Mr Blackburn suspected that something untoward had happened in Kay's to cause this sudden defection of the first fifteen of the house. He knew that Kennedy was having a hard time in his new position, and he did not wish to add to his discomfort by calling for an explanation before an audience. It could not be pleasant for Kennedy to feel that his enemies had scored off him. It was best to preserve a discreet silence with regard to the whole affair, and leave him to settle it for himself. Jimmy Silver was more curious. He took Kennedy off to tea in his study, sat him down in the best chair in front of the fire, and proceeded to urge him to confess everything. "Now, then, what's it all about?" he asked, briskly, spearing a muffin on the fork and beginning to toast. "It's no good asking me," said Kennedy. "I suppose it's a put-up job to make me look a fool. I ought to have known something of this kind would happen when I saw what they did to my first notice." "What was that?" Kennedy explained. "This is getting thrilling," said Jimmy. "Just pass that plate. Thanks. What are you going to do about it?" "I don't know. What would you do?" "My dear chap, I'd first find out who was at the bottom of it--there's bound to be one man who started the whole thing--and I'd make it my aim in life to give him the warmest ten minutes he'd ever had." "That sounds all right. But how would you set about it?" "Why, touch him up, of course. What else would you do? Before the whole house, too." "Supposing he wouldn't be touched up?" "Wouldn't _be!_ He'd have to." "You don't know Kay's, Jimmy. You're thinking what you'd do if this had happened in Blackburn's. The two things aren't the same. Here the man would probably take it like a lamb. The feeling of the house would be against him. He'd find nobody to back him up. That's because Blackburn's is a decent house instead of being a sink like Kay's. If I tried the touching-up before the whole house game with our chaps, the man would probably reply by going for me, assisted by the whole strength of the company." "Well, dash it all then, all you've got to do is to call a prefects' meeting, and he'll get ten times worse beans from them than he'd have got from you. It's simple." Kennedy stared into the fire pensively. "I don't know," he said. "I bar that prefects' meeting business. It always seems rather feeble to me, lugging in a lot of chaps to help settle some one you can't manage yourself. I want to carry this job through on my own." "Then you'd better scrap with the man." "I think I will." Silver stared. "Don't be an ass," he said. "I was only rotting. You can't go fighting all over the shop as if you were a fag. You'd lose your prefect's cap if it came out."