l on
top of your man, I don't say. But you get a young gentleman of your own
class, just about as quick and strong as you are, and then you'll know
where the seconding comes in."

"Then, for goodness' sake, don't make any mistake about coming down,"
said Sheen.

"I'll be there, sir," said Joe Bevan.

* * * * *

The Queen's Avenue Gymnasium at Aldershot is a roomy place, but it is
always crowded on the Public Schools' Day. Sisters and cousins and
aunts of competitors flock there to see Tommy or Bobby perform, under
the impression, it is to be supposed, that he is about to take part in
a pleasant frolic, a sort of merry parlour game. What their opinion is
after he emerges from a warm three rounds is not known. Then there are
soldiers in scores. Their views on boxing as a sport are crisp and
easily defined. What they want is Gore. Others of the spectators are
Old Boys, come to see how the school can behave in an emergency, and to
find out whether there are still experts like Jones, who won the
Middles in '96 or Robinson, who was runner-up in the Feathers in the
same year; or whether, as they have darkly suspected for some time, the
school has Gone To The Dogs Since They Left.

The usual crowd was gathered in the seats round the ring when Sheen
came out of the dressing-room and sat down in an obscure corner at the
end of the barrier which divides the gymnasium into two parts on these
occasions. He felt very lonely. Mr Spence and the school instructor
were watching the gymnastics, which had just started upon their lengthy
course. The Wrykyn pair were not expected to figure high on the list
this year. He could have joined Mr Spence, but, at the moment, he felt
disinclined for conversation. If he had been a more enthusiastic
cricketer, he would have recognised the feeling as that which attacks a
batsman before he goes to the wicket. It is not precisely funk. It is
rather a desire to accelerate the flight of Time, and get to business
quickly. All things come to him who waits, and among them is that
unpleasant sensation of a cold hand upon the portion of the body which
lies behind the third waistcoat button.

The boxing had begun with a bout between two feather-weights, both
obviously suffering from stage-fright. They were fighting in a
scrambling and unscientific manner, which bore out Mr Bevan's
statements on the subject of losing one's head. Sheen felt that both
were capable of better th