Billy Bunter's Benefit By Frank Richards - Friardale

Billy Bunter’s Benefit
By Frank Richards
There was a cash-box on the table. Already there were several halfcrowns
in it. Peter Todd had just arrived with another.
“From Quelch!” he announced.
“Good old Henry!” exclaimed Bob Cherry. “Is he coming to the show
tomorrow? We shall have to pull up our socks, with Quelchy’s eye on us.”
Peter grinned.
“No, he said he was sorry he couldn’t be present, on account of the
Masters’ Meeting in the afternoon. But be took a ticket, to help on the
show.”
“I say, you fellows—.”
“Shut up. Bunter.”
“Look here, this is my benefit, ain’t it?” exclaimed the fat Owl warmly. “I
jolly well think—.”
“Kick Bunter, somebody,” said Johnny Bull.
“Beast!”
“Wibley says Quelch must be an ass to attend a Masters’ Meeting, when
he could come and see ‘Hamlet’ in the Rag,” went on Peter, with a chuckle.
“Ha, ha, ha!”
“I say, you fellows—.”
“Hallo, hallo, hallo! Here’s Mauly! Trickle in, Mauly!” roared Bob Cherry, as
the elegant figure of Lord Mauleverer appeared in the doorway. “You
want the best seat! We have them! What?”
Lord Mauleverer ambled in, as Peter Todd went out.
“Half-crown or five bob, Mauly?” asked Frank Nugent. “A bloated
millionaire ought to be good for five bob.”
“A benefit performance, you know, Mauly,” said Harry Wharton. “All the
brilliant galaxy of talent in the Remove Dramatic Society.”
“And a good cause, more or less,” said Johnny Bull. “We’re doing this to
keep a fat diddler from getting sacked for diddling.”
“Ha, ha, ha!”
“Oh, really, Bull—.”
“Sold many guinea seats?” asked Lord Mauleverer. There was a chuckle in
No. 1 Study. Guinea seats were rather in the nature of a flourish of
William Wibley’s imagination. Wibley thought it looked well. But the most
optimistic member of the Remove Dramatic Society did not expect any
Greyfriars man to cough up twenty-one shillings for a seat.
“Not so far,” said Harry Wharton, laughing. “If there’s going to be a rush
for the guinea seats, it hasn’t started yet.”
“The rushfulness will probably not be terrific,” remarked Hurree Jamset
Ram Singh, with a dusky grin.
“Well, look here, suppose I start the ball rollin’, what?” asked Mauly. And
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