d. This was the first time for ages that Biffen's had
tasted blood, and the news of the victory staggered others besides the
victims. There was quite a flutter among the house captains, and Acton, by
the way, had no more mutinies.

"Without haste, without rest," Biffen's captain started his second project
for the elevation of his house. He had noticed what none of the other
fellows would condescend to see, that two of the despised niggers of
Biffen's were rather neat on the bars. He spent a quarter of an hour one
evening quietly watching the two in the gym, and he went away thoughtful.
Singh Ram and Mehtah thereupon each received a polite note, and "could
they call about seven in Acton's study?" They came, and Acton talked to
them briefly but to the point. When they sought their quarters again they
were beaming, and "Singed" Ram carried a fat book of German physical
exercises under his arm.

"Am I not coming out strong?" said Acton, laughing to himself, "when I set
the very niggers a-struggling for the greater glory of Biffen's--or is it
Acton's? Then, there's that exhibition, which we must try to get for this
double-superlative house. Raven must beat that Sixth prig Hodgson, the
very bright particular star of Corker's. Would two hours' classics, on
alternate nights, meet his case? He shall have 'em, bless him! He shall
know what crops Horace grew on his little farm, and all the other rot
which gains Perry Exhibitions. Hodgson may strong coffee and wet towel
_per noctem_; but, with John Acton as coach, Raven shall upset the
apple-cart of Theodore Hodgson. There's Todd in for the Perry, too, I
hear. Hodgson may be worth powder and shot, but I'm hanged if Raven need
fear Cotton's jackal! If only half of my plans come off, still that will
put Philip Bourne in a tighter corner than he's ever been in before.
Therefore--_en avant!_"

CHAPTER V

COTTON AND HIS JACKAL

As I said before, the victory of the despised Biffenites over the Fifth
Form eleven--a moderate one, it is true--caused quite a little breeze of
surprise to circulate around the other houses, which had by process of
time come to regard that slack house as hopeless in the fields or in the
schools. Over all the tea-tables that afternoon the news was commented on
with full details; how Chalmers had gained in deadliness just as much as
he had lost in selfishness, and how Raven and Worcester had worked like
horses, and mown down the opposition--"Fifth For