BRUCE EXPLAINS
Mr Spence was a master with a great deal of sympathy and a highly developed sense of duty. It was the combination of these two qualities which made it so difficult for him to determine on a suitable course of action in relation to Sheen’s out-of-bounds exploits. As a private individual he had nothing but admiration for the sporting way in which Sheen had fought his up-hill fight. He felt that he himself in similar circumstances would have broken any number of school rules. But, as a master, it was his duty, he considered, to report him. If a master ignored a breach of rules in one case, with which he happened to sympathise, he would in common fairness be compelled to overlook a similar breach of rules in other cases, even if he did not sympathise with them. In which event he would be of small use as a master.
On the other hand, Sheen’s case was so exceptional that he might very well compromise to a certain extent between the claims of sympathy and those of duty. If he were to go to the headmaster and state baldly that Sheen had been in the habit for the last half-term of visiting an up-river public-house, the headmaster would get an entirely wrong idea of the matter, and suspect all sorts of things which had no existence in fact. When a boy is accused of frequenting a public-house, the head-magisterial mind leaps naturally to Stale Fumes and the Drunken Stagger.
So Mr Spence decided on a compromise. He sent for Sheen, and having congratulated him warmly on his victory in the Light-Weights, proceeded as follows:
“You have given me to understand, Sheen, that you were taught boxing by Bevan?”
“Yes, sir.”
“At the ‘Blue Boar’?”
“Yes, sir.”
“This puts me in a rather difficult position, Sheen. Much as I dislike doing it, I am afraid I shall have to report this matter to the headmaster.”
Sheen said he supposed so. He saw Mr Spence’s point.
“But I shall not mention the ‘Blue Boar’. If I did, the headmaster might get quite the wrong impression. He would not understand all the circumstances. So I shall simply mention that you broke bounds by going up the river. I shall tell him the whole story, you understand, and it’s quite possible that you will hear no more of the affair. I’m sure I hope so. But you understand my position?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That’s all, then, Sheen. Oh, by the way, you wouldn’t care for a game of fives before breakfast tomorrow, I suppose?”
“I should like it, sir.”
“Not too stiff?”
“No, sir.”
“Very well, then. I’ll be there by a quarter-past seven.”
Jack Bruce was waiting to see the headmaster in his study at the end of afternoon school.
“Well, Bruce,” said the headmaster, coming into the room and laying down some books on the table, “do you want to speak to me? Will you give your father my congratulations on his victory. I shall be writing to him tonight. I see from the paper that the polling was very even. Apparently one or two voters arrived at the last moment and turned the scale.”
“Yes, sir.”
“It is a most gratifying result. I am sure that, apart from our political views, we should all have been disappointed if your father had not won. Please congratulate him sincerely.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, Bruce, and what was it that you wished to see me about?”
Bruce was about to reply when the door opened, and Mr Spence came in.
“One moment, Bruce,” said the headmaster. “Yes, Spence?”
Mr Spence made his report clearly and concisely. Bruce listened with interest. He thought it hardly playing the game for the gymnasium master to hand Sheen over to be executed at the very moment when the school was shaking hands with itself over the one decent thing that had been done for it in the course of the athletic year; but he told himself philosophically that he supposed masters had to do these things. Then he noticed with some surprise that Mr Spence was putting the matter in a very favourable light for the accused. He was avoiding with some care any mention of the “Blue Boar”. When he had occasion to refer to the scene of Sheen’s training, he mentioned it vaguely as a house.
“This man Bevan, who is an excellent fellow and a personal friend of my own, has a house some way up the river.”
Of course a public-house
“Up the river,” said the headmaster meditatively.
It seemed that that was all that was wrong. The prosecution centred round that point, and no other. Jack Bruce, as he listened, saw his way of coping with the situation.
“Thank you, Spence,” said the headmaster at the conclusion of the narrative. “I quite understand that Sheen’s conduct was very excusable. But—I distinctly said—I placed the upper river out of bounds….Well, I will see Sheen, and speak to him. I will speak to him.”
Mr Spence left the room.
“Please sir—” said Jack Bruce.
