"There are few pleasures," said Psmith, as he resumed his favouriteposition against the mantelpiece and surveyed the commandeered studywith the pride of a householder, "keener to the reflective mind thansitting under one's own roof-tree. This place would have been wastedon Spiller; he would not have appreciated it properly."Mike was finishing his tea. "You're a jolly useful chap to have by youin a crisis, Smith," he said with approval. "We ought to have knowneach other before.""The loss was mine," said Psmith courteously. "We will now, with yourpermission, face the future for awhile. I suppose you realise that weare now to a certain extent up against it. Spiller's hot Spanish bloodis not going to sit tight and do nothing under a blow like this.""What can he do? Outwood's given us the study.""What would you have done if somebody had bagged your study?""Made it jolly hot for them!""So will Comrade Spiller. I take it that he will collect a gang andmake an offensive movement against us directly he can. To allappearances we are in a fairly tight place. It all depends on how bigComrade Spiller's gang will be. I don't like rows, but I'm prepared totake on a reasonable number of bravoes in defence of the home."Mike intimated that he was with him on the point. "The difficulty is,though," he said, "about when we leave this room. I mean, we're allright while we stick here, but we can't stay all night.""That's just what I was about to point out when you put it with suchadmirable clearness. Here we are in a stronghold, they can only get atus through the door, and we can lock that.""And jam a chair against it.""_And_, as you rightly remark, jam a chair against it. But whatof the nightfall? What of the time when we retire to our dormitory?""Or dormitories. I say, if we're in separate rooms we shall be in thecart."Psmith eyed Mike with approval. "He thinks of everything! You're theman, Comrade Jackson, to conduct an affair of this kind--suchforesight! such resource! We must see to this at once; if they put usin different rooms we're done--we shall be destroyed singly in thewatches of the night.""We'd better nip down to the matron right off.""Not the matron--Comrade Outwood is the man. We are as sons to him;there is nothing he can deny us. I'm afraid we are quite spoiling hisafternoon by these interruptions, but we must rout him out once more."As they got up, the door handle rattled again, and this time therefollowed a knocking.
"This must be an emissary of Comrade Spiller's," said Psmith. "Let usparley with the man."Mike unlocked the door. A light-haired youth with a cheerful, rathervacant face and a receding chin strolled into the room, and stoodgiggling with his hands in his pockets.
"I just came up to have a look at you," he explained.
"If you move a little to the left," said Psmith, "you will catch thelight and shade effects on Jackson's face better."The new-comer giggled with renewed vigour. "Are you the chap with theeyeglass who jaws all the time?""I _do_ wear an eyeglass," said Psmith; "as to the rest of thedescription----""My name's Jellicoe.""Mine is Psmith--P-s-m-i-t-h--one of the Shropshire Psmiths. Theobject on the skyline is Comrade Jackson.""Old Spiller," giggled Jellicoe, "is cursing you like anythingdownstairs. You _are_ chaps! Do you mean to say you simply baggedhis study? He's making no end of a row about it.""Spiller's fiery nature is a byword," said Psmith.
"What's he going to do?" asked Mike, in his practical way.
"He's going to get the chaps to turn you out.""As I suspected," sighed Psmith, as one mourning over the frailty ofhuman nature. "About how many horny-handed assistants should you saythat he would be likely to bring? Will you, for instance, join theglad throng?""Me? No fear! I think Spiller's an ass.""There's nothing like a common thought for binding people together.
_I_ think Spiller's an ass.""How many _will_ there be, then?" asked Mike.
"He might get about half a dozen, not more, because most of the chapsdon't see why they should sweat themselves just because Spiller'sstudy has been bagged.""Sturdy common sense," said Psmith approvingly, "seems to be the chiefvirtue of the Sedleigh character.""We shall be able to tackle a crowd like that," said Mike. "The onlything is we must get into the same dormitory.""This is where Comrade Jellicoe's knowledge of the local geographywill come in useful. Do you happen to know of any snug little room,with, say, about four beds in it? How many dormitories are there?""Five--there's one with three beds in it, only it belongs to threechaps.""I believe in the equal distribution of property. We will go toComrade Outwood and stake out another claim."Mr. Outwood received them even more beamingly than before. "Yes,Smith?" he said.
"We must apologise for disturbing you, sir----""Not at all, Smith, not at all! I like the boys in my house to come tome when they wish for my advice or help.""We were wondering, sir, if you would have any objection to Jackson,Jellicoe and myself sharing the dormitory with the three beds in it. Avery warm friendship--" explained Psmith, patting the gurglingJellicoe kindly on the shoulder, "has sprung up between Jackson,Jellicoe and myself.""You make friends easily, Smith. I like to see it--I like to see it.""And we can have the room, sir?""Certainly--certainly! Tell the matron as you go down.""And now," said Psmith, as they returned to the study, "we may saythat we are in a fairly winning position. A vote of thanks to ComradeJellicoe for his valuable assistance.""You _are_ a chap!" said Jellicoe.
The handle began to revolve again.
"That door," said Psmith, "is getting a perfect incubus! It cuts intoone's leisure cruelly."This time it was a small boy. "They told me to come up and tell you tocome down," he said.
Psmith looked ............