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Stone made no reply. "Will ten past six suit you for fielding-practice to-morrow?" said Adair. "All right," said Stone. "Thanks. How about you, Robinson?" Robinson had been a petrified spectator of the Captain-Kettle-like manoeuvres of the cricket captain, and it did not take him long to make up his mind. He was not altogether a coward.
"There are lines on my face, dark circles beneath my eyes. The fierce rush of life at Sedleigh is wasting me away." "Stone and I had a discussion about early-morning fielding-practice," said Adair, turning to Mike. Mike said nothing. "I thought his fielding wanted working up a bit, so I told him to turn out at six to-morrow morning. He said he wouldn't, so we argued it out.
There's no earthly need for us to turn out for fielding-practice before breakfast." "You don't think there is? You may be right. All the same, you're going to to-morrow morning." "What!" "Six sharp. Don't be late." "Don't be an ass, Adair. We've told you we aren't going to." "That's only your opinion. I think you are. I'll give you till five past six, as you seem to like lying in bed."
This last was Wilkins' own and was, as he would have been the first to admit, substantially helped by a contribution of nineteen in a single innings in the fifth game. So the team was selected, and Clephane turned out after school next day to give them a little fielding-practice. To his surprise the fielding was not so outrageous as might have been expected.
On the first terrace was a sort of informal practice ground, where, though no games were played on it, there was a good deal of punting and drop-kicking in the winter and fielding-practice in the summer.
That by telling the captain of cricket that Mike had shirked fielding-practice he might injure the latter's prospects of a first eleven cap simply did not occur to him. That Burgess would feel, on being told of Mike's slackness, much as a bishop might feel if he heard that a favourite curate had become a Mahometan or a Mumbo-Jumboist, did not enter his mind.
Barnes was among those present, but of the other two representatives of Outwood's house there were no signs. Barnes, questioned on the subject, had no information to give, beyond the fact that he had not seen them about anywhere. Which was not a great help. Adair proceeded with the fielding-practice without further delay. At breakfast that morning he was silent and apparently wrapped in thought.
"Sorry," said Stone. "Hullo, Adair!" "Don't mention it. Why weren't you two at fielding-practice this morning?" Robinson, who left the lead to Stone in all matters, said nothing. Stone spoke. "We didn't turn up," he said. "I know you didn't. Why not?" Stone had rehearsed this scene in his mind, and he spoke with the coolness which comes from rehearsal. "We decided not to." "Oh?" "Yes.
The immediate cause of revolt was early-morning fielding-practice, that searching test of cricket keenness. Mike himself, to whom cricket was the great and serious interest of life, had shirked early-morning fielding-practice in his first term at Wrykyn. And Stone and Robinson had but a luke-warm attachment to the game, compared with Mike's.
At this moment Adair came into the shop. "Fielding-practice again to-morrow," he said briskly, "at six." "Before breakfast?" said Robinson. "Rather. You two must buck up, you know. You were rotten to-day." And he passed on, leaving the two malcontents speechless. Stone was the first to recover. "I'm hanged if I turn out to-morrow," he said, as they left the shop. "He can do what he likes about it.
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