was that Donaldson's would turn out for an important match all muscle
and bone, and on such occasions it was bad for those of their opponents
who had been taking life more easily. Besides Trevor they had Clowes,
and had had bad luck in not having Paget. Had Paget stopped, no other
house could have looked at them. But by his departure, the strength of
the team had become more nearly on a level with that of Seymour's.

Some even thought that Seymour's were the stronger. Milton was as good
a forward as the school possessed. Besides him there were Barry and
Rand-Brown on the wings. Drummond was a useful half, and five of the
pack had either first or second fifteen colours. It was a team that
would take some beating.

Trevor came to that conclusion early. "If we can beat Seymour's, we'll
lift the cup," he said to Clowes.

"We'll have to do all we know," was Clowes' reply.

They were watching Seymour's pile up an immense score against a scratch
team got up by one of the masters. The first round of the competition
was over. Donaldson's had beaten Templar's, Seymour's the School House.
Templar's were rather stronger than the School House, and Donaldson's
had beaten them by a rather larger score than that which Seymour's had
run up in their match. But neither Trevor nor Clowes was inclined to
draw any augury from this. Seymour's had taken things easily after
half-time; Donaldson's had kept going hard all through.

"That makes Rand-Brown's fourth try," said Clowes, as the wing
three-quarter of the second fifteen raced round and scored in the
corner.