ople out" still
less. It is all a question of custom, of the sense in which phrases are
used by the particular speakers who use them.

There are certain words which to-day are vulgar and disgusting, but
which in the days of Shakespeare would have been used in any company
without a blush. And this is so merely because time has given the words
a different significance. Indeed, from the point of view of the average
person, to leave schoolmasters out of the question, the idea of offering
bribes to lay out athletes is revolting. And so it is. It is
unsportsmanlike, unworthy of English traditions. But when Gordon offered
Burgoyne a shilling to lay out Hazlitt, although he said it was a
bargain, he meant nothing at all by his offer. He knew that Burgoyne,
once he got on the field, could think of nothing but the game, and would
forget all about Hazlitt and himself. Everyone offered bribes, but no
one had been known to receive a penny of them. Still, Buller could not
be expected to know this. He saw in the affair a menace to the future of
Fernhurst sport. Jack's story might be only idle chatter, or it might
have some foundation. At any rate he had got to go to the bottom, and
sift out the truth for the good of Fernhurst.

After evening chapel on the Sunday before the match the Chief sent for
Gordon; when Gordon arrived he found Harding, the head of the House,
there too. The Chief looked worried. There was a row in prospect. Gordon
racked his brain to think of anything that could possibly have been
found out about him. Of course there were many old troubles that might
have been raked up. He had always realised that the hand of the past
would still be near the shoulder of the present. Yet, what had he been
doing recently?

"Isn't Hazelton coming, Harding?" The Chief was speaking.

"Yes, sir; but I believe he is collecting chapel cards."

Hazelton too. Complications, forsooth. There was an awkward pause. Then
Hazelton came in, quite at his ease.

"Sir, the chapel cards; and I believe you wanted to see me, sir?"

"Ah, yes, Hazelton; put the cards on my desk. Now, Caruthers, I want to
ask you a question before the head and captain of the House that I hope
you will answer truthfully. Did you offer a boy in Mr Christy's house
money to 'lay out,' I believe that was the phrase, a boy in Mr Buller's
house in the recent house match."

Gordon thought for a moment. Had he? It was quite likely he had; but he
could not remember. Then