The Gentleman Cadet Part 20

This proceeding was much admired by Snipson, who was again in the Towers, and occupying his old room, and I heard that a cadet had been much hurt by falling on the upturned leg of one of the stools, on which he had been made to stand by Snipson. The cadet had to be taken to hospital, and was considered for some time in danger.

During the time this cadet was in hospital, Snipson ceased his practices of bullying, and was so very civil to the neux that was hurt that he succeeded in obtaining from him a promise that the authorities should not know by what means he had become hurt.

This matter was generally known among the cadets, but so bad a feeling was then prevalent at the Academy that Snipson was not condemned by the other cadets, nor did the practice referred to at all decrease.

It happened that at the dinner-squad to which I belonged there was a corporal who was a very quiet, steady fellow, and who disliked bullying.

The subject of Snipson's neux having been injured was mentioned at the squad, and I was asked if I had not once been Snipson's f.a.g. I replied that I had, and that he was one of the greatest bullies in the Academy.

It happened that this remark of mine came by some means to be retailed to Snipson, and led to an affair which must be described in detail.

Two or three days after the conversation at the dinner-squad, Snipson called me as we came out from morning study, and told me to go to his room after parade.

To be told to go to an old cadet's room was usually understood to mean that a thrashing was to be administered for some cause or other. I could not recall anything I had done, for I had entirely forgotten the remark I had made at the dinner-table, and I fancied that Snipson might want to f.a.g me for something in order to show he could f.a.g a third-half cadet.

When I was broken off drill I went to Snipson's room in the Towers, where I found Snipson standing by his window.

On my entering the room he said,--"Shut the door and turn the key!" I did so, and then saw that Snipson looked pale with rage, and that something unpleasant was in store for me.

The room in which we were was not more than about ten feet square; the window, like all others at the Academy, was guarded by iron cross-bars, and the furniture of the room consisted of two stools, a small table, a fender and poker, and a bed. Snipson was at that time nearly two years and a half my senior, and was much taller and stouter than I was. He had, however, an awkward way about him, and was not given to any muscle-developing games, such as cricket, football, or rackets.

As soon as I had locked the door Snipson said,--

"Look here, Shepard; you are a young blackguard, and I'm going to lick you! What do you mean by telling lies about me?"

"I have told no lies about you," I said. "You told the fellows at your squad that I was one of the greatest bullies at the shop, so it's no use your telling another lie to save yourself a licking?" I was taken aback at this remark, for I now remembered what I had said at the dinner-table about his being a bully. I could not, however, see how this remark could be turned into a lie, for there was no doubt about the fact of Snipson being one of the greatest bullies at the Academy; but I did not know how to argue so as to own to having called him a bully, and yet to show I was not guilty of falsehood.

"You see you're caught?" said Snipson; "so now just put one of those stools on the other!" I hesitated a moment, and said,--"I remember saying you were a bully, but I didn't think you would mind that, and I don't call that a lie."

"Ah, now you acknowledge saying what you before denied! That's three lies you've told since you have been here! Now, get onto the top of that uppermost stool?"

So great had been the influence of the authority of old-cadetism on me that I obeyed Snipson's orders, and with some difficulty climbed to the top of the stool. In an instant Snipson kicked over the lower stool, and I fell heavily on my side from a height of about five feet, the leg of the stool striking me on the shin.

Before I could recover myself, and when the pain from the blow I had received was gradually spreading, as it were, over my whole body, Snipson, who was grinning maliciously, said,--

"Put the stools in order and up again! Look sharp!" he shouted, as I hesitated to obey.

"I won't get up again?" I said. "I may be injured seriously."

"Then take that!" said Snipson, as he struck me with his clenched fist on the side of the head.

In an instant all fear of old cadets, of f.a.gging, of corporals, and of trials by the seniors left me; and I remembered only Snipson's repeated acts of cruelty to me when I first joined, his general sneering and self-sufficient manner, and his sneaking conduct relative to the neux he had so seriously injured by the very same proceeding that he was now practising on me. These thoughts flashed, as it were, over my mind like an electric message along a wire, and before Snipson could repeat his blow I caught him a fair shoulder-hit at a well-judged distance, and knocked him completely off his legs against his bed. If I had been given time to reflect after striking this blow, I should probably have taken any licking Snipson might have given me quietly; but I was not given time, for he jumped up and exclaimed,--

"I'll half kill you for that!" and rushed at me, trying to close with me.

I believed that from his greater size and weight I should soon have got the worst of a close encounter, so I did not give him a chance of doing so, but met him with a right and left, which were delivered with all the force I had gained in hitting under Howard's instruction, and driven by the additional energy derived from my long endurance of bullying.

Snipson went down again like a nine-pin, and I now knew I could thrash him in fair fight; but I did not then know how great a coward he was, and how malicious he could be; but I soon found out my danger. Instead of getting up at once and again rushing at me, Snipson lay for a few seconds where he had fallen, and looked round the room. Suddenly he sprang up and made a dash at the fireplace, and seized the poker. He turned towards me, and I saw from his look that my life was in danger.

"Now it's my turn?" he hissed, as he came round the table towards me, the poker held ready to strike.

In such positions as mine then was there sometimes comes to us a bright idea, which answers the purpose at the time, but which, when thought of in cooler moments, seems most unlikely to have been of any use, as it could be so easily seen through. The conditions, however, of excitement often induce a state quite unfit for calm reasoning, and most unexpected results are then produced which appear afterwards to be absurd.

As Snipson was coming towards me, with his poker ready to strike me, his back was towards the door, which, as I said before, was locked, and by which consequently no one could enter. I, however, looked over Snipson's shoulder, and said, "Hullo, Woodville! you are just in time."

Snipson instantly turned his head to see whether any one was there, and at the same moment I sprang on him, seized the wrist that held the poker, and, throwing my right arm round his neck, tripped him up, when we both fell on the floor, I being uppermost. In the struggle the poker had fallen out of Snipson's hand, and I instantly gained possession of it, and, jumping on my feet, stood over Snipson, who now did not attempt to rise, but in a half-conciliatory, half-threatening tone, said, "Now you'd better mind what you are about, for the old cadets will give you an awful licking for this!"

"If you tell the old cadets that I hit you," I said, "I'll go straight to the Governor, and tell him it was you who injured your neux, and nearly killed him, and I'll report that you tried to hit me with a poker."

Saying this, I unlocked the door and rushed out of the room, and went to my own, which I luckily found empty. I closed the door and sat down to consider what I had better do.

I had heard that, shortly before I joined the Academy, a neux had struck an old cadet, and had in consequence been tried by a sort of court-martial by the old cadets, and had been severely thrashed. Not content with this, the body corporate of the old cadets had ordered that no neux should speak to the culprit, and, in addition, he was daily placed in arrest and turned out to drill.

The neux could not stand this ordeal, and ran away from the Academy to his friends. An inquiry into the matter afterwards took place, but a case of cruelty could not be brought home to any particular individual, and the cadet's friends not having any interest, the affair was dropped.

I antic.i.p.ated that some such treatment would be meted out to me, for, in spite of Snipson's proceedings, I knew that the offence of striking an old cadet was looked on as so heinous, that no extenuating circ.u.mstances would be allowed to outweigh the crime. My threat to report Snipson I did not intend to carry out, but made it with the hope that it would prevent him from telling the old cadets that I had knocked him down. After some minutes' consideration I went off to D'Arcy's room to tell him all about the fight, and consult as to what should be done.

When I described to D'Arcy how I had knocked Snipson down, and had escaped his attack on me with the poker, he was delighted. He told me also that the old cadets detested Snipson, and he did not believe they would back him up if he told them what I had done. "I'll bet any money," said D'Arcy, "that unless Snipson goes at once now he is in a rage, and tells some of the seniors, he won't say a word about it."

"Why not?" I inquired.

"Well, because he knows for your own sake that you won't say anything, and he would probably be ashamed to own that a fellow so much smaller than he is gave him a licking. I'd advise you to keep quiet, and don't tell anybody else."

When we went into dinner I saw Snipson, who showed no signs of the recent set-to; he took no notice of me, and I could tell that as yet he had made no mention to the old cadets of my performance. The day also pa.s.sed, and the next, without anything occurring, and I began to think Snipson meant to keep quiet; but on the following morning, after breakfast, Fenton, on returning to our room, said, "So Snipson gave you a thrashing the other day?"

I was so taken aback by this remark that I said, "Who told you so?"

"Snipson did," replied Fenton. "He said you had been cheeky about him, and he had you over and licked you. He said you seemed disposed to show fight, but he soon took that out of you."

I listened with amazement at this speech of Fenton's; it was my first experience of the gross misrepresentation of facts which was possible when only two people were present, and I was astonished and amused at the absurdity of the report. It was my first experience of the wilful perversion of truth possible when two persons were together without witnesses. I wish it had been my last. There will probably be many among the readers of this book who have themselves had similar experiences, for, if they have not, their career must have been singularly limited and lucky. There are men--ay, and women too--who from an inability to represent facts correctly, or from interested motives, or from vanity, will misrepresent occurrencies and make out that black was white, and yes, no. There are men and women whom it is dangerous to speak to or be with without witnesses, and we believe that when all secrets are revealed it will be found that more perjury has been committed in connexion with _tete-a-tete_ interviews than with any other event in life, from the days of Joseph to the present time.

During the day D'Arcy came to me, and laughed immensely as he told me that Snipson had told the old cadets what a licking he had given me.

"He said you tried to escape from the room, but he locked the door and just polished you off. You are quite certain," said D'Arcy, "that everything occurred as you told me?"

"Quite," I replied, "and Snipson is a liar!"

"I believe you," replied D'Arcy; "but you had better keep quiet, and you will now escape being thrashed by the old cadets, which is no joke, I can tell you."

I followed d'Arcy's advice, and did not even deny that I had been thrashed by Snipson, although I could not help adding, on one or two occasions, that "I should not mind such a licking being repeated."

This was my last adventure with Snipson, who had been a thorn in my side since my first joining the Academy. As, however, it was not the last that I knew of his career, I may here mention what I knew of his future, and then expunge his name from these pages.

Before the end of the half-year Snipson was found drunk by the officer on duty. As he had been nearly four years at the Academy, and had but little chance of qualifying, it was intimated to his friends that they had better withdraw him from the Academy. Following this hint, Snipson suddenly disappeared, and his name was soon forgotten where it had once been a terror to all last-joined.

Twenty years after the events related in this book I was walking down Oxford Street when I saw coming towards me a man with a seedy, threadbare frock-coat, the arms of which were much too short for the wearer, and the collar of which came too high. The coat had evidently previously graced the form of another wearer, and when its youthful beauties had faded had become the property of its present owner. A portion of shirt was visible, and plainly indicated that it had been far too long absent from the washerwoman. A hat bent and without gloss surmounted a red face, with eyes somewhat like those of a crying child, and a beard of about four days' growth. Brown trowsers, creased and frayed, stained and patched, hung over a pair of split, misshapen shoes, and completed the attire of a man whose type is now and then seen in London.

Something about the man at once attracted me, and I thus noted his appearance. The face, though altered, and indicating the effect of drink, I yet recognised; and as the man walked past me and turned his head so as to avoid showing me his face, I knew this wretched failure of a man was my once bully, Snipson. He had failed as a cadet and he had failed as a man; and from his appearance it was evident he had not done what some men do, who in their young days have failed, etc, begin again at the bottom of the ladder, and by steady work endeavour to recover, themselves; but he was always scheming to recover himself by one grand coup, and was always being disappointed.

I turned round quickly after I had pa.s.sed Snipson, and saw him peeping at me from a shop-door. When he caught my eye he turned and walked on with an air and style that showed he had not yet suffered enough to make him sensible of his own defects, nor was he yet in a state deserving of sympathy.

One of the singular and yet universal peculiarities in the character of such men as Snipson is, that they a.s.sert, and evidently believe, that their unfortunate state is in no manner due to any fault or failing of their own. They can always a.s.sure you that if this man had not done so-and-so, or that man had not failed them in the most unexpected way, they would have been all right. They are themselves never wrong; they don't ever admit a mistake; they are convinced of their own cleverness, and satisfied with their own knowledge. Former companions who have "got on" in life they speak of as "lucky beggars," and have usually something to say in disparagement of such men, as a sort of attempt to drag down the successful to their own low level. They rarely, if ever, admit any merit or skill in others, and attribute all that others may win, by hard work and thought, to "luck," and all their own failures to "bad luck."