It was something of a consolation to Barry and his friends--at anyrate, to Barry and Drummond--that directly after they had been evictedfrom their study, the house-matches began. Except for the Ripton match,the house-matches were the most important event of the Easter term.

　　Even the sports at the beginning of April were productive of lessexcitement. There were twelve houses at Wrykyn, and they played on the"knocking-out" system. To be beaten once meant that a house was nolonger eligible for the competition. It could play "friendlies" as muchas it liked, but, play it never so wisely, it could not lift the cup.

　　Thus it often happened that a weak house, by fluking a victory over astrong rival, found itself, much to its surprise, in the semi-final, orsometimes even in the final. This was rarer at football than atcricket, for at football the better team generally wins.

　　The favourites this year were Donaldson's, though some fanciedSeymour's. Donaldson's had Trevor, whose leadership was worth almostmore than his play. In no other house was training so rigid. You couldtell a Donaldson's man, if he was in his house-team, at a glance. Ifyou saw a man eating oatmeal biscuits in the shop, and eyeing wistfullythe while the stacks of buns and pastry, you could put him down as aDonaldsonite without further evidence. The captains of the other housesused to prescribe a certain amount of self-abnegation in the matter offood, but Trevor left his men barely enough to support life--enough,that is, of the things that are really worth eating. The consequencewas that Donaldson's would turn out for an important match all muscleand bone, and on such occasions it was bad for those of their opponentswho had been taking life more easily. Besides Trevor they had Clowes,and had had bad luck in not having Paget. Had Paget stopped, no otherhouse could have looked at them. But by his departure, the strength ofthe team had become more nearly on a level with that of Seymour's.

　　Some even thought that Seymour's were the stronger. Milton was as gooda forward as the school possessed. Besides him there were Barry andRand-Brown on the wings. Drummond was a useful half, and five of thepack had either first or second fifteen colours. It was a team thatwould take some beating.

　　Trevor came to that conclusion early. "If we can beat Seymour's, we'lllift the cup," he said to Clowes.

　　"We'll have to do all we know," was Clowes' reply.

　　They were watching Seymour's pile up an immense score against a scratchteam got up by one of the masters. The first round of the competitionwas over. Donaldson's had beaten Templar's, Seymour's the School House.

　　Templar's were rather stronger than the School House, and Donaldson'shad beaten them by a rather larger score than that which Seymour's hadrun up in their match. But neither Trevor nor Clowes was inclined todraw any augury from this. Seymour's had taken things easily afterhalf-time; Donaldson's had kept going hard all through.

　　"That makes Rand-Brown's fourth try," said Clowes, as the wingthree-quarter of the second fifteen raced round and scored in thecorner.

　　"Yes. This is the sort of game he's all right in. The man who's markinghim is no good. Barry's scored twice, and both good tries, too.""Oh, there's no doubt which is the best man," said Clowes. "I onlymentioned that it was Rand-Brown's fourth as an item of interest."The game continued. Barry scored a third try.

　　"We're drawn against Appleby's next round," said Trevor. "We can managethem all right.""When is it?""Next Thursday. Nomads' match on Saturday. Then Ripton, Saturday week.""Who've Seymour's drawn?""Day's. It'll be a good game, too. Seymour's ought to win, but they'llhave to play their best. Day's have got some good men.""Fine scrum," said Clowes. "Yes. Quick in the open, too, which isalways good business. I wish they'd beat Seymour's.""Oh, we ought to be all right, whichever wins."Appleby's did not offer any very serious resistance to the Donaldsonattack. They were outplayed at every point of the game, and, beforehalf-time, Donaldson's had scored their thirty points. It was a rule inall in-school matches--and a good rule, too--that, when one side led bythirty points, the match stopped. This prevented those massacres whichdo so much towards crushing all the football out of the members of thebeaten team; and it kept the winning team from getting slack, by urgingthem on to score their thirty points before half-time. There were somehouses--notoriously slack--which would go for a couple of seasonswithout ever playing the second half of a match.

　　Having polished off the men of Appleby, the Donaldson team trooped offto the other game to see how Seymour's were getting on with Day's. Itwas evidently an exciting match. The first half had been played to theaccom............