THE SCHOOL SPORTS 141 



done ; whereat I thought I was going to win, as there was not 

 more than 150 yards to go. But then other fellows began to run 

 at their best pace, which seemingly was better than mine, for 

 though I felt as strong and fresh as possible I could not prevent 

 two passing me in the last few yards. The first four were all 

 together, not one of the rest carne in at all. . . . I put the stone 

 30 ft., which was not good enough to win, though there were many 



I can only say in regard to the above, that I now very 

 much question whether the distances were correctly 

 measured, for we ran on grass and had no proper running 

 shoes or shorts. Bulpett, who won the mile, was amply 

 good enough to make the time recorded ; but hardly so 

 under such conditions. 



It would be six weeks later when Kingcraft won the 

 Derby, with the consequences set out in the Prologue, 

 and it is difficult to believe that any good work was, 

 in such circumstances, being done for the Exhibitions. 

 I have on my left hand now the mark of a bad cut received 

 while knocking the neck off a champagne bottle one 

 evening, when the carousal surpassed the Kingcraft 

 celebration. Such proceedings in a school study seem 

 almost incredible, but these things happened. 



And yet, hostility to those assistant masters was my 

 motive power for the coming trial, and a few weeks before 

 the examination began, we were allowed to sit up an hour 

 or two later at nights. It was thus possible to crowd a 

 prodigious amount of work into a comparatively short 

 period. Stevenson was among the hardest working and 

 most conscientious competitors for these big stakes. 

 He never designedly fell foul of anyone, but he had 

 remained unacceptable to the younger members of the 

 house. It was quite an ordinary occurrence on those 

 late nights, when groping one's way round the passages 

 after lights had been put out, to feel a friendly hand 

 arrest you, and a voice would say : " Step high, just here. 

 There's a rope across the passage for Stevenson ! " Round 

 a corner there would be some fellow waiting with a wet 



