f the eleven, even Fenton, the slow bowler who had no ear for music,
picked them up. The noise flowed through the doors and windows of the
classroom. It reached the distant dormitory and stimulated small boys in
pyjamas to thrills of envious excitement It was Mannix again, Mannix at
his greatest and best, who half an hour later stood up in his place.
With an air of authority which became him well he raised his hand and
stilled the babbling voices of the enthusiastic eleven. Then, pitching
on a note which brought the tune well within the compass of even
Fenton's growling bass, he began the school songs,

"Adsis musa canentibus Laeta voce canentibus
Longos clara per annos Haileyburia floreat."

House feeling, local patriotism to the
tune of "The Maiden of Bashful Fifteen," was well enough. Behind it,
deep in the swelling heart of Mannix, lay a wider thing, a kind of
imperialism, a devotion to the school itself. Far across the dim
quadrangle rang the words "Haileyburia Floreat." It was Mannix's
greatest moment

Three days later the school broke up. Excited farewells were said by
boys eagerly pressing into the brakes which bore them to the Hertford
station. Mannix, one of the earliest to depart, went off from the midst
of a group of admirers. It was understood by his friends that he was to
spend the summer fishing in the west of Ireland--salmon fishing. There
would be grouse shooting too. Mannix had mentioned casually a salmon rod
and a new gun. Happy Mannix!

The west of Ireland is a remote region, wild no doubt, half barbarous
perhaps. Even Mr. Dupre, who knew almost all things knowable, admitted,
as he shook hands with his favorite pupil, that he knew the west of
Ireland only by repute. But Mannix might be relied on to sustain
in those far regions the honour of the school. Small boys, born
hero-worshippers, gathered in groups to await the brakes which should
carry them to less splendid summer sports, and spoke to each other in
confidence of the salmon which Mannix would catch and the multitude of
grouse which would fall before the explosions of his gun.

CHAPTER II

Edward Mannix, Esq., M. P., father of the fortunate Frank, holds the
office of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of the War Office, a position
of great importance at all times, but particularly so under the
circumstances under which Mannix held it. His chief, Lord Tolerton,
Secretary of State for War, was incapacitated by the possession o