of the day. Nerves lose more
school matches than good play ever won. There is a certain type of
school batsman who is a gift to any bowler when he once lets his
imagination run away with him. Sedleigh, with the exception of Adair,
Psmith, and Mike, had entered upon this match in a state of the most
azure funk. Ever since Mike had received Strachan's answer and Adair had
announced on the notice board that on Saturday, July the twentieth,
Sedleigh would play Wrykyn, the team had been all on the jump. It was
useless for Adair to tell them, as he did repeatedly, on Mike's
authority, that Wrykyn were weak this season, and that on their present
form Sedleigh ought to win easily. The team listened, but were not
comforted. Wrykyn might be below their usual strength, but then Wrykyn
cricket, as a rule, reached such a high standard that this probably
meant little. However weak Wrykyn might be--for them--there was a very
firm impression among the members of the Sedleigh first eleven that the
other school was quite strong enough to knock the cover off _them_.
Experience counts enormously in school matches. Sedleigh had never been
proved. The teams they played were the sort of sides which the Wrykyn
second eleven would play. Whereas Wrykyn, from time immemorial, had been
beating Ripton teams and Free Foresters teams and M.C.C. teams packed
with county men and sending men to Oxford and Cambridge who got their
blues as freshmen.

Sedleigh had gone onto the field that morning a depressed side.

It was unfortunate that Adair had won the toss. He had had no choice but
to take first innings. The weather had been bad for the last week, and
the wicket was slow and treacherous. It was likely to get worse during
the day, so Adair had chosen to bat first.

Taking into consideration the state of nerves the team was in, this in
itself was a calamity. A school eleven are always at their worst and
nerviest before lunch. Even on their own ground they find the
surroundings lonely and unfamiliar. The subtlety of the bowlers becomes
magnified. Unless the first pair make a really good start, a collapse
almost invariably ensues.

Today the start had been gruesome beyond words. Mike, the bulwark of the
side, the man who had been brought up on Wrykyn bowling, and from whom,
whatever might happen to the others, at least a fifty was
expected--Mike, going in first with Barnes and taking first over, had
played inside one from Bruce, the Wrykyn slow bowler