Rudyard Kipling Stalky & Co

This was the cover of Kiplings Stalky and Co. It depicts Stalky, Beetle and M'Turk. One of them is smoking a pipe which was not allowed at school

Stalky & Co. is a book published in 1899 (following serialisation in the Windsor Magazine) by Rudyard Kipling, about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It is a collection of linked short stories in format, with some information about the charismatic Stalky character in later life. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly based on Kipling himself. Stalky is based on Lionel Dunsterville, M'Turk is based on George Charles Beresford, Mr King is based on William Carr Crofts. The school, which is referred to as the College or the Coll. is based on the United Services College in Devon which Kipling attended. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to Kipling's stories in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he tells Carol that he has formed a group with Ley's school friends Tom Macmorran and Nichol; 'We formed between us, a sort of stalky & Co..." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 17).