To Joan, Effie, and Ernestine Bowes-Lyon...

“Where have I seen that face before?” said a voice. Tony Graham looked up from his bag. “Hullo, Allen,” he said, “what the dickens are you up here for?” “I was rather thinking of doing a little boxing...

It was always the custom for such Austinians as went up to represent the School at the annual competition to stop the night in the town. It was not, therefore, till just before breakfast on the follow...

The news, however, was not long in spreading. Robinson took care of that. On the way to school he overtook his friend Morrison, a young gentleman who had the unique distinction of being the rowdiest f...

During the last hour of morning school, Tony got a note from Jim. “Graham,” said Mr. Thompson, the Master of the Sixth, sadly, just as Tony was about to open it. “Yes, sir?” “Kindly tear that note up,...

“I wonder where the dear Mutual gets to these afternoons,” said Dallas. “The who?” asked MacArthur. MacArthur, commonly known as the Babe, was a day boy. Dallas and Vaughan had invited him to tea in t...

Charteris and Welch were conversing in the study of which they were the joint proprietors. That is to say, Charteris was talking and playing the banjo alternately, while Welch was deep in a book and r...

Barrett stood at the window of his study with his hands in his pockets, looking thoughtfully at the football field. Now and then he whistled. That was to show that he was very much at his ease. He whi...

“Fetchimout!” said the voice, all in one word. “Nice cheery remark to make!” thought Barrett. “He’ll have to do a good bit of digging before he fetches me out. I’m a fixture for the present.” There wa...

“I’m awfully sorry,” he said, disentangling himself carefully from the heap. “I hope you’re not hurt.” The man did not reply for a moment. He appeared to be laying the question before himself as an im...

The Pavilion burglary was discussed in other places besides Charteris’ study. In the Masters’ common room the matter came in for its full share of comment. The Masters were, as at most schools, divide...

Sports weather at St. Austin’s was as a rule a quaint but unpleasant solution of mud, hail, and iced rain. These were taken as a matter of course, and the School counted it as something gained when th...

For the rest of the afternoon Jim had a wretched time. To be beaten after such a race by a foot, and to be beaten by a foot when victory would have cut the Gordian knot of his difficulties once and fo...

Soon after Jim had taken his departure, Mr. Thompson, after waiting a few minutes in case the Headmaster had anything more to say, drifted silently out of the room. The Head, like the gentleman in the...

Vaughan came up soon afterwards, and Dallas told him the great news. They were neither of them naturally vindictive, but the Mutual Friend had been a heavy burden to them during his stay in the House,...

Inspector Roberts was standing with his back to the door, examining a photograph of the College, when the Head entered. He spun round briskly. “Good evening, Mr. Roberts. Pray be seated. You wish to s...

Certainly the Head was surprised. He read the note again. No. There was no mistake. “Thomson is not in the House.” There could be no two meanings about that. “Go across to Mr. Merevale’s,” he said at ...

“How sweet the moonlight sleeps on yonder haystack,” observed Charteris poetically, as he and Tony, accompanied by Swift and Daintree, made their way across the fields to Parker’s Spinney. Each carrie...

“Well,” he said, “you’re rather late. Any luck?” “We’ve found him, sir,” said Tony. “Really? That’s a good thing. Where was he?” “He’d fallen down a sort of quarry place near where MacArthur lives. Ma...