Boycotted

Boycotted and other stories
By Talbot Baines Reed
CHAPTER ONE.
Sub-Chapter I.
THE SCHOOL CUTS ME.
I hardly know yet what it was all about, and at the time I had not an
idea. I don't think I was more of a fool than most fellows of my age at
Draven's, and I rather hope I wasn't an out-and-out cad.
But when it all happened, I had my doubts on both points, and could
explain the affair in no other way than by supposing I must be like the
lunatic in the asylum, who, when asked how he came to be there, said,
"I said the world was mad, the world said I was mad; the world was
bigger than I was, so it shut me up here!"
It had been a dismal enough term, as it was, quite apart from my
troubles. That affair of Browne had upset us all, and taken the spirit out
of Draven's. We missed him at every turn. What was the good of
getting up the football fifteen when our only "place-kick" was gone?
Where was the fun in the "Saturday nights" when our only comic singer,
our only reciter, our only orator wasn't there? Who cared about giving
study suppers or any other sociable entertainment, when there was no
Browne to invite?
Browne had left us suddenly. One day he had been the life and soul of
Draven's, next morning he had been summoned to Draven's study, and
that same evening we saw him drive off to the station in a cab with his
portmanteau on the top.
Very few of the fellows knew why he had been expelled. I scarcely

knew myself, though I was his greatest chum. On the morning of the
day he left, he met me on his way back from Draven's study.
"I'm expelled, Smither," he said, with a dismal face.
"Go on," replied I, taking his arm and scrutinising his face to see where
the joke was hidden. But it was no joke.
"I am," said he hopelessly: "I am to go this evening. It's my own fault.
I've been a cad. I was led into it. It's bad enough; but I'm not such a
blackleg as Draven makes out--"
And here for the first time in my life I saw Browne look like breaking
down.
He wasn't going to let me see it, and hurried away before I could find
anything to say.
If he hadn't told me himself, I should have called any one who told me
Browne had been a cad--well, I'd better not say what I should have
called him. I knew my chum had been a rollicking sort of fellow, who
found it hard to say No to anybody who asked anything of him; but that
he was a blackleg I, for one, would not believe, for all the Dravens in
the world.
Hardly knowing what I did, I walked up to the master's study door and
knocked.
"Come in." I could tell by the voice that came through the door I should
do no good.
I went in. Mr Draven was pacing up and down the room, and stopped
short in front of me as I entered. "Well?"
I wished I was on the other side of the door; but I wasn't, and must say
something, however desperate.
"Please, sir, Browne--"

"Browne leaves here to-day," said Mr Draven coldly; "what do you
want?"
"Please, sir, I hope you will--"
I forgot where I was and what I was saying. My mind wandered
aimlessly, and I ended my sentence I don't know how.
Draven saw I was confused, and wasn't unkind.
"You have been a friend of Browne, I know," he said, "and you are
sorry. So am I, terribly sorry," and his voice quite quavered as he
spoke.
There was a pause, and I made a frantic effort to recall my scattered
thoughts.
"Won't you let him off this time, sir?" I gasped.
"That, Smither, is out of the question," said the head master, so steadily
and incisively that I gave it up, and left the room without another word.
The fellows were trooping down the passage to breakfast, little
guessing the secret of my miserable looks, or the reason why Browne
was not in his usual place.
But the secret came out, and the school staggered under the shock. Mr
Draven announced our comrade's departure kindly enough in the
afternoon, adding that he had confessed the offence for which he was
expelled, and was penitent. Two hours later we saw his cab drive off,
and as we watched it disappear it all seemed to us like a hideous dream.
We said little about it to one another. We did not even care to inquire
particularly into the offence for which he had