ven a dark
lane down which they dived, hoping to double on him, proved of no avail;
rather did it serve to make matters worse, for the keeper, knowing where
they were bound to come out, had wasted neither time nor energy, but
made straight for that point: a manoeuvre which brought him alarmingly
close when he did emerge. And at all hazards he must not be suffered to
head them off from their objective.

"Now, then--'ee'd better stop, I tell 'ee!" he shouted, reckoning them
done up. But the fugitives knew better than to waste wind, if he did
not. They simply raced on, offering no reply. And by degrees their
superior wind and training told, the more so that the race was a long
one. They saw they were shaking their pursuer off, and it was all
important they should do this, because it would never do for them to let
him run them all the way back to the school. They might as well
surrender at once as that.

"My clothes all over blood!" said Anthony at last, when they were safe
beyond pursuit. "What I do?"

Haviland examined him critically in the moonlight.

"So they are," he said. "Well, Cetchy, you must peel them off and stow
them away in the ditch, and go in without them. You can think you're
back in Zululand again."

"So I can. Yes," answered the other, showing his white rows of splendid
teeth.

Half an hour later, two wearied perspiring figures shinned up the cord
under the angle of the chapel wall at Saint Kirwin's, and so ended
another night of excitement and adventure--as they thought.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

THE BOLT FALLS.

"I say, you fellows, there's no end of a row on," pronounced Wood major,
joining a group of others.

"No! Is there? What about? Who's in it?" were the eager inquiries
which hailed the good news. For a row at Saint Kirwin's was, in its
generation, akin to the Coliseum sports in theirs, inasmuch as it
afforded pleasurable excitement to the multitude. To the small minority
directly implicated it afforded excitement too, but the reverse of
pleasurable. This particular group, however, being presumably clear of
conscience, hailed the news with unfeigned satisfaction.

"Why, the small room at the end of Williams's dormitory are all in it, I
believe," explained Wood major. "Cetchy's been caught getting out late
at night."

"What, Cetchy? Haviland's chum?"

"Rather. We're going to see something, I can tell you."

"Then Haviland's in it too," said some one else.

"I ex