PTER I.

A GREAT CHANGE.

Half a dozen boys were gathered in one of the studies at Shrewsbury. A
packed portmanteau and the general state of litter on the floor was
sufficient to show that it was the last day of term.

"Well, I am awfully sorry you are going, Bullen; we shall all miss you.
You would certainly have been in the football team next term; it is a
nuisance altogether."

"It is a nuisance; and I am beastly sorry I am leaving. Of course I have
known for some time that I should be going out to Russia; but I did not
think the governor would have sent me until after I had gone through the
school. His letter a fortnight ago was a regular stumper. I thought I
should have had another year and a half or two years, and, of course,
that is just the jolliest part of school life. However, it cannot be
helped."

"You talk the language, don't you, Bullen?"

"Well, I used to talk it, but I don't remember much about it now. You
see I have been home six years. I expect I shall pick it up again fast
enough. I should not mind it so much if the governor were out there
still; but you see he came home for good two years ago. Still it won't
be like going to a strange place altogether; and as he has been living
there so long, I shall soon get to know lots of the English there. Still
I do wish I could have had a couple of years more at Shrewsbury. I
should have been content to have gone out then."

"Well, it is time for us to be starting. I can hear the omnibus."

In a few minutes the omnibus was filled with luggage inside and out; the
lads started to walk to the station. As the train drew up there were
hearty good-byes, and then the train steamed out of the station, the
compartment in which Godfrey Bullen had taken his seat being filled with
boys going, like himself, straight through to town. All were in high
spirits, and Bullen, who had felt sorry at leaving school for the last
time, was soon as merry as any of them.

"You must mind what you are up to, Bullen," one of his companions said.
"They are terrible fellows those Nihilists, they say."

"They won't hurt Bullen," another put in, "unless he goes into the
secret police. I should say he would make a good sort of secret
policeman."

"No, no; he is more likely to turn a Nihilist."

"Bosh!" Bullen said, laughing. "I am not likely to turn a secret
policeman; but I am more likely to do that than to turn Nihilist. I hate
revolutionists and assassins, and all those sort