the scene came back. The crowd in front of the
pavilion. Burgoyne: Hazlitt in the offing.

"Yes, sir," he replied, after the instant's hesitation.

"You seem rather doubtful about it."

"Well, sir, I was trying to remember whether I had or not."

The Chief was nettled by such apparent callousness.

"You talk as if you were in the habit of offering such rewards. Are
you?"

"Well, sir, it is the sort of thing any fellow might do."

"That is neither here nor there. I doubt the truth of your statement
very much. But even if the school had become so generally demoralised as
you suggest, that would not be any excuse for you. As a matter of fact,
how much did you offer the boy?"

"A shilling, sir."

"Was that a genuine offer, now? If he had done what you wanted him to,
would you have paid him?"

Gordon was now well out of his depth. Explanation seemed impossible. Had
the offer been genuine? He supposed it had. If the tick had been laid
out, Gordon would have been so delighted that he would have stood the
whole of Christy's drinks all round.

"Yes, sir," he said quite cheerfully.

A smile that rose to Hazelton's lips was instantly suppressed.

"Ah! rather like hiring assassins in the cheap novelettes. What was your
idea? Did you think Hazlitt would have been a help to the School side?"

"No, sir. I hardly think he would have been of much assistance to them."

The idea of Hazlitt being of any use to anyone was very amusing. Gordon
always saw the funny side of everything. As a ghost, he would probably
have found something cynically amusing in his own funeral.

"Then you did it merely out of spite, I suppose. Do you consider that
the football field is a suitable opportunity for the paying-off of old
scores?"

Now, suppose Gordon had poured out the story of how Felston had sworn to
lay him out in the Three Cock, and how Hazlitt and others had flung the
words "Three Cock" into his face for half a term, it would have been
certainly an extenuation. But he realised that Hazelton was present. It
would not be the proper thing, it would indeed be unpardonable cheek,
for him to talk in the presence of the House captain as though his
chances of playing in the Three Cock were to be taken for granted. It
would be madness to imperil his chances on the football field, merely
because he wanted an excuse for a silly little row.

And so he did not answer.

"Well, Caruthers, I sha'n't want you any more. Thank you for being so