y educatin' them. D'you know anythin' about cock-fighting, Seffy?"

"Do I know? Why, at Maclagan's, where I was crammin' in town, we used
to cock-fight in his drawing-room, and little Maclagan daren't say
anything. But we were just the same as men there, of course. Do I know?
_I_'ll show you."

"Can't I get up?" moaned Beetle, as Stalky sat on his shoulder.

"Don't jaw, you fat piffler. You're going to fight Seffy."

"He'll slay me!"

"Oh, lug 'em into our study," said Campbell. "It's nice an' quiet in
there. I'll cock-fight Turkey. This is an improvement on young Clewer."

"Right O! I move it's shoes-off for them an' shoes-on for us," said
Sefton joyously, and the two were flung down on the study floor. Stalky
rolled them behind an arm-chair. "Now I'll tie you two up an' direct the
bull-fight. Golly, what wrists you have, Seffy. They're too thick for a
wipe; got a box-rope?" said he.

"Lots in the corner," Sefton replied. "Hurry up! Stop blubbin', you
brute, Beetle. We're goin' to have a giddy campaign. Losers have to sing
for the winners--sing odes in honor of the conqueror. You call yourself
a beastly poet, don't you, Beetle? I'll poet you."

He wriggled into position by Campbell's side. Swiftly and scientifically
the stumps were thrust through the natural crooks, and the wrists
tied with well-stretched box-ropes to an accompaniment of insults from
McTurk, bound, betrayed, and voluble behind the chair. Stalky set away
Campbell and Sefton, and strode over to his allies, locking the door on
the way.

"And that's all right," said he in a changed voice.

"What the devil--?" Sefton began. Beetle's false tears had ceased;
McTurk, smiling, was on his feet. Together they bound the knees and
ankles of the enemy even more straitly.

Stalky took the arm-chair and contemplated the scene with his blandest
smile. A man trussed for cock-fighting is, perhaps, the most helpless
thing in the world.

"'The bleatin' of the kid excites the tiger.' Oh, you frabjous asses!"
He lay back and laughed till he could no more. The victims took in the
situation but slowly. "We'll give you the finest lickin' you ever had
in your young lives when we get up!" thundered Sefton from the floor.
"You'll laugh the other side of your mouth before you've done. What the
deuce d'you mean by this?"

"You'll see in two shakes," said McTurk. "Don't swear like that. What we
want to know is, why you two hulkin' swine have been bullyin' Clewer?"

"