and
then---- Gad, you're walking me off my legs. Stop; I'm not as young as I
used to be----"

"Grim can't see us here, can he, Coker?" said Coggs when they had
cleared the gates and palings.

"Not he!" said Coker.

"Very well, then. Now then, young Bultitude, you used to be a decent
fellow enough last term, though you _were_ coxy. So, before we go any
further--what do you mean by this sort of thing?"

"Because," put in Coker, "if you aren't quite right in your head,
through your old governor acting like a brute all the holidays, as you
said he does, just say so, and we won't be hard on you."

"I--he--always an excellent father," stammered Paul. "What am I to
explain?"

"Why, what did you go and sneak of _him_ for bringing tuck back to
school for, eh?" demanded Coker.

"Yes, and sing out when he hacked your shin?" added Coggs; "and tell
Grimstone that new fellow was blubbing? Where's the joke in all that,
eh? Where's the joke?"

"You don't suppose I was bound to sit calmly down and allow you to suck
your villainous peppermints under my very nose, do you?" said Mr.
Bultitude. "Why shouldn't I complain if a boy annoys me by sniffing, or
kicks me on the ankle? Just tell me that? Suppose my neighbour has a
noisy dog or a smoky chimney, am I not to venture to tell him of it? Is
he to----"

But his arguments, co