ou know very well he would not."

"No, I don't; at any rate I shall try it on."

"It would do you no good, I tell you."

"If not, it would do you two chaps harm, I know; why, you would get it
pretty hot if yer master knowed yer had come here at all; and if he
found you'd been playing cards on a Sunday, and roulette, and pawning
yer watches and things, I'll bet a hundred it wouldn't make it better.
Gents like you can allus get money somehow; write to yer friends; it's
only two pun ten apiece, and they won't stick at that to get you out of
such a shindy as this will be. This here's Thursday and I'm bound to go
on Monday. If you don't bring them five pounds by then, I'll go to your
master with that 'ere I O U in my hand on Monday morning as sure as I
stand here. So now you know."

And with this ultimatum the rascal dismissed them. They walked slowly
along the lane leading to Weston with hearts as heavy as could be, for
indeed they were at their wits' end. If this fellow fulfilled his
threat, and they had no doubt he would, it most certainly would result
in expulsion for them both. To write home for more money was out of the
question, for each had exhausted every conceivable excuse for doing so
already, and any further application would only bring a letter to Dr
Jolliffe asking the reason for all this extravagance, instead of cash,
and so precipitate the calamity rather than ward it off. A less
shameful peccadillo might have been confessed, but this low-lived
gambling, this association with a fellow like Josiah Slam, how could it
be spoken of? Impossible! Well, but what was to be done? Anything,
anything to stave off the immediate peril; but what? That thought
haunted each of them all day and during a sleepless night, and when they
met on the following morning each looked at the other to see if he could
detect any gleam of hope in his face.

"Look here," said Saurin, "there is just a chance, not a good one, but
still a chance. That fellow Gould always has heaps of money, and from
all these stories of Crawley's visit to him at Christmas his people must
be very rich. Now he is not a generous fellow, but he likes to show
off. And if we went to him and told him all about it, and that we were
dead certain to be expelled if we could not raise five pounds, do you
not think he might lend it us till after Easter?"

"I am afraid he won't," replied Edwards, "but it is worth trying."

"You see, it would be somethin