As the leather was
skimming past, Acton just reached it with his head and deflected it high
and dry out of Roberts' reach into the net. It was the supreme effort
of his splendid game.
Biffen's had won by three goals to one!
They carried Acton off the field in ecstasy, and nearly scared Dame Biffen
out of her wits by the "whisper" of "cock-house." Well, it certainly was
unusual.
After tea the whole of St. Amory's crowded into the Speech Room to hear
the result of the Perry Exhibition. There would not be a fellow away, I
should fancy, bar the cripples in the hospital, for there was no end of
excitement. Was this to be another Biffen's triumph? Was Raven of the
Fifth to beat Hodgson, the chosen of the Sixth, for the Perry? It was not
to be expected that he would, but when the whisper circled round that
Acton had '"coached" him in classics it was agreed that perhaps there
would be another feather in Acton's cap.
The masters were there on the platform in serried ranks, the whole fifty
of them, from Corker to Pfenning who "does" the music.
Corker, as usual, went straight to the mark, whilst the entire mass of
fellows kept a death-like silence. "The result of the examination for the
Perry Exhibition is as follows:--
1st. Arthur Raven, 672 marks.
2nd. Theodore Hodgson, 591 marks.
3rd. Augustus Vernon Robert Todd, 114 marks."
Then out broke the usual uproar, "shivering the silence," as some one
says, "into clamour.
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