ch a thing?" I walked over to him, ostensibly to
ask his advice. The quarrel continued, most of the fieldsmen
asserting that the batsman was out: they wanted an innings.
Unperceived, we strolled leisurely away and disappeared round a
corner. The last thing that I heard was the batsman's voice
shouting: "I'm not an ass. I haven't got four legs, so sucks for
you!"

Sec.2

Reaching the road, we linked arms with the affection born of sharing
a crime and the risk of detection.

"Where are we going to?" asked I.

"Ee, bless me, my man. Down town, of course."

"But it's out of bounds."

"Ee, bless me, my man, don't you know that to me all rules are but
gossamer threads that I break at my will? I'm off to buy sausages. I
haven't had anything worth eating since the holidays."

And so, arm in arm, we marched briskly down the Beaten Track. The
Beaten Track, I must tell you, was a route into the town which
Penny, Doe, and I regarded as our private highway. We would have
esteemed it disloyalty to an inanimate friend to approach the town
by any other channel. It led through the residential district of
Kensingtowe, past a fashionable church, and down a hill. Dear old
Beaten Track! How often have I mouched over it, alone and dreamy,
adjusting my steps to the cracks between its pavement-flags! How
often have I sauntered along it, arm in arm with one of my friends,
talking those great plans which have come to nothing!

We always became confidential on the Beaten Track; and to-day I
suddenly pressed Penny's arm and opened the subject that, though I
would not have admitted it, was the most pressing at the moment.

"I say, why does Doe avoid us now?"

"The Gray Doe," sneered Penny. "Oh, he--She's in love, I suppose.
With Radley."

"Don't drivel," I commanded; "why does he hang about with that awful
Freedham?"

"When you're my age, Rupert," began Penny, in kind and accommodating
explanation, "you'll know that there are such things as degenerates
and decadents. Freedham is one. And very soon Doe will be another."

"Well, hang it," I said, "if you think that, how can you joke about
it, and leave him to go his way?"

"Oh, the young fellow must learn wisdom. And he's not in any danger
of being copped. I'm the only one that suspects; and I guessed
because I'm exceptionally brilliant. Besides, if he wants to go to
the devil for a bit, you can't take his arm and go with him."

"No," said I, "but you can take his arm and lug h