One was Shadbolt, on whose account, it will be remembered, Tom had desired to borrow Charlie's watch.

Shadbolt was an unwholesome-looking fellow of fifteen, with coarse features and eyes that could not look you straight in the face if they had tried.

He was accompanied by his chum Margetson, who certainly had the advantage of his friend in looks, as well as in intellect.

The quartet was completed by Gus Burke, one of the smallest and most vicious boys at Randlebury.
He was the son of a country squire, who had the unenviable reputation of being one of the hardest drinkers and fastest riders in his county; and the boy had already shown himself only too apt a pupil in the lessons in the midst of which his childhood had been passed.

He had at his tongue's tip all the slang of the stables and all the blackguardisms of the betting-ring; and boy--almost child--as he was, he affected the swagger and habits of a "fast man," like a true son of his father.
At Randlebury he had wrought incredible mischief.