Part 38 (1/2)
”Why, then!” Beetle capered at the mere thought of it. ”Don't you see?
The corollary to the giddy proposition is that the Sixth can't protect 'emselves from outrages an' ravis.h.i.+n's. Want nursemaids to look after 'em! We've only got to whisper that to the Coll. Jam for the Sixth! Jam for us! Either way it's jammy!”
”By Gum!” said Stalky. ”Our last term's endin' well. Now you cut along an' finish up your old rag, and Turkey and me will help. We'll go in the back way. No need to bother Randall.”
”Don't play the giddy garden-goat, then?” Beetle knew what help meant, though he was by no means averse to showing his importance before his allies. The little loft behind Randall's printing office was his own territory, where he saw himself already controlling the ”Times.” Here, under the guidance of the inky apprentice, he had learned to find his way more or less circuitously about the case, and considered himself an expert compositor.
The school paper in its locked formes lay on a stone-topped table, a proof by the side; but not for worlds would Beetle have corrected from the mere proof. With a mallet and a pair of tweezers, he knocked out mysterious wedges of wood that released the forme, picked a letter here and inserted a letter there, reading as he went along and stopping much to chuckle over his own contributions.
”You won't show off like that,” said McTurk, ”when you've got to do it for your living. Upside down and backwards, isn't it? Let's see if I can read it.”
”Get out!” said Beetle. ”Go and read those formes in the rack there, if you think you know so much.”
”Formes in a rack! What's that? Don't be so beastly professional.”
McTurk drew off with Stalky to prowl about the office. They left little unturned.
”Come here a shake, Beetle. What's this thing?” aid Stalky, in a few minutes. ”Looks familiar.”
Said Beetle, after a glance: ”It's King's Latin prose exam. paper.
_In--In Varrem: actio prima_. What a lark!”
”Think o' the pure-souled, high-minded boys who'd give their eyes for a squint at it!” said McTurk.
”No, Willie dear,” said Stalky; ”that would be wrong and painful to our kind teachers. You wouldn't crib, Willie, would you?”
”Can't read the beastly stuff, anyhow,” was the reply. ”Besides, we're leavin' at the end o' the term, so it makes no difference to us.”
”'Member what the Considerate Bloomer did to Spraggon's account of the Puffin'ton Hounds? We must sugar Mr. King's milk for him,” said Stalky, all lighted from within by a devilish joy. ”Let's see what Beetle can do with those forceps he's so proud of.”
”Don't see now you can make Latin prose much more c.o.c.k-eye than it is, but we'll try,” said Beetle, transposing an _aliud_ and _Asiae_ from two sentences. ”Let's see! We'll put that full-stop a little further on, and begin the sentence with the next capital. Hurrah! Here's three lines that can move up all in a lump.”
”'One of those scientific rests for which this eminent huntsman is so justly celebrated.'” Stalky knew the Puffington run by heart.
”Hold on! Here's a _vol_--_voluntate quidnam_ all by itself,” said McTurk.
”I'll attend to her in a shake. _Quidnam_ goes after _Dolabella_.”
”Good old Dolabella,” murmured Stalky. ”Don't break him. Vile prose Cicero wrote, didn't he? He ought to be grateful for--”
”Hullo!” said McTurk, over another forme. ”What price a giddy ode?
_Qui_--_quis_--oh, it's _Quis multa gracilis_, o' course.”
”Bring it along. We've sugared the milk here,” said Stalky, after a few minutes' zealous toil. ”Never thrash your hounds unnecessarily.”
”_Quis munditiis_? I swear that's not bad,” began Beetle, plying the tweezers. ”Don't that interrogation look pretty? _Heu quoties fidem_!
That sounds as if the chap were anxious an' excited. _Cui flavam religas in rosa_--Whose flavor is relegated to a rose. _Mutatosque Deos flebit in antro_.”
”Mute G.o.ds weepin' in a cave,” suggested Stalky. ”'Pon my Sam, Horace needs as much lookin' after as--Tulke.”
They edited him faithfully till it was too dark to see.