“Look here,” bellowed Davenport, “I'm not going to stand any more. Just let me go and don't fool about.”

“Oh come, Davenport, you are not going to chuck up like that, are you?” continued Bob with an irritating look of entreaty. “You ought to thank us for trying to improve your appearance, as I'm sure you will when we are finished. Now please keep quite still. Be sure and don't move or you will spoil the effect.”

De Beaupre fetched a little water in a shell in order to mix the paints, and then Bob proceed to display his command of the brush on Davenport. The latter lay with hot cheeks and eyes burning with helpless fury, unable to move.

All he could do was to grind his teeth while Rutherford went on to ornament his belly and thighs with rosettes and spots and fanciful designs in vermillion, green and indigo. His task took some little time, but when it was finished, he stood up and we all drew 'round to see the result, while Davenport almost collapsed at this humiliation before those whom he had been accustomed to lord it over.

He certainly presented a ludicrous spectacle, the various hues standing out in startling relief against his pale skin, while Bob had even circled his cock with bands of different colors.

“My word, doesn't he look pretty!” said Rutherford. “I feel I have been wasting my time heretofore. I ought to have been an artist, and I am certain I should get into the Royal Academy.”

There was a sally of laughter at this, which made Davenport go still more scarlet, but he said never a word.

“That will do for him, I think,” said Rutherford. “We will go and see Lawrence now, or he will be getting annoyed at being left out in the cold.”

We accordingly left Davenport to his reflections and turned towards Lawrence, who had been indeed all this time a not unamused witness of his comrade's sufferings. He did not display the deep annoyance which Davenport had evidenced, as we bestowed similar attentions upon him, but treated the affair more or less as a joke, laughing a good deal in his aimless way as Bob engaged himself in drawing little patterns on his body with the paint brush.