ou.
I was in the matron's room, getting her to sew two buttons on my
waistcoat."

A roar of laughter interrupted the proceedings; the defence had scored
heavily. Oaks was for the moment completely nonplussed, and Thurston
seized the opportunity of making a counter-attack. He strode forward,
and mounting the chest addressed the assembly as follows:--

"Gentlemen, however low Ronleigh may have sunk, there is still, I
believe, left among us a certain amount of love of fair play, and
therefore I ask you to give me a hearing. The saying goes, 'Give a dog
a bad name and then hang him.' I'm a dog on which certain people have
been good enough to bestow a bad name. I know I've got it, and to tell
you the truth I don't much care. All the same, I don't see why I should
be hung for a thing which is no fault of mine. You've just heard what
Gull's had to say. I can prove that I was in Smeaton's study when this
thing happened; and I daresay, if Hawley is to be cross-examined, he'll
be able to show that he was somewhere else at the time. What I say,
however, is this--that it's very unfair and unjust to practically
accuse fellows of a thing without having some grounds for so doing.
I don't want to brag, but there have been times, as, for instance, at
the last Wraxby match" (cheers), "when the school thought well of me"
(loud cheers). "Now I'm a black sheep; but there ought to be fair play
for black sheep as well as for white ones." ("Hear, hear!")
"Allingford said something about underhanded bits of foul play. Well,
I, for one, am not afraid to be open and speak my mind. If the place is
going to the dogs because of it's being continually in a state of
disorder, then the fault lies with the prefects." (Sensation.)
"They're the ones who ought to check it, and if they are incompetent,
and can't do their duty, it's no excuse for their trying to shift the
blame on to fellows who are innocent, but who happen to stand in their
bad books."

The speech had just the effect which Thurston intended it should have.
The English schoolboy has always been a zealous champion of "fair play,"
though sometimes misled in his ideas as to what the term really implies.
A vague sense that the prefects were at fault, and that this inquiry was
a blind to cover their shortcomings, spread through the meeting.
Oaks was interrupted and prevented from questioning Hawley, and it
seemed as though the good influence of Allingford's opening speech would
b