The Triple Alliance | Page 9

Birches; the house itself faced the Chatford
road, while behind it, in regular succession, came first the sloping
garden, then the walled-in playground, and then the small field in
which were attempted such games of cricket and football as the limited
number of pupils would permit. There were three doors in the
playground--one the entrance from the garden, another opening into the
lane, and a third into the field, the two latter being usually kept locked.
Locker's Lane was a short cut to Chatford, yet Rule 21 in The Birches
Statute-Book ordained that no boy should either go or return by this
route when visiting the town; the whole road was practically put out of
bounds, and the reason for this regulation was as follows:
At the corner of the playing field the lane took a sharp turn, and about a
quarter of a mile beyond this stood a large red-brick house, shut in on
three sides by a high wall, whereon, close to the heavy double doors
which formed the entrance, appeared a board bearing in big letters the
legend--
HORACE HOUSE, Middle-Class School for Boys. A. PHILLIPS, B.A.,
Head-master.

The pupils of Mr. Phillips had been formerly called by Mr. Welsby's
boys the Phillipians, which title had in time given place to the present
nickname of the Philistines.
I have no doubt that the average boy turned out by Horace House was
as good a fellow, taking him all round, as the average boy produced by
The Birches; and that, if they had been thrown together in one school,
they would, for the most part, have made very good friends and
comrades. However, in fairness both to them and to their rivals, it must
be said that at the period of our story Mr. Phillips seemed for some
time past to have been unusually unfortunate in his elder boys: they
were undoubtedly "cads," and the character of the whole establishment,
as far as the scholars were concerned, naturally yielded to the influence
of its leaders.
It had been customary every term for the Birchites to play a match
against them either at cricket or football; but their conduct during a
visit paid to the ground of the latter, back in the previous summer, had
been so very ungentlemanly and unsportsmanlike that, when the next
challenge arrived for an encounter at football, Mr. Welsby wrote back a
polite note expressing regret that he did not see his way clear to permit
a continuation of the matches. This was the signal for an outbreak of
open hostilities between the two schools: the Philistines charged the
Birchites in the open street with being afraid to meet them in the field.
These base insinuations led to frequent exchanges of taunts and
uncomplimentary remarks; and, last of all, matters were brought to a
climax by a stand-up fight between Tom Mason, Acton's predecessor as
dux, and young Noaks. The encounter took place just outside the
stronghold of the enemy, the Birchite so far getting the best of it that at
the end of a five minutes' engagement he proclaimed his victory by
dragging his adversary along by the collar and bumping his head a
number of times against the very gates of Horace House. Unfortunately
a rumour of what had happened got to the ears of Mr. Welsby. Mason
was severely reprimanded, and his companions were forbidden, under
pain of heavy punishment, to walk in Locker's Lane further than the
corner of their own playing field.

"But who is young Noaks?" asked Diggory, as Jack Vance finished a
hasty account of this warfare with the Philistines.
"Why, that's just the funny part of it," returned the other. "This Sam
Noaks is the son of our Noaks, but he's got an uncle, called Simpson,
who lives at Todderton, where I come from. This man Simpson made a
lot of money out in Australia, and when he came back to England he
adopted young Noaks, and sends him here to Phillips's school."
By this time the home forces had all struggled back into the playground.
In one corner stood a wooden shed containing a carpenter's bench, a
chest for bats and stumps, and various other things belonging to
different boys. Acton, as head of the school, kept the key, and having
unfastened the door, summoned his followers inside to hold an
impromptu council of war and discuss the situation. There was a grave
expression on each face, for every one felt that things were beginning
to look serious. Mason, the only one of their number who had been
physically equal to the leaders of their opponents, was no longer among
them, and the enemy, evidently aware of their helpless condition, had
dared for the first time to actually come and beard them in their own
den.
"What