nishment, walked to the spot where I had been operated on. He bent
over (again without being told to do so), and only spoiled his proud
submission by telegraphing to Radley one uncontrolled look of
pathetic appeal like the glance of a faithful dog. Radley, not
noticing these unnerving actions, or possibly a little annoyed by
them, administered justice severely enough for Doe, proud as he was,
to wince slightly at every cut. Then he put his cane away, and
issued, as before, his little ration of gentleness.

"You're two plucky boys," he said.

Sec.4

That night I measured my barefoot height against the dormitory wall,
and made a deep pencil-mark thereon: which done, I reached up to a
great height, and made a mark to represent Radley. After these
preliminaries there was nothing to do but to wait developments. One
practice which aided growth was to lie full-length in bed instead of
curled up. So, after I had cut with nail-scissors the few fair hairs
from my breast and calves, in an endeavour to encourage a plentiful
crop like that which added manliness to Pennybet's darker
form--after this delicate, operation, I got between the sheets, and
straightened out my limbs with a considerable effort of the will.
Later on I forced them down again, when I found that my knees had
once more strayed up to my chin.

Our dormitory at Bramhall House was a long many-windowed room,
containing thirty beds, Edgar Doe's being on my left. He suddenly
made reference to our punishment of the morning.

"I wonder why he gave me a worse dose than you."

"Yes, he did let into you," I said cheerfully.

Doe flushed, and continued talking so as to be heard only by me.

"If it had been any other master, I'd have been mad with him. Fancy,
practically two whackings in a morning; one on the knuckles and one
on the--and the other. But you can't hate Radley, can you?"

"Oh, I don't know," I said, with grave doubts.

There was a pause. But a desire to tell confidences had been
begotten of warm bed and darkness, and my friend soon proceeded:

"It's funny, Rupert, but I like talking to you better than to any of
the other chaps. I feel I can tell you things I wouldn't tell
anybody else. Do you know, I really think I like Radley better than
anyone else in the world. I simply loved being whacked by him."

I pulled the clothes off my head that I might see the extraordinary
creature that was talking to me. A dim light always burned near our
beds, and