12 Mike

XXXII. PSMITH

XXXIII. STAKING OUT A CLAIM

XXXIV. GUERILLA WARFARE

XXXV. UNPLEASANTNESS IN THE SMALL HOURS

XXXVI. ADAIR

XXXVII. MIKE FINDS OCCUPATION

XXXVIII. THE FIRE BRIGADE MEETING

XXXIX. ACHILLES LEAVES HIS TENT

XL. THE MATCH WITH DOWNING’S

XLI. THE SINGULAR BEHAVIOUR OF JELLICOE

XLII. JELLICOE GOES ON THE SICK-LIST

XLIII. MIKE RECEIVES A COMMISSION

XLIV. AND FULFILS IT

XLV. PURSUIT

XLVI. THE DECORATION OF SAMMY

XLVII. MR. DOWNING ON THE SCENT

XLVIII. THE SLEUTH-HOUND

XLIX. A CHECK

L. THE DESTROYER OF EVIDENCE

LI. MAINLY ABOUT BOOTS

LII. ON THE TRAIL AGAIN

LIII. THE KETTLE METHOD

LIV. ADAIR HAS A WORD WITH MIKE

LV. CLEARING THE AIR

LVI. IN WHICH PEACE IS DECLARED

LVII. MR. DOWNING MOVES

LVIII. THE ARTIST CLAIMS HIS WORK

LIX. SEDLEIGH v. WRYKYN

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BY T. M. R. WHITWELL

“ARE YOU THE M. JACKSON, THEN, WHO HAD AN AVERAGE OF FIFTY-ONE POINT NOUGHT THREE LAST YEAR?”

THE DARK WATERS WERE LASHED INTO A MAELSTROM

“DON’T LAUGH, YOU GRINNING APE”

“DO—YOU—SEE, YOU FRIGHTFUL KID?”

“WHAT’S ALL THIS ABOUT JIMMY WYATT?”

MIKE AND THE BALL ARRIVED ALMOST SIMULTANEOUSLY

“WHAT THE DICKENS ARE YOU DOING HERE?”

PSMITH SEIZED AND EMPTIED JELLICOE’S JUG OVER SPILLER

“WHY DID YOU SAY YOU DIDN’T PLAY CRICKET?” HE ASKED

“WHO—” HE SHOUTED, “WHO HAS DONE THIS?”

“DID—YOU—PUT—THAT—BOOT—THERE, SMITH?”

MIKE DROPPED THE SOOT-COVERED OBJECT IN THE FENDER

CHAPTER I

MIKE

It was a morning in the middle of April, and the Jackson family were consequently breakfasting in comparative silence. The cricket season had not begun, and except during the cricket season they were in the habit of devoting their powerful minds at breakfast almost exclusively to the task of victualling against the labours of the day. In May, June, July, and August the silence was broken. The three grown-up Jacksons played regularly in first-class cricket, and there was always keen competition among their brothers and sisters for the copy of the Sportsman which was to be found on the hall table with the letters. Whoever got it usually gloated over it in silence till urged wrathfully by the multitude to let them know what had happened; when it would appear that Joe had notched his seventh century, or that Reggie had been run out when he was just getting set, or, as sometimes occurred, that that ass Frank had dropped Fry or Hayward in the slips before he had scored, with the result that the spared expert had made a couple of hundred and was still going strong.

In such a case the criticisms of the family circle, particularly of the smaller Jackson sisters, were so breezy and unrestrained that Mrs. Jackson generally felt it necessary to apply the closure. Indeed, Marjory Jackson, aged