After evening chapel on the Sunday before the match the Chief sent for Gordon; when Gordon arrived he found Harding, the head of the House, there too. The Chief looked worried. There was a row in prospect. Gordon racked his brain to think of anything that could possibly have been found out about him. Of course there were many old troubles that might have been raked up. He had always realised that the hand of the past would still be near the shoulder of the present. Yet, what had he been doing recently? "Isn't Hazelton coming, Harding?" The Chief was speaking. "Yes, sir; but I believe he is collecting chapel cards." Hazelton too. Complications, forsooth. There was an awkward pause. Then Hazelton came in, quite at his ease. "Sir, the chapel cards; and I believe you wanted to see me, sir?" "Ah, yes, Hazelton; put the cards on my desk. Now, Caruthers, I want to ask you a question before the head and captain of the House that I hope you will answer truthfully. Did you offer a boy in Mr Christy's house money to 'lay out,' I believe that was the phrase, a boy in Mr Buller's house in the recent house match." Gordon thought for a moment. Had he? It was quite likely he had; but he could not remember. Then the scene came back. The crowd in front of the pavilion. Burgoyne: Hazlitt in the offing. "Yes, sir," he replied, after the instant's hesitation. "You seem rather doubtful about it." "Well, sir, I was trying to remember whether I had or not." The Chief was nettled by such apparent callousness. "You talk as if you were in the habit of offering such rewards. Are you?" "Well, sir, it is the sort of thing any fellow might do." "That is neither here nor there. I doubt the truth of your statement very much. But even if the school had become so generally demoralised as you suggest, that would not be any excuse for you. As a matter of fact, how much did you offer the boy?" "A shilling, sir." "Was that a genuine offer, now? If he had done what you wanted him to, would you have paid him?" Gordon was now well out of his depth. Explanation seemed impossible. Had the offer been genuine? He supposed it had. If the tick had been laid out, Gordon would have been so delighted that he would have stood the whole of Christy's drinks all round. "Yes, sir," he said quite cheerfully. A smile that rose to Hazelton's lips was instantly suppressed. "Ah! rather like hiring assassins in the cheap novelettes. What was your idea? Did you think Hazlitt would have been a help to the School side?" "No, sir. I hardly think he would have been of much assistance to them." The idea of Hazlitt being of any use to anyone was very amusing. Gordon always saw the funny side of everything. As a ghost, he would probably have found something cynically amusing in his own funeral. "Then you did it merely out of spite, I suppose. Do you consider that the football field is a suitable opportunity for the paying-off of old scores?"