Comethup put his hand into his pocket and produced the money. "Don't you think," he said, "that it would be better for you to go and see my aunt--_your_ aunt, too, you know--and tell her what you mean to do? She's awfully good, and I know that she----" "No, thanks, I'd rather not; I had one experience with the old girl, and that was enough. Oh, I'll get on capitally. And if I want anything more, I can easily come to you. You won't mind, will you?" "Not a bit," said Comethup. "I'll give you our address in London, and you can write to me. I shall be up there in a week's time." He wrote it down on the back of an envelope and gave it to Brian. They shook hands again quite heartily, and Brian, retaining Comethup's hand for a moment, said, in his friendly fashion: "Wish me luck. I'm going to set the Thames on fire, if ever a man set it flaring yet. You know what that means, don't you? They say that of any one who's going to do something more wonderful than any one else. I know what's in me; I know what I can do. And that wretched old sleepy hollow where you and I once lived, Comethup--I've done with the infernal place. It shall be proud of me some day--proud to think that I lived there, that I was born there; oh, I'll make them whisper my name with awe, and condone all my past offences. Good-bye, old chap; it's awfully good of you, and some day, when I'm rich and famous, I'll pay it back--I will, indeed. Good-bye; I'll write and let you know how I get on. But you'll hear of me--oh, you'll hear of me." He crammed the envelope and the notes into his pocket and set off down the road, turning once to wave his hand to Comethup, who stood at the gate watching him. The captain turned in briskly at the school gates on the following morning immediately after breakfast. He seemed to glow with the conscious pride of one intimately associated with the most important man of the day; to be proud of the fact that he was bearing off the boy whom it was the school's delight to honour, for Comethup was the head boy of the school and captain of the Eleven--a man whom little boys regarded with awe, as he, when a little boy, had once regarded the captains who had long since passed out of the school. Very proud, too, was the captain to have this big lad slip his hand under his own weaker arm and stroll with him about the playground and among groups of admiring boys; prouder still when the head master, whom the modest captain regarded as a very wonder for learning, came to him and shook hands and murmured a few appropriate words about the loss the school would suffer with the departure of Comethup Willis.