Once Aboard the Lugger Part 6

Soon after midday the party broke up. Its members lunched early; visiting surgeons and physicians went their rounds at half-past one.

George strolled to the Dean's office.

A woebegone-looking youth in spectacles stood before the table; opposite sat the Dean. He looked up as George entered, and nodded: he was fond of George.

"Come along in," he said; "I shan't be a minute."

He turned to the sad youth. "Now your case, Mr. Carter," he said, "is quite unique. In the whole records of the Medical School"--he waved at a shelf of fat volumes--"in the whole records of the Medical School we have nothing in the remotest degree resembling it. You have actually failed twice in--in--"

The Dean searched wildly among a litter of papers; baffled, threw out an emphasising hand, and repeated, "_Twice_! Other hospitals, Mr.

Carter, may have room for slackers--we have not. We have a record and a reputation of which we are proud. You are in your second year. How old are you?"

A faint whisper said, "Nineteen."

The Dean started. "Nineteen! Oh, dear me, dear me! this is worse than I thought--far worse. I am afraid, Mr. Carter, I shall have to write to your father."

Guttural with emotion, Mr. Carter gasped: "I mean to work--indeed I do."

Again the Dean frantically searched on his desk to discover the subject in which Mr. Carter had failed; again was unsuccessful. Deep thought ravelled his brow. His fingers drummed indecision on the table. It was a telling picture of one struggling between duty and kindliness--masterly as the result of long practice.

"Mr. Carter," the Dean summed up, "I will consider your case more fully to-night. Against my better judgment I may perhaps decide not on this occasion to communicate with your father. But remember this. At the very outset of your career you have strained to breaking-point the confidence of your teachers. Only by stupendous efforts on your part can that confidence be restored. These failures, believe me, will dog you from now until you are qualified--nay, will dog your whole professional career. That will do."

In a convulsion of relief and of agitation beneath this appalling prospect the dogged man quavered thanks; stumbled from the room.

III.

George laughed. "Same old dressing-down," he said. "Don't you ever alter the formula?"

"It's very effective," the Dean replied. "That's the sixth this morning. Unfortunately I couldn't remember in what subject that boy had failed; so he didn't get the best part--the part about that being the one subject of all others which, if failed in, predicted ruin."

"It was biology in my case," George told him. "I trembled with funk."

"I think most of you do. It's fortunate that all you men when you first come up are afraid of your fathers. It gives us a certain amount of hold over you. If the thing were done properly, both at the 'Varsities and the hospitals, there would be a system of marks and reports just as at schools. You are only boys when you first come up, and you should be treated as boys; instead, you are left free and irresponsible. It ruins dozens of men every year."

"Perhaps that's why I'm here now," George responded. "You know I got ploughed?"

The Dean told George how sorry he had been to hear it. He questioned: "Bad luck, I suppose? I thought it was a sitter for you this time."

"Yes, rotten luck."

"It's unfortunate, you know. You would have got a house appointment.

I'm afraid you will miss that mow. There will be a crowd of very hot men up with you in October, junior to you, who will get the vacancies.

What will you do?"

George shrugged and laughed.

The Dean frowned; interpreted the shrug. "Well, you should care," he said. "You ought to be looking around you. Won't your uncle help you to buy a partners.h.i.+p?"

"We are on worse terms than ever after this failure. Not he."

"And you're not trying to be on good terms, I suppose?"

"Not I."

"You are a remarkably silly young man. You want balance, Leicester, you want balance. It would be the making of you to have some serious purpose in life. You will run against something of the kind soon-- you'll get engaged, perhaps, and then you'll regret your happy-go- lucky ways." He fumbled amongst a pile of correspondence and drew out a letter. "Now, look here, I was thinking of you only a few moments ago. Here's a letter from a man who--who--where is it?--Ah, yes--If you could raise 400 pounds by the time you are qualified I could put you on to a splendid thing."

"Not the remotest chance," said George. "The serious purpose must wait. I--"

The Dean waved a hand that asked silence; consulted the letter. "This is from a man in practice at a place called Runnygate--one of these rising seaside resorts--Hamps.h.i.+re--great friend of mine. He's got money, and he's going to chuck it--doesn't suit his wife. I told him I'd find a purchaser if he would leave it with me. Merely nominal-- only 400 pounds. He says that in a year or so there'll be a small fortune in the practice, because a company is taking the place over to develop it. You shall have first refusal. Come now, pull yourself together, Leicester."

George laughed. He stood up. "Thanks, I refuse now. What on earth's the good?"

"Rubbish," said the Dean. "Think over that serious interest in life.

You never know your luck."

George moved to the door. "I know my luck all right," he laughed.

"Never mind, I'm not grumbling with it."

CHAPTER V.

Upon Life: And May Be Missed.

In the ante-room, as it were, of a very short chapter, we must make ready to receive our heroine. She is about to spring dazzling upon our pages; will be our close companion through some moving scenes. We must collect ourselves, brush our hair, arrange our dress, prepare our nicest manner.

And as in ante-rooms there are commonly papers laid about to beguile the tedium, and as the faint rustle of our heroine's petticoats is warning that George's a.s.sertion that he knew his luck is immediately to be disproved, let us make a tiny little paper on the folly of such a statement.

For of his luck man has no glimmer of prescience. Day by day we rattle the box, throw the dice; but of how these will fall we have no knowledge. We only hope with the gambler's feverishness; and it is this very hazard that keeps us crowding and pus.h.i.+ng to hold our place at the tables where fortune spins. Grow we sick of the game, sour with our luck, weary of the hazard, and relinquish we our place at the table, we are pushed back and out--elbowed, thrown, trampled.

We are all treasure-seekers set on a treasure-island in a boundless sea. Cruelly marooned we are--flung ash.o.r.e without appeal, and here deserted until the s.h.i.+p that disembarked us suddenly swoops and the press-gang s.n.a.t.c.hes us again aboard--again without heed to our desire.

Whence the s.h.i.+p brought us we do not know, and whither it will carry us we do not know; there is none to p.r.i.c.k a return voyage disclosing the ultimate haven, though pilots there be who pretend to the knowledge--we cannot test them.

But the marooners, when they land us, give us wherewith to occupy our thoughts. This is a treasure-island. Each man of us they land with a pick; the inhabitants tell us of the treasure, and, being acclimatised, we set to work to dig and delve. Some work in shafts already sunk, some seek to break new ground, but what the pick will next turn up no one knows.

And it is this uncertainty, this hazard, that keeps us hammer, hammer, hammering; that keeps us, some from brooding against the marooners, their wanton desertion of us, our ultimate fate at their hands; others from making ready against the return voyage as entreated by the pilots.

Certainly, when the pick strikes a pocket, we turn to carousing; cease c.o.c.king a timid eye at the horizon.

And now our heroine is beckoning.

CHAPTER VI.