Two Cock, Jeffries was leading the scrum, Hunter was
being tried as scrum half, and Lovelace was in training as a reserve. He
alone was doing nothing. For a few days the afternoons seemed unbearably
long. But Gordon had a remarkable gift for adapting himself to
circumstances. And he had very little difficulty in striking up new
acquaintances. So far, he had had very little to do with those outside
his actual set; with the majority of the House he was hardly on speaking
terms, and of Archie Fletcher he knew little except the name.

Archie Fletcher was a great person; "great" in fact was the only
adjective that really fitted him. He had only two real objects in life,
one was to get his House cap, the other was to enjoy himself. And his
love of pleasure usually took the form of ragging masters. Ragging with
him did not consist in mere spasmodic episodes of bravado which usually
ended in a beating. He had reduced it to a science. It was to him the
supreme art. At present he was suffering from a kick on the knee which
he had received in the Thirds, and he and Gordon found themselves
constantly thrown together.

Archie (no one ever called him anything else), was a splendid companion.
He had an enormous repertoire of anecdotes which he was never tired of
telling, and every one finished in exactly the same way: "Believe me,
Caruthers, some rag." Oh, a great man, forsooth, was Archie! He had
cynically examined every master with whom he had anything to do, picked
him to pieces, found out his faults, and then played on his weaknesses.
Sometimes, however, he went a little too far. On one occasion he was
doing chemistry with a certain Jenks, a very fiery little man, who
really believed in the educational value of "stinks." So did Archie; it
gave him scope to exercise his genius for playing the fool. But this day
he overstepped the bounds. In the distance, he saw Blake, his pet
aversion, carefully working out an experiment. A piece of glass tubing
was at hand; Jenks was not looking; Archie fixed the tube to the
waterspout, turned the tap; a cascade of H_{2}O rose in the air and fell
on Blake's apparatus; there was a crash of falling glass. Jenks spun
round.

"Oh, is that you, Fletcher, you stupid fellow? Come over here. I shall
have to beat you. Now then, where's my cane gone! Oh, then I shall have
to use some rubber tubing--stoop down, stoop down!"

Laboriously Archie bent down; Jenks bent a piece of india-rubber tubing
double-