“Oh, I’m not,” said David. “Of course he’ll see there’s another side to it, same as you’ve done. Something had to happen when we got Manton and Crossley instead of Frank and Cruikshank.”
At this moment a small and completely soaked boy burst into the room, not seeing Adams, who was sitting behind the door, but only David.
“Letter for you, Blaize,” he said. “Oh, and I want to appeal. Sorry, sir, I didn’t see you.”
“You do now, Jevons,” said Adams. “So go on, tell Blaize what the appeal’s about.”
“Well, sir, somebody put my sponge on the top of Manton’s door, made a booby-trap, and because it’s my sponge he says I’m responsible unless I find out who put it there.”
“Go on, learned brother Blaize,” he said.
He had seen the handwriting of his letter, and tore it open.
“Oh, I say, how ripping!” he said. “Frank’s mother’s ill, and is ordered out of England for Christmas—at least, it’s beastly that she’s ill—but Frank wants to know if he can stay with us for a week. I say, Jev, you’re awfully wet, aren’t you? I mean, you couldn’t get much wetter, so I wonder if you’d take a tellywag just down to the office.”
“Rather. And I’ll put my appeal in your study, shall I!”
“Right. I’ll be back in a second if you’ll have your tellywag ready.”
“Is the telegram to Frank saying he can come?” asked Adams.
“Then hadn’t you better write to your father first? It might not be convenient.”
The impulsive David had already written “Ripping: stay as long as you can,” but he paused.
“Oh well, I suppose it would be best, sir,” he said; “I wish you hadn’t thought of it.”
David got up to go to his study, and write the note which was so far outstripped by his desire.
“And may I talk to Bags and Plugs about the Court of Appeal, sir!” he said.
“Certainly. You can talk it over with Manton, too, if you like. In fact, I rather recommend it.”
Adams’s recommendation seemed to be rather sensible when David thought over it, though not perhaps strictly in accordance with Adams’s idea in suggesting it. It would give the Court an opportunity perhaps of finding out what Manton had said to the Head, and, should Manton not choose to tell them, it was easy to threaten, as a counter-move, that the Court, when called upon, as it undoubtedly would be, to appear before the Head, would give a highly coloured account, strictly based upon facts, of what had led to its formation. Also they could put before Manton and Crossley a very depressing picture of what their position would be if the Court was dissolved, and, privately, chose not to back up their restored authority. It required but small imagination to picture the status of those two unfortunate prefects if they had to enforce discipline in the house without the support of what had been the Court.