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Updated: May 11, 2025
Every one on entering was asked to draw out of a hat a folded slip of paper, which assigned to him the part he was to play, the only parts reserved from the lot being that of judge, which of course was to be filled by Ainger, and that of senior counsels for the prosecution and defence, which were undertaken respectively by Barnworth and Felgate.
Felgate sullenly obeyed, and Mr Bickers there and then discharged his little debt, adding interest. "Now go away, and don't dare to come near me again! Stay, take with you these tokens of your ill-timed humour; they may serve to amuse someone else. Begone!" and he thrust into his hands the unlucky parcel and closed the door in his face.
Ainger was one of those fellows who, when their mind is set on a thing, seem to lose sight of all but two persons the person who can help them most and the person who can hinder them most. In the present case Ainger's heart was set on making his house the crack house of Grandcourt. The person who could help him most was Railsford, and the person who could hinder him most was Felgate.
"I dare say not. But I thought you ought to know what I have been doing to enforce the rule, and what I mean to do. I hope you will tell that coward I spoke of what he may expect." "Look here," said Felgate, firing up for a baulked bully rarely talks in a whisper "you may think yourself a very important person, but I don't."
Ainger and Barnworth, it was plain to see, had been informed of all that had happened, and were in a more warlike mood even than their two companions. "I hear," said Railsford, "that there was a disturbance in the house while I was away for a short time this evening. Ainger and Barnworth of course were out too, but I should like to hear from you, Stafford and Felgate, what it was all about."
"It's no business of yours, and you'd better not be impudent, I can tell you. As it happens, I've got some work to do, and can't come. Cut away, you needn't stay." Wake departed cheerfully, and announced that the whole thing was a "put- up job," as Arthur would have called it, and that Felgate was at the bottom of it. Whereupon Ainger's face grew dark, and he walked, bat in hand, to the house.
"Did anyone know about this except yourself?" "Dig knew," said Arthur, "and he must have collared them." "Who? Oakshott?" "Oh no; but I happened to say something last term, just after that trial we had, you know; I was talking about it, on the strict quiet, of course, to Felgate." "Felgate!" exclaimed the master; and the whole truth flashed upon him at once. "Yes, he promised to keep it dark.
Although a prefect himself, he not only evinced no interest in the order of the house at a time when the prefects were specially on their mettle, but he had taken pains to undermine the discipline of the place and set his authority up in antagonism to that of his own colleagues. Felgate laid his plans deeply and cleverly.
When his examination in chief was concluded, Felgate rose and said, "I have one or two questions to ask you, Mr Job Walker. You say you were in the boiler-shop during the whole of the evening in question. Where was the proper foreman of the shop at the time?" "He was out." "Was work going on as usual in his absence?" "Pretty much." "What do you mean by pretty much? Were you working yourself?"
Felgate, however, had an impression that his statement to the doctor had missed fire; and being determined not wholly to cast his trump card away, he had walked across and sought an interview with Mr Bickers.
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