one of the best of fellows. I've never seen any one
who took such trouble with his man. I wish we could get him here. So it
was Joe who suggested that you should go down to Aldershot? Well, he
ought to know. Did he say you would have a good chance?"

"Yes, sir."

"My position is this, you see, Sheen. There is nothing I should like
more than to see the school represented at Aldershot. But I cannot let
anyone go down, irrespective of his abilities. Aldershot is not child's
play. And in the Light-Weights you get the hardest fighting of all. It
wouldn't do for me to let you go down if you are not up to the proper
form. You would be half killed."

"I should like to have a shot, sir," said Sheen.

"Then this year, as you probably know, Ripton are sending down Peteiro
for the Light-Weights. He was the fellow whom Drummond only just beat
last year. And you saw the state in which Drummond came back. If
Drummond could hardly hold him, what would you do?"

"I believe I could beat Drummond, sir," said Sheen.

Mr Spence's eyes opened wider. Here were brave words. This youth
evidently meant business. The thing puzzled him. On the one hand, Sheen
had been cut by his house for cowardice. On the other, Joe Bevan, who
of all men was best able to judge, had told him that he was good enough
to box at Aldershot.

"Let me think it over, Sheen," he said. "This is a matter which I
cannot decide in a moment. I will tell you tomorrow what I think about
it."

"I hope you will let me go down, sir," said Sheen. "It's my one
chance."

"Yes, yes, I see that, I see that," said Mr Spence, "but all the
same--well, I will think it over."

All the rest of that evening he pondered over the matter, deeply
perplexed. It would be nothing less than cruel to let Sheen enter the
ring at Aldershot if he were incompetent. Boxing in the Public Schools
Boxing Competition is not a pastime for the incompetent. But he wished
very much that Wrykyn should be represented, and also he sympathised
with Sheen's eagerness to wipe out the stain on his honour, and the
honour of the house. But, like Drummond, he could not help harbouring a
suspicion that this was a pose. He felt that Sheen was intoxicated by
his imagination. Every one likes to picture himself doing dashing
things in the limelight, with an appreciative multitude to applaud.
Would this mood stand the test of action?

Against this there was the evidence of Joe Bevan. Joe had said that
Sheen was worth