School Stories

The Willoughby Captains

Something unusual is happening at Willoughby. The Union Jack floats proudly over the old ivy-covered tower of the school, the schoolrooms are deserted, there is a band playing somewhere, a double row of carriages is drawn up round the large meadow (familiarly called "The Big")...

Chapters

19. Chapter 19

As might be expected, the new captain's move in attempting to win over the juniors of Welch's only served to increase the irritation of those seniors who had hitherto reigned su...

16. Chapter 16

Probably no two boys in all Willoughby were more excited over the result of the famous boat-race than Parson and his dear friend Telson. And it is hardly necessary to state that...

23. Chapter 23

It looked like a clue, certainly. But who had sent it? Was it a friend or an enemy; and if the latter, might it not just as likely be a hoax as not?

2. Chapter 2

Willoughby wore its ordinary work-a-day look on the morning following the eventful May races. And yet any one who had seen the old school just then would have admitted that a mo...

7. Chapter 7

The morning that witnessed the collapse of the famous Monitors' Petition had not been idly spent by the new captain. He had made the worst possible preparation for his new dutie...

20. Chapter 20

Things did not mend all at once at Willoughby. No one expected they would. And within a few days after the "debate in Parliament" it seemed as if the school had finally abandone...

24. Chapter 24

"You may be quite sure if there had been Bloomfield would have picked them up," said Fairbairn. "As it happens, we want a slip, and I heard Bloomfield say himself that you are a...

13. Chapter 13

It was the Saturday before the boat-race, and the excitement of Willoughby was working up every hour. Boys who were generally in the habit of lying in bed till the chapel bell b...

3. Chapter 3

Who was to be the new captain of Willoughby? This was a question it had occurred to only a very few to ask until Wyndham had finally quitted the school. Fellows had grown so use...

18. Chapter 18

Riddell, who probably felt the sting of the boat-race mishap more sensitively than any boy in Willoughby, was pacing the playground in a dispirited mood a morning or two after,...

8. Chapter 8

The "Parliament" at Willoughby was one of the very old institutions of the school. Old, white-headed Willoughbites, when talking of their remote schooldays, would often recall t...

35. Chapter 35

It knew that Silk and Gilks had been reported for fighting, and naturally concluded that they had also been punished. It had heard, too, a rumour of young Wyndham's having been...

11. Chapter 11

Giles and his ally knew their business well enough to see that they must go to work "gingerly" to recover their lost Limpet. Consequently when Wyndham, according to promise, tur...

26. Chapter 26

Parson, Bosher, King, and the other Parrett's juniors were in bad spirits. It was not so much the Rockshire match that was preying on the brotherhood, grievous as that blow had...

5. Chapter 5

The doctor's announcement was not long in taking effect. As soon as third school was over that afternoon the monitors assembled in the Sixth Form room to discuss the situation....

12. Chapter 12

Bloomfield was beginning to discover already that the new dignity to which he had been raised by his own partisans at Willoughby was anything but a bed of roses. Vain and easily...

10. Chapter 10

"I wish you'd look after him now and then, Riddell," he said; "he's not a bad fellow, I fancy, but he's not got quite enough ballast on board, and unless there's some one to loo...

17. Chapter 17

For a few minutes, as the disconcerted and terrified youngsters stood in a small band at Parson's study-door and watched Mr Parrett slowly retreat down the passage, it seemed as...

29. Chapter 29

Young Wyndham, had he only known what was in the captain's mind as he walked that afternoon across the Big, would probably have thought twice before he went such a long way roun...

15. Chapter 15

Willoughby reassembled after the eventful boat-race in a state of fever. The great event which was to settle everything had settled nothing, and the suspense and excitement whic...

1. Chapter 1

Something unusual is happening at Willoughby. The Union Jack floats proudly over the old ivy-covered tower of the school, the schoolrooms are deserted, there is a band playing s...

31. Chapter 31

"Of course," said Riddell, as he and Wyndham strolled down by the river that afternoon, "now that your mystery is all cleared up we are as far off as ever finding out who really...

27. Chapter 27

Riddell was fairly committed to his task now. Like the good old general who burned his ships when he landed on the enemy's shores, he had cut off from himself the slightest poss...

9. Chapter 9

"Pil," said Cusack, a few days after the unfortunate end to that gentleman's "motion" in Parliament--"Pil, it strikes me we can do pretty much as we like these times. What do yo...

4. Chapter 4

Of course a row was made, or attempted to be made, about the daring exploit of the fags of Parrett's House narrated in the last chapter. The matter was duly reported to the head...

28. Chapter 28

If any proof had been needed that young Wyndham was "down," as the Parrett's fellows termed it, the fact that he did not put in appearance at the second-eleven practice next day...

30. Chapter 30

What could be wrong to bring him there at this hour, with a face full of anxiety and a voice full of concern, as he inquired, "Will you do me a favour, old man?"

21. Chapter 21

The fact was his spirits were a good deal worse than his teeth. Things had been going wrong with him for some time, ever since the day he was politely turned out of the schoolho...

34. Chapter 34

The captain had his private doubts as to the seriousness of the invalid's case, especially as, of the two, he was the less damaged in yesterday's fight. However, he had no right...

22. Chapter 22

It was hardly to be expected that the political excitement of Willoughby would altogether disappear until the result of the election was made known. And for some reason or other...

14. Chapter 14

The few days that intervened between the Saturday of Brown's party and the Wednesday of the great race were days of restless suspense in Willoughby. Even Welch's caught the cont...

33. Chapter 33

But his second impulse was to doubt the whole story and look upon it as a mere fabrication got up in the vague hope of preventing him from reporting the fight to the doctor.

6. Chapter 6

Mr Parrett was a popular master at Willoughby. He was an old Cambridge "blue," and it was to his influence and example that the school in general, and Parrett's house in particu...

32. Chapter 32

It was hardly to be wondered at that he, a schoolhouse boy, should not concern himself much about a contest between the fags of Welch's and Parrett's. And yet, if truth were kno...

25. Chapter 25

In the schoolhouse the jubilation was beyond bounds, and the victory of the school was swallowed up in the glorious exploits of the five schoolhouse heroes, who had, so their ad...

36. Chapter 36

Yet it was not so much the cricket that fellows crowded out to see. Of course, the contest between the second-eleven and Templeton was moderately interesting. But it was not of...