Mike and Psmith
P.G.Wodehouse’s Mike and Psmith was first published in 1909, alongside Mike
at Wrykyn, under the title Mike. It is certainly a school story, but a rather
unusual one, and in it the reader can almost see Wodehouse’s style being drawn
away from the traditional school stories he had previously written for magazines
like Captain and towards the urbane comedy of his Jeeves and Wooster novels. It
provides both the hearty high spirits of the former, and the man-about-town wit
of the latter.
The Characters
Psmith is the same character who appears in Psmith Journalist and Psmith in
the City – monocled, debonair, verbose – and much of the book’s most
entertaining moments come from the fact that he seems decidedly out of place in
a school story. When Mike first meets him in the common room, he is leaning on
the mantelpiece, since as he explains, “I don’t see any prospect of sitting down
in this place. It looks to me as if they meant to use these chairs as
mustard-and-cress beds.” In the dining hall, “his demeanour throughout the meal
was that of some whimsical monarch condescending for a freak to revel with his
humble subjects.”
Mike, in contrast, is a cricketing genius with no interest in anything else,
who has been removed from his last school and sent to Sedleigh unwillingly
because of his appalling school reports, but has sworn to himself not to play
cricket whilst there. As Wodehouse comments “There is a certain fascination
about making the very worst of a bad job. Achilles knew his business when he sat
in his tent.” Of course he is eventually persuaded to play, and manages to make
his startling debut in Sedleigh cricket against the bowling of a hated house
master, in a typical school story device.
Plot and Style
The plot itself contains several fairly familiar school story episodes: a
master who favours his own house, a trick with a clockwork mouse, the fight
between two boys who become friends afterwards. The style, however, varies
between the more straightforward tone of Wodehouse’s previous school tales
(“When a fellow tells you he has left school unexpectedly, it is not always
tactful to inquire the reason”, or “Mike, on the cricket field, could not have
looked like anything but cricketer if he had turned out wearing a tweed suit and
hobnail boots.”) and the expansive metaphors of his later works (“Mike nodded. A
sombre nod. The sort of nod Napoleon might have given if somebody had met him in
1812, and said, “So you’re back from Moscow, eh?”) The incongruities are so much
fun that, as with almost any other work by Wodehouse, one is left wishing he had
done more in this vein.
Plot summary
Part 1: "Mike at Wrykyn", or, "Jackson Junior"
Mike's family are excited to see him off to Wrykyn; his sisters are hopeful
of him breaking the record and getting into the school team his first year,
although his brother Bob and Saunders, the pro, are sceptical. On the train down
to Wrykyn, Mike is joined by a stranger; seeing the lad get off the train
without his bag, Mike throws it out onto the platform, but the boy returns at
the next stop, having left to get chocolate. It turns out that he is "Gazeka"
Firby-Smith (so called because he looks like one), head of Wain's house, which
Mike is to join. He hears Bob and "Gazeka" talk of Wyatt, Wain's stepson, and
when Mike is left to find his way to the school by himself, he meets and
befriends Wyatt.
Wyatt shows Mike to his dorm, which the two of them are to share and which
has removable bars on the windows, and introduces him to Burgess, the cricket
captain. Mike shows what he can do in some nets, and impresses Burgess; he is
soon on the list for the third team. His early success, along with Bob's clumsy
attempts at looking after him, leave him in a rather anti-authoritarian spirit.
Bob warns him about Wyatt, who he feels is something of a loose cannon, but
soon, having been forbidden by Wyatt to join him on a night-time prowl rounds
the gardens, Mike is exploring the house, raiding Mr Wain's dining room and
playing gramophone records.
Trevor and Clowes, two boys in Donaldson's house, are worried about Mike and
Wyatt, sure they – Mike and Wyatt – will soon get themselves into serious
trouble. They warn Bob, but he tells them not to worry, as he has asked
Firby-Smith to keep an eye on Mike. Wyatt is involved in a fight between twenty
or so boys – a gang from Wrykyn town – which ends up with a policeman falling
into a pond. When the policeman exaggerates the incident to the headmaster,
claiming several hundred boys had thrown him into the water, the headmaster
punishes the whole school by cancelling a forthcoming unofficial holiday.
In retaliation, Wyatt organises a mass walk-out, taking most of the school
with him on a day out at a nearby town, in what becomes known as "The Great
Picnic". Next day, the head makes much of Wrykyn town out-of-bounds to the boys,
claiming an outbreak of chicken-pox, a punishment the boys think lenient. They
later realise this is not the punishment at all; while the younger boys are
caned, the older boys are all given "extra" during a cricket match against the
M.C.C.; with three of the first team unable to play, Wyatt persuades Burgess to
let Mike play.
Mike plays well in a close match, against a team that includes both Mike's
brother Joe and the pro Saunders, advancing his cricketing career at the school
nicely, but Firby-Smith, in addition to being patronising, gets Mike run-out in
a house game, which leads Mike to insult his head of house. An angry Firby-Smith
insists that Mike be punished, but Bob soon calms the waters. Grateful to his
brother, when Mike finds he has squeezed Bob out of the team, he feigns an
injury to give up his place, knowing that should Bob play well he may not get
another chance that year. Mike's Uncle John visits, and insists on examining
Mike's wrist; he hears the story, and when they see Bob has indeed scored well,
he tips Mike generously.
Soon after, a boy strays into the town, and brings the chicken-pox back to
the school. The outbreak takes out one of the first-team players, giving Mike
another chance; he plays reasonably in a poor game. Bob tells him he thinks the
first-team place is now Mike's, but next day Mike misses early morning fielding
practice for the house, incurring Firby-Smith's rage once more. Wyatt gives Mike
some wise words, but when Burgess hears Firby-Smith's story, he decides to pass
Mike over in favour of Bob. Bob is happy, until a letter from his sister reveals
all about Mike's injury-faking. Bob discusses the issue with Burgess, to little
avail.
Neville-Smith, a bowler who has taken the other place in the team, plans a
party at his house (he is a day boy) in celebration of his placement, and Wyatt
sneaks out of school to attend. On his way out he is spotted by a master, who
reports it to his father Mr. Wain; the housemaster waits in Mike's room until
Wyatt returns, and tells him he is to leave the school at once, to take a job in
a bank. Mike takes his place in the team, and persuades his father to find Wyatt
more interesting work, via his connections in Argentina.
Wrykyn go into the match against their biggest rivals, Ripton, short on
bowling but with both Jacksons. The wicket is sticky from rain and Ripton notch
up a good score, and taking the field reveal they having a strong bowler of
googlies. After a bad start, Wrykyn's fortunes look up when the brothers bat
together. Bob gets out, but has given Mike time to settle in; with the tail of
the team accompanying him, he deftly collars the bowling; in a hugely tense
finale, Wrykyn scrape to victory.
Home for the holidays, Mike has a letter from Wyatt, who is enjoying himself
hugely in the wild and exciting new world.
Part 2: "Mike and Psmith", or, "The Lost Lambs"
Mike has been at Wrykyn for another two years and is due to become cricket
captain next term, but during the Easter holidays, his father, enraged by a
report saying Mike's performance in school has been even poor last term, removes
him from Wrykyn and sends him instead to Sedleigh, a far smaller school.
Arriving at Sedleigh in a bitter mood, he first meets first Mr Outwood, the
head of his house. Mike then meets a well-dressed boy with a monocle, who
introduces himself as Psmith. He is an ex-Etonian whose family lives near
Mike's, and like Mike is a new boy. They decide to avoid cricket and instead
join Mr Outwood's archaeological society. They move into a study, to the
distress of Spiller, the boy who expected to take it over; they impress Mr
Outwood, but a feud starts with Spiller and his friends, battling to regain his
study.
Having made friends with a boy called Jellicoe, the three take a dormitory
together, and on the first night their room is attacked by Spiller and his
cronies, who they chase away successfully. Next day, they meet Adair, school
cricket captain and all-round hero, and house-master Mr Downing, both of whom
are disappointed by the new boys' refusal to play cricket. Both Psmith and Mike
claim ignorance of cricket: a decision which Mike comes to regret somewhat as
time goes by.
Bored by their archaeology trips, they wander off one day, and Mike runs into
an old cricketing friend, who offers him a place in a local village team – Lower
Borlock. Mike enjoys the games – scoring 75 his first game – but keeps his
village cricket career a secret. One day, after breaking up a meeting of the
Fire Brigade – a Sedleighan club – with a clockwork rat and Sammy the dog, Mike
is unfairly put in detention by Mr Downing – head of the Fire Brigade. Stone and
Robinson, earlier friends of Spiller, approve of Mike's prank and come to tea.
Mike reveals his cricketing history – not just Lower Borlock but Wrykyn – and
the Outwood house captain suddenly puts two and two together: M Jackson of the
sporting papers is Mike Jackson sitting in front of him. Mike is persuaded to
play in an upcoming house match as revenge against Mr Downing who unfairly
favours his-own house.
Surprise him he does, playing superbly and destroying Downing's bowling.
After lunch, under pressure from Stone and Robinson, the captain agrees not to
declare, but to carry on as revenge against Downing and the house he always
favours. The scheme is a huge success, with Mike ending the day on 277 not out,
and Downing's not getting an innings at all. Downing was completely thumped and
is, unfairly, in a foul mood with Mike next day.
Meanwhile Jellicoe, who has borrowed money from both Mike and Psmith and
seems in a miserable mood, borrows from Mike again. At an Old Boys match,
Dunster – an Old Boy – accidentally incapacitates Jellicoe when the youth is hit
in the ankle with a cricket ball. Jellicoe is over-wrought. He meant to leave
the school grounds that day to pay a debt but can not now and Jellicoe fears
that he is certain to be sacked. Jellicoe tells Mike he owes the money to a pub
landlord. Mike knows the fellow from his village cricketing. Mike agrees to
deliver the five pounds that night although it means breaking out of school on a
borrowed bike. He makes his way to the inn, only to find the whole affair was a
joke by Barley the landlord. Returning to school, Mike successfully replaces the
borrowed bike but knocks something in the bike shed. Mike is spotted climbing a
drainpipe and chased off. Mike escapes to rest in the cricket pavilion. Near the
cricket pavilion, he meets Adair, sent out to fetch a doctor for a sick boy.
Mike then returns to his house, Outwood's, for another attempt to get in but is
spotted by Downing, now waiting outside for Adair's return. Being chased by a
furious Downing, Mike thinks quickly and recalls Downing's popular fire drills.
Mike has enough of a lead that he makes it to the school fire bell and rings it
like mad. The entire horde of boys are drawn outside and Mike escapes in the
confusion.
Next morning, Sammy the dog (Mr. Downing's dog) turns up, covered in red
paint. Downing is enraged and proceeds to investigates. First, Downing finds
that a boy from Outwood's was seen abroad that night. Second, Downing spots some
spilled red paint in the bike shed, with a footprint in it. He gets Psmith to
show him round Outwood's house, searching for boots with red paint on them; he
finds one of Mike's with paint on it, and goes to the headmaster. But, Psmith
has switched the shoe for a clean one in a clever sleight-of-hand.
Psmith returns to his study, and locks the original shoe in a cupboard, just
before Downing arrives for another search. He demands Psmith fetch Outwood, but
Psmith refuses, and Downing is forced to go for him; Psmith switches the shoe
again, lowering the paint-stained one out of the window on a string, putting a
different one in the cupboard and another up the chimney. Downing returns with
Outwood, smashes the cupboard and rummages up the chimney, covering himself with
soot and only finding two clean shoes. Downing is scuppered, but the next day,
when Mike attends class in his gym shoes, Downing's suspicions are enhanced.
Meanwhile, Stone and Robinson, not pleased with Adair's proposal to hold an
early-morning cricket practice, decide they can safely skip it. Adair has other
ideas, and fights Stone, bullying them both into playing. He then visits Mike
and pulls the same trick; Psmith redirects their fight outside. Adair, despite
being the better boxer, is ruled by anger and loses a fast and vicious battle,
which ends with Mike knocking him out cold. The fight clears the air between
them. Psmith, also has a surprise, and persuades Mike to play in the forthcoming
M.C.C. match by saying that he himself will be playing. Psmith was shamming
dislike of cricket himself and was a very good bowler at Eton. On the other
hand, Adair will not be playing having sprained a wrist in the fight during an
unfortunate encounter with Mike's elbow.
The match is rained off and Mike and Adair, now friends, decide to try to get
a game with Wrykyn instead. Downing, still on Mike's trail, presents his
evidence and requests a confession. While Mike is being grilled by the
headmaster, Downing gets his confession – from Psmith. While Downing is
reporting this to his superior, Adair arrives with the news that Dunster, the
old boy who was visiting that weekend – and who had accidentally injured
Jellicoe – has written to Adair and confessed to painting the dog red.
Sedleigh get to play Wrykyn, and after a nervous start, they scrape a
well-earned victory, mostly thanks to sterling work from Mike, Psmith and Adair,
and the school's fortunes begin to look up.
at Wrykyn, under the title Mike. It is certainly a school story, but a rather
unusual one, and in it the reader can almost see Wodehouse’s style being drawn
away from the traditional school stories he had previously written for magazines
like Captain and towards the urbane comedy of his Jeeves and Wooster novels. It
provides both the hearty high spirits of the former, and the man-about-town wit
of the latter.
The Characters
Psmith is the same character who appears in Psmith Journalist and Psmith in
the City – monocled, debonair, verbose – and much of the book’s most
entertaining moments come from the fact that he seems decidedly out of place in
a school story. When Mike first meets him in the common room, he is leaning on
the mantelpiece, since as he explains, “I don’t see any prospect of sitting down
in this place. It looks to me as if they meant to use these chairs as
mustard-and-cress beds.” In the dining hall, “his demeanour throughout the meal
was that of some whimsical monarch condescending for a freak to revel with his
humble subjects.”
Mike, in contrast, is a cricketing genius with no interest in anything else,
who has been removed from his last school and sent to Sedleigh unwillingly
because of his appalling school reports, but has sworn to himself not to play
cricket whilst there. As Wodehouse comments “There is a certain fascination
about making the very worst of a bad job. Achilles knew his business when he sat
in his tent.” Of course he is eventually persuaded to play, and manages to make
his startling debut in Sedleigh cricket against the bowling of a hated house
master, in a typical school story device.
Plot and Style
The plot itself contains several fairly familiar school story episodes: a
master who favours his own house, a trick with a clockwork mouse, the fight
between two boys who become friends afterwards. The style, however, varies
between the more straightforward tone of Wodehouse’s previous school tales
(“When a fellow tells you he has left school unexpectedly, it is not always
tactful to inquire the reason”, or “Mike, on the cricket field, could not have
looked like anything but cricketer if he had turned out wearing a tweed suit and
hobnail boots.”) and the expansive metaphors of his later works (“Mike nodded. A
sombre nod. The sort of nod Napoleon might have given if somebody had met him in
1812, and said, “So you’re back from Moscow, eh?”) The incongruities are so much
fun that, as with almost any other work by Wodehouse, one is left wishing he had
done more in this vein.
Plot summary
Part 1: "Mike at Wrykyn", or, "Jackson Junior"
Mike's family are excited to see him off to Wrykyn; his sisters are hopeful
of him breaking the record and getting into the school team his first year,
although his brother Bob and Saunders, the pro, are sceptical. On the train down
to Wrykyn, Mike is joined by a stranger; seeing the lad get off the train
without his bag, Mike throws it out onto the platform, but the boy returns at
the next stop, having left to get chocolate. It turns out that he is "Gazeka"
Firby-Smith (so called because he looks like one), head of Wain's house, which
Mike is to join. He hears Bob and "Gazeka" talk of Wyatt, Wain's stepson, and
when Mike is left to find his way to the school by himself, he meets and
befriends Wyatt.
Wyatt shows Mike to his dorm, which the two of them are to share and which
has removable bars on the windows, and introduces him to Burgess, the cricket
captain. Mike shows what he can do in some nets, and impresses Burgess; he is
soon on the list for the third team. His early success, along with Bob's clumsy
attempts at looking after him, leave him in a rather anti-authoritarian spirit.
Bob warns him about Wyatt, who he feels is something of a loose cannon, but
soon, having been forbidden by Wyatt to join him on a night-time prowl rounds
the gardens, Mike is exploring the house, raiding Mr Wain's dining room and
playing gramophone records.
Trevor and Clowes, two boys in Donaldson's house, are worried about Mike and
Wyatt, sure they – Mike and Wyatt – will soon get themselves into serious
trouble. They warn Bob, but he tells them not to worry, as he has asked
Firby-Smith to keep an eye on Mike. Wyatt is involved in a fight between twenty
or so boys – a gang from Wrykyn town – which ends up with a policeman falling
into a pond. When the policeman exaggerates the incident to the headmaster,
claiming several hundred boys had thrown him into the water, the headmaster
punishes the whole school by cancelling a forthcoming unofficial holiday.
In retaliation, Wyatt organises a mass walk-out, taking most of the school
with him on a day out at a nearby town, in what becomes known as "The Great
Picnic". Next day, the head makes much of Wrykyn town out-of-bounds to the boys,
claiming an outbreak of chicken-pox, a punishment the boys think lenient. They
later realise this is not the punishment at all; while the younger boys are
caned, the older boys are all given "extra" during a cricket match against the
M.C.C.; with three of the first team unable to play, Wyatt persuades Burgess to
let Mike play.
Mike plays well in a close match, against a team that includes both Mike's
brother Joe and the pro Saunders, advancing his cricketing career at the school
nicely, but Firby-Smith, in addition to being patronising, gets Mike run-out in
a house game, which leads Mike to insult his head of house. An angry Firby-Smith
insists that Mike be punished, but Bob soon calms the waters. Grateful to his
brother, when Mike finds he has squeezed Bob out of the team, he feigns an
injury to give up his place, knowing that should Bob play well he may not get
another chance that year. Mike's Uncle John visits, and insists on examining
Mike's wrist; he hears the story, and when they see Bob has indeed scored well,
he tips Mike generously.
Soon after, a boy strays into the town, and brings the chicken-pox back to
the school. The outbreak takes out one of the first-team players, giving Mike
another chance; he plays reasonably in a poor game. Bob tells him he thinks the
first-team place is now Mike's, but next day Mike misses early morning fielding
practice for the house, incurring Firby-Smith's rage once more. Wyatt gives Mike
some wise words, but when Burgess hears Firby-Smith's story, he decides to pass
Mike over in favour of Bob. Bob is happy, until a letter from his sister reveals
all about Mike's injury-faking. Bob discusses the issue with Burgess, to little
avail.
Neville-Smith, a bowler who has taken the other place in the team, plans a
party at his house (he is a day boy) in celebration of his placement, and Wyatt
sneaks out of school to attend. On his way out he is spotted by a master, who
reports it to his father Mr. Wain; the housemaster waits in Mike's room until
Wyatt returns, and tells him he is to leave the school at once, to take a job in
a bank. Mike takes his place in the team, and persuades his father to find Wyatt
more interesting work, via his connections in Argentina.
Wrykyn go into the match against their biggest rivals, Ripton, short on
bowling but with both Jacksons. The wicket is sticky from rain and Ripton notch
up a good score, and taking the field reveal they having a strong bowler of
googlies. After a bad start, Wrykyn's fortunes look up when the brothers bat
together. Bob gets out, but has given Mike time to settle in; with the tail of
the team accompanying him, he deftly collars the bowling; in a hugely tense
finale, Wrykyn scrape to victory.
Home for the holidays, Mike has a letter from Wyatt, who is enjoying himself
hugely in the wild and exciting new world.
Part 2: "Mike and Psmith", or, "The Lost Lambs"
Mike has been at Wrykyn for another two years and is due to become cricket
captain next term, but during the Easter holidays, his father, enraged by a
report saying Mike's performance in school has been even poor last term, removes
him from Wrykyn and sends him instead to Sedleigh, a far smaller school.
Arriving at Sedleigh in a bitter mood, he first meets first Mr Outwood, the
head of his house. Mike then meets a well-dressed boy with a monocle, who
introduces himself as Psmith. He is an ex-Etonian whose family lives near
Mike's, and like Mike is a new boy. They decide to avoid cricket and instead
join Mr Outwood's archaeological society. They move into a study, to the
distress of Spiller, the boy who expected to take it over; they impress Mr
Outwood, but a feud starts with Spiller and his friends, battling to regain his
study.
Having made friends with a boy called Jellicoe, the three take a dormitory
together, and on the first night their room is attacked by Spiller and his
cronies, who they chase away successfully. Next day, they meet Adair, school
cricket captain and all-round hero, and house-master Mr Downing, both of whom
are disappointed by the new boys' refusal to play cricket. Both Psmith and Mike
claim ignorance of cricket: a decision which Mike comes to regret somewhat as
time goes by.
Bored by their archaeology trips, they wander off one day, and Mike runs into
an old cricketing friend, who offers him a place in a local village team – Lower
Borlock. Mike enjoys the games – scoring 75 his first game – but keeps his
village cricket career a secret. One day, after breaking up a meeting of the
Fire Brigade – a Sedleighan club – with a clockwork rat and Sammy the dog, Mike
is unfairly put in detention by Mr Downing – head of the Fire Brigade. Stone and
Robinson, earlier friends of Spiller, approve of Mike's prank and come to tea.
Mike reveals his cricketing history – not just Lower Borlock but Wrykyn – and
the Outwood house captain suddenly puts two and two together: M Jackson of the
sporting papers is Mike Jackson sitting in front of him. Mike is persuaded to
play in an upcoming house match as revenge against Mr Downing who unfairly
favours his-own house.
Surprise him he does, playing superbly and destroying Downing's bowling.
After lunch, under pressure from Stone and Robinson, the captain agrees not to
declare, but to carry on as revenge against Downing and the house he always
favours. The scheme is a huge success, with Mike ending the day on 277 not out,
and Downing's not getting an innings at all. Downing was completely thumped and
is, unfairly, in a foul mood with Mike next day.
Meanwhile Jellicoe, who has borrowed money from both Mike and Psmith and
seems in a miserable mood, borrows from Mike again. At an Old Boys match,
Dunster – an Old Boy – accidentally incapacitates Jellicoe when the youth is hit
in the ankle with a cricket ball. Jellicoe is over-wrought. He meant to leave
the school grounds that day to pay a debt but can not now and Jellicoe fears
that he is certain to be sacked. Jellicoe tells Mike he owes the money to a pub
landlord. Mike knows the fellow from his village cricketing. Mike agrees to
deliver the five pounds that night although it means breaking out of school on a
borrowed bike. He makes his way to the inn, only to find the whole affair was a
joke by Barley the landlord. Returning to school, Mike successfully replaces the
borrowed bike but knocks something in the bike shed. Mike is spotted climbing a
drainpipe and chased off. Mike escapes to rest in the cricket pavilion. Near the
cricket pavilion, he meets Adair, sent out to fetch a doctor for a sick boy.
Mike then returns to his house, Outwood's, for another attempt to get in but is
spotted by Downing, now waiting outside for Adair's return. Being chased by a
furious Downing, Mike thinks quickly and recalls Downing's popular fire drills.
Mike has enough of a lead that he makes it to the school fire bell and rings it
like mad. The entire horde of boys are drawn outside and Mike escapes in the
confusion.
Next morning, Sammy the dog (Mr. Downing's dog) turns up, covered in red
paint. Downing is enraged and proceeds to investigates. First, Downing finds
that a boy from Outwood's was seen abroad that night. Second, Downing spots some
spilled red paint in the bike shed, with a footprint in it. He gets Psmith to
show him round Outwood's house, searching for boots with red paint on them; he
finds one of Mike's with paint on it, and goes to the headmaster. But, Psmith
has switched the shoe for a clean one in a clever sleight-of-hand.
Psmith returns to his study, and locks the original shoe in a cupboard, just
before Downing arrives for another search. He demands Psmith fetch Outwood, but
Psmith refuses, and Downing is forced to go for him; Psmith switches the shoe
again, lowering the paint-stained one out of the window on a string, putting a
different one in the cupboard and another up the chimney. Downing returns with
Outwood, smashes the cupboard and rummages up the chimney, covering himself with
soot and only finding two clean shoes. Downing is scuppered, but the next day,
when Mike attends class in his gym shoes, Downing's suspicions are enhanced.
Meanwhile, Stone and Robinson, not pleased with Adair's proposal to hold an
early-morning cricket practice, decide they can safely skip it. Adair has other
ideas, and fights Stone, bullying them both into playing. He then visits Mike
and pulls the same trick; Psmith redirects their fight outside. Adair, despite
being the better boxer, is ruled by anger and loses a fast and vicious battle,
which ends with Mike knocking him out cold. The fight clears the air between
them. Psmith, also has a surprise, and persuades Mike to play in the forthcoming
M.C.C. match by saying that he himself will be playing. Psmith was shamming
dislike of cricket himself and was a very good bowler at Eton. On the other
hand, Adair will not be playing having sprained a wrist in the fight during an
unfortunate encounter with Mike's elbow.
The match is rained off and Mike and Adair, now friends, decide to try to get
a game with Wrykyn instead. Downing, still on Mike's trail, presents his
evidence and requests a confession. While Mike is being grilled by the
headmaster, Downing gets his confession – from Psmith. While Downing is
reporting this to his superior, Adair arrives with the news that Dunster, the
old boy who was visiting that weekend – and who had accidentally injured
Jellicoe – has written to Adair and confessed to painting the dog red.
Sedleigh get to play Wrykyn, and after a nervous start, they scrape a
well-earned victory, mostly thanks to sterling work from Mike, Psmith and Adair,
and the school's fortunes begin to look up.