“That was one instance. Again, when you had rooms below them--I always said that that was entering the lion’s den--you turned them out.” “For making disgusting noises. Surely, Gillett, you don’t excuse--” “All I say is that you turned them out. That same evening your study was wrecked.” “By Rabbits-Eggs--most beastly drunk--from the road,” said King. “What has that--?” The Reverend John went on. “Lastly, they conceive that aspersions are cast upon their personal cleanliness--a most delicate matter with all boys. Ve-ry good. Observe how, in each case, the punishment fits the crime. A week after your house calls them ‘stinkers,’ King, your house is, not to put too fine a point on it, stunk out by a dead cat who chooses to die in the one spot where she can annoy you most. Again the long arm of coincidence! _Summa_. You accuse them of trespass. Through some absurd chain of circumstances--they may or may not be at the other end of it--you and Prout are made to appear as trespassers. You evict them. For a time your study is made untenable. I have drawn the parallel in the last case. Well?” “She was under the centre of White’s dormitory,” said King. “There are double floor-boards there to deaden noise. No boy, even in my own house, could possibly have pried up the boards without leaving some trace--and Rabbits-Eggs was phenomenally drunk that other night.” “They are singularly favored by fortune. That is all I ever said. Personally, I like them immensely, and I believe I have a little of their confidence. I confess I like being called ‘Padre.’ They are at peace with me; consequently I am not treated to bogus confessions of theft.” “You mean Mason’s case?” said Prout heavily. “That always struck me as peculiarly scandalous. I thought the Head should have taken up the matter more thoroughly. Mason may be misguided, but at least he is thoroughly sincere and means well.” “I confess I cannot agree with you, Prout,” said the Reverend John. “He jumped at some silly tale of theft on their part; accepted another boy’s evidence without, so far as I can see, any inquiry; and--frankly, I think he deserved all he got.” “They deliberately outraged Mason’s best feelings,” said Prout. “A word to me on their part would have saved the whole thing. But they preferred to lure him on; to play on his ignorance of their characters--” “That may be,” said King, “but I don’t like Mason. I dislike him for the very reason that Prout advances to his credit. He means well.” “Our criminal tradition is not theft--among ourselves, at least,” said little Hartopp. “For the head of a house that raided seven head of cattle from the innocent pot-wallopers of Northam, isn’t that rather a sweeping statement?” said Macrea. “Precisely so,” said Hartopp, unabashed. “That, with gate-lifting, and a little poaching and hawk-hunting on the cliffs, is our salvation.” “It does us far more harm as a school--” Prout began.