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With anybody else the thing might have blown over, to the detriment of Mike's character; but Firby-Smith, having the most tender affection for his dignity, made a fuss. It happened in this way. The immediate cause of the disturbance was a remark of Mike's, but the indirect cause was the unbearably patronising manner which the head of Wain's chose to adopt towards him.
That youth, all spectacles and front teeth, met Mike at the door of Wain's. "Ah, I wanted to see you, young man," he said. Mike followed him in silence to his study, and preserved his silence till Firby-Smith, having deposited his cricket-bag in a corner of the room and examined himself carefully in a looking-glass that hung over the mantelpiece, spoke again.
I'm a prefect, too, you know." Firby-Smith looked a little blank at this. He had a great admiration for Bob. "I didn't think of you," he said. "I thought you hadn't," said Bob. "You see it now, though, don't you?" Firby-Smith returned to the original grievance. "Well, you know, it was frightful cheek." "Of course it was.
"Oh, all right," said Mike. Silence. "Sugar?" asked Bob. "Thanks," said Mike. "How many lumps?" "Two, please." "Cake?" "Thanks." Silence. Bob pulled himself together. "Like Wain's?" "Ripping." "I asked Firby-Smith to keep an eye on you," said Bob. "What!" said Mike. The mere idea of a worm like the Gazeka being told to keep an eye on him was degrading.
He came to me frothing with rage, and wanted me to call a prefects' meeting and touch young Mike up." Bob displayed interest and excitement for the first time. "Prefects' meeting! What the dickens is up? What's he been doing? Smith must be drunk. What's all the row about?" Burgess repeated the main facts of the case as he had them from Firby-Smith.
Mike, who had remained in his crease with the idea that nobody even moderately sane would attempt a run for a hit like that, moved forward in a startled and irresolute manner. Firby-Smith arrived, shouting "Run!" and, cover having thrown the ball in, the wicket-keeper removed the bails. These are solemn moments.
Bob scratched thoughtfully at the turf with a spike of his boot. "Of course, it was awfully decent " Then again the monstrous nature of the affair came home to him. "But what did you do it for? Why should you rot up your own chances to give me a look in?" "Oh, I don't know.... You know, you did me a jolly good turn." "I don't remember. When?" "That Firby-Smith business." "What about it?"
Mention was made of rows in which he had played a part in the past. "It must be pretty rotten for him," said Bob. "He and Wain never get on very well, and yet they have to be together, holidays as well as term. Pretty bad having a step-father at all I shouldn't care to and when your house-master and your step-father are the same man, it's a bit thick." "Frightful," agreed Firby-Smith.
Firby-Smith, in the course of his address, had not omitted to lay stress on the importance of Bob's intervention. But for Bob, he gave him to understand, he, Mike, would have been prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law.
He put down the glass, and surveyed Mike, who had maintained a moody silence throughout this speech. "What's your trouble?" he asked. "For pains in the back try Ju-jar. If it's a broken heart, Zam-buk's what you want. Who's been quarrelling with you?" "It's only that ass Firby-Smith." "Again! I never saw such chaps as you two. Always at it. What was the trouble this time?
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