Alan's elevation to School Prefect was a great comfort to his mother. But much more significant was a new friendship in his life.

艾伦晋升为学校监督生，这让他的母亲感到莫大的欣慰。但意义更为重大的是，这为艾伦带来了人生中的一段新友谊。

There was a boy three years younger than Alan in the house, Victor Beuttell, who was also one who neither conformed, nor rebelled, but dodged the system. He also, like Alan, was labouring under a grief that no one knew about, for his mother was dying of bovine tuberculosis. Alan saw her when she came to visit Victor, himself in great peril with double pneumonia, and asked what was wrong. It struck a terrible chord. Alan also learnt something else that few knew, which was that Victor had been caned so severely by a prefect in another house that his spine had been damaged. This turned him against the beating system, and he never caned Victor (who was frequently in trouble), but passed him on to another prefect. The link between them was one of compassion, but it developed into friendship. Though at odds with the axioms of the public school, which normally would forbid boys of different ages from spending time together, a special dispensation from O'Hanlon, who kept a card index on the boys' activities and watched closely over them, allowed it to continue.

学院里有个比艾伦小三岁的男孩：维克托·别特尔，他也是一个既不遵守也不反抗，只是逃避体制的人。像艾伦一样，他也承受着一段别人无法体会的悲痛，因为他的母亲此时因为牛结核病而生命垂危，艾伦在她来看望维克托的时候见过她，这让人很难受。艾伦也知道了其它一些鲜为人知的事：维克托被另外一个学院的监督生打得太狠，以致脊椎受到了伤害。这使艾伦开始反对鞭打的规矩，而且他从来不打维克托（尽管维克托总是惹麻烦），只是把他交给其他监督生。他们之间的纽带就是互相同情，后来又发展成了友谊。虽然这与公学的纪律不符（不同年级的学生禁止交往），但因为有奥汉兰的监督，所以这段友情得到了允许。

They spent a good deal of time playing with codes and ciphers. One source of ideas might have been the Mathematical Recreations and Essays,6 which Alan had chosen as Christopher Morcom Prize, and which indeed had served a generation of school prize-winners since it appeared in 1892. The last chapter dealt with simple forms of cryptography. The scheme that Alan liked was not a very mathematical one. He would punch holes in a strip of paper, and supply Victor with a book. Poor Victor had to plod through the pages until he found one where through the holes in the strip appeared letters that spelt out a message such as HAS ORION GOT A BELT. By this time, Alan had passed on his enthusiasm for astronomy to Victor, and had explained the constellations to him. Alan also showed him a way to construct Magic Squares (also from Mathematical Recreations), and they played a lot of chess.

他们花了很多时间学习编码和密码，通过《数学之乐》，这是克里斯朵夫·默卡奖的奖品，从1892年出版以来，令很多人受益匪浅。该书的最后一章，论述了密码术的基础。艾伦喜欢的主题，并不是非常数学化的那种，他喜欢在一个纸条上打孔，然后连同一本书，交给维克托。可怜的维克托要一页页翻书，看从纸条上的孔里透出来的字，再把它们拼成一条信息，比如“猎户星座的腰带”。艾伦对天文学的兴趣，也感染了维克托，艾伦给他讲解星座。艾伦教他还玩魔方（也是从《数学之乐》中学会的），还经常玩国际象棋。

As it happened, Victor's family was also linked with the Swan electric light industry, for his father, Alfred Beuttell, had made a small fortune by inventing and patenting the Linolite electric strip reflector lamp in 1901. The lamp was manufactured by Swan and Edison, while Mr Beuttell, who had broken away from his own father's business in carpet wholesaling, acquired further experience as an electrical engineer. He had also enjoyed a fine life until the First World War, flying, motor racing, sailing, and gambling successfully at Monte Carlo.7

巧合的是，维克托家也与斯万电灯有关系。他的父亲，阿尔弗雷德·别特尔1901年发明并获得“丽诺丽特电反射灯管”的专利，发了一笔小财。在第一次世界大战之前，他享受美好的生活，在蒙特卡罗顺利地进行飞行运动，赛车运动，帆船运动，和赌博。