" "Our Unique Competition," "Mr. Cecil
Rhodes: a Powerful Personality," "What becomes of old Stage Scenery."

In the midst of my survey the train began to move forward again, and the
boy came back to his seat.

"It's only some platelayers on the viaduct," he explained. "They held
up their flag against us. I suppose they were just finishing a job."

"Nasty place to leave the rails," said I, glancing over the parapet upon
the green tree-tops fifty feet below us."

"I was thinking that," said he, and a queer tremor in his young voice
made me glance at him sharply. Then suddenly I understood--or thought I
did.

"You, at any rate, are pretty well insured," said I.

"Twenty thousand pounds, and a little over: the coupons cost four and
twopence altogether, and then at the end of the journey you can use up
all the reading."

"Wonderful!" I kept a serious face. "And I suppose all this time you've
been staring at me, amazed by the recklessness of your elders."

He flushed slightly. "Have I been staring? I beg your pardon, I'm
sure: it's a trick I have. I begin thinking of things, and then--"

"Thinking, I suppose, of how it would feel to be in a collision, or what
it would be like to leap such a parapet as that and find ourselves
dropping--dropping--into space? But you shouldn't, really. It isn't
healthy in a boy like you: and if you'll listen to one who has known
what nerves are, it may too easily grow to mean something worse."

"But it isn't that--exactly," he protested; "though of course all that
comes into it. I'm not a--a funk, sir! I was thinking more of the
--of what would come _afterwards_, you know."

"Oh dear!" I groaned to myself. "It's worse than ever: here's a little
prig worrying about his soul. I shouldn't advise you to trouble about
that, either," I said aloud.

"But I don't _trouble_ about it." He hesitated, and stumbled into a
burst of confidence. "You see, I'm no good at games--athletics and that
sort of thing--"

Again he stopped, and I nodded to encourage him.

"And I'm no swell at schoolwork, either. I went to school late, and
after home it all seems so _young_--if you understand?"

I thought I did. With his polite grown-up manner I could understand his
isolation among the urchins, the masters, and all the interests of
an ordinary school.

"But my father--you know him, don't you?--he's disappointed about it.
He'd like me to bring home prizes or cups. I don't think he'd