208

ACCOUNTS SQUARED WITH FLASHMAN.

threw his whole weight forward. The three tottered for a moment, and then over they went on to the floor, Flashman striking his head against a form in the fall.

The two youngsters sprang to their legs, but he lay there still. They began to be frightened. Tom stooped down, and then cried out, scared out of his wits, "He's bleeding awfully; come here, East, Diggs he's dying!"

"Not he," said Diggs, getting leisurely off the table; "it's all sham, he's only afraid to fight it out."

East was as frightened as Tom. Flashman's head and he groaned. "What's the matter?" shouted Diggs.

Diggs lifted

"My skull's fractured," sobbed Flashman.

"Oh, let me run for the housekeeper," cried Tom. "What shall we do?"

"Fiddlesticks! it's nothing but the skin broken,"

said the relentless Diggs, feeling his head.

water and a bit of rag's all he'll want."

"Cold

"Let me go," said Flashman, surlily, sitting up; "I don't want your help.”

"We're really very sorry," began East.

"Hang your sorrow," answered Flashman, holding his handkerchief to the place; "you shall pay for this, I can tell you, both of you." And he walked out of the hall.

"He can't be very bad," said Tom, with a deep sigh, much relieved to see his enemy march so well. "Not he," said Diggs, "and you'll see you won't be troubled with him any more. But, I say, your

ACCOUNTS SQUARED WITH FLASHMAN.

209

head's broken too-your collar is covered with blood."

"Is it though?" said Tom, putting up his hand; "I didn't know it."

"Well, mop it up, or you'll have your jacket spoilt. And you have got a nasty eye, Scud; you'd better and bathe it well in cold water."

go

"Cheap enough too, if we've done with our old friend Flashy," said East, as they made off up stairs to bathe their wounds.

They had done with Flashman in one sense, for he never laid finger on either of them again; but whatever harm a spiteful heart and venomous tongue could do them, he took care should be done. Only throw dirt enough, and some of it is sure to stick; and so it was with the fifth-form and the bigger boys in general, with whom he associated more or less, and they not at all, Flashman managed to get Tom and East into disfavour, which did not wear off for some time after the author of it had disappeared from the school world. This event, much prayed for by the small fry in general, took place a few months after the above encounter. One fine summer evening, Flashman had been regaling himself on gin-punch, at Brownsover; and having exceeded his usual limits, started home uproarious. He fell in with a friend or two coming back from bathing, proposed a glass of beer, to which they assented, the weather being hot, and they thirsty souls, and unaware of the quantity of drink which Flashman had already on board. The short result was, that Flashy became inhumanly drunk; they

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PENALTIES OF THE WAR.

tried to get him along, but couldn't, so they chartered a hurdle and two men to carry him.

One of

the masters came upon them, and they naturally enough fled. The flight of the rest raised the mas ter's suspicions, and the good angel of the fags incited him to examine the freight, and after examination, to convoy the hurdle himself up to the school-house; and the Doctor, who had long had his eye on Flashman, arranged for his withdrawal next morning.

The evil that men, and boys too, do, lives after them: Flashman was gone, but our boys, as hinted above, still felt the effects of his hate. Besides, they had been the movers of the strike against unlawful fagging. The cause was righteous, the result had been triumphant to a great extent; but the best of the fifth, even those who had never fagged the small boys, or had given up the practice cheerfully couldn't help feeling a small grudge against the fir rebels. After all, their form had been defied; on ju grounds, no doubt, so just indeed, that they had a once acknowledged the wrong and remained passiv in the strife: had they sided with Flashman and hi set, the rebels must have given way at once. The couldn't help, on the whole, being glad that they ha so acted, and that the resistance had been successfu against such of their own form as had shown fight they felt that law and order had gained thereby, bu the ringleaders they couldn't quite pardon at once "Confoundedly coxy those young rascals will get we don't mind," was the general feeling.

So it is, and must be always, my dear boys. I

FATE OF LIBERATORS.

211

ar the Angel Gabriel were to come down from Heaven, of and head a successful rise against the most abominalable and unrighteous vested interest which this poor as old world groans under, he would most certainly lose Eag his character for many years, probably for centuries, am not only with upholders of said vested interest, but th with the respectable mass of the people whom he ha had delivered. They wouldn't ask him to dinner, or let their names appear with his in the papers; they would be very careful how they spoke of him aft in the Palaver or at their clubs. What can we exnte pect then, when we have only poor gallant blunhe dering men like Kossuth, Garibaldi, Mazzini, and

ma

righteous causes which do not triumph in their hat hands; men who have holes enough in their arto mour, God knows, easy to be hit by respectabilities sitting in their lounging chairs, and having large all balances at their bankers? But you are brave fallant boys, who hate easy-chairs, and have no jalances or bankers. You only want to have your alheads set straight to take the right side: so bear in sismind that majorities, especially respectable ones, are henine times out of ten in the wrong; and that if you The ee man or boy striving earnestly on the weak side, hhowever wrong-headed or blundering he may be,

you are not to go and join the cry against him. If gh you can't join him, and help him, and make him bt wiser, at any rate remember that he has found something in the world which he will fight and suffer for, which is just what you have got to do for yourselves, and so think and speak of him Itenderly.

So East and Tom, the Tadpole, and one or two more, became a sort of young Ishmaelites, their hands against every one, and every one's hand against them. It has been already told how they got to war with the masters and the fifth-form, and with the sixth it was much the same. They saw the præpostors cowed by or joining with the fifth, and shirking their own duties, so they didn't respect them, and rendered no willing obedience. It had been one thing to clean out studies for sons of heroes like old Brooke, but was quite another to do the like for Snooks and Green, who had never faced a good scrummage at football, and couldn't keep the passages in order at night. So they only slurred through their fagging just well enough to escape' a licking, and not always that, and got the character of sulky, unwilling fags. In the fifth-form room, after supper, when such matters were often discussed and arranged, their names were for ever coming up.

"I say, Green," Snooks began one night, "isn't that new boy, Harrison, your fag?”

"Yes, why?"

“Oh, I know something of him at home, and should like to excuse him—will you swop?" "Who will you give me?"

"Well, let's see, there's Willis, Johnson- No, that won't do. Yes, I have it- there's young East, I'll give you him."

"Don't you wish you may get it?" replied Green. "I'll tell you what I'll do - I'll give you two for Willis, if you like."