CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
'TWIXT SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.
Perhaps no epoch of a schoolboy's life is more critical--especially if he be of the open-hearted nature of Dick and Heathcote--than that which immediately follows his first punishment at the hands of the law.
On the one hand he has the sense of disgrace which attends personal chastisement, as well as the discomfort of a forfeited good name, and the feeling of being down on the black books of the school authorities generally.

On the other hand, he is sure to meet with a certain number of companions who, if they do not exactly admire what he has done, sympathise with him in what he has suffered; and sympathy at such a time is sweet and seducing.

A little too much sympathy will make him feel a martyr, and a little martyrdom will make him feel a hero, and once a hero on account of his misdeeds, he needs a stout heart and a steady head to keep himself from going one step further and becoming a professional evil-doer, and ending a fool and his own worst enemy.
Dick and Heathcote ran a serious risk of being shunted on to the road to ruin after the escapade of the Grandcourt match.
The former discovered that his popularity with the Den was by no means impaired by adversity.

In fact, he jumped at one bound to the hero stage of his ordeal.

He was but a boy of flesh and blood, and sympathy is a sweet salve for smarting flesh and blood.
After the first burst of contrition it pleased him to hear fellows say-- "Hard lines on you, old man.