t of the stairs he turned sharp round, and
following the wall with his hand, came at length on the familiar handle
of the "boot-box." To his surprise the door was locked, but the key was
on the outside.

"A sell if I hadn't been able to get in," said he to himself, opening
the door.

Now Simson, like a cautious youth, aware of the frailty of matches,
wisely resolved to penetrate as far as possible into the interior of the
cupboard, in the direction in which he knew his particular boots to be,
before striking a light.

But at the first step he tripped on something and fell prostrate over a
human carcase, which emitted a muffled gasp and moved heavily as he
tumbled upon it. Then there went up a yell such as curdled the blood of
half Railsford's as they lay in their beds, and made the domestics up-
stairs cling to one another in terror, as if their last moment had come.

Simson, with every hair on his head erect, made a frantic dive out of
that awful den, banging the door and locking it behind him in a frenzy
of fright. Then he dashed up-stairs, and plunged, as white as his
shirt, into the dormitory.

Another yell signalised his arrival. Not his, this time, but the joint
performance of the other occupants of the room, who, sitting up with
their chins on their knees, half petrified by the horror of the first
shriek, now gave themselves up for lost when the door broke open in the
dark, and a gasping something staggered into the room.

"There's some--bo--dy been mur--dered," gasped Simson, "in the bo--ot-
box!"

Everybody was on his feet in a moment.

"Murdered?"

"Yes," said Simson, wonderfully comforted by the noise and general
panic. "I got up early, you know, to have a grind on the track, and
went to get my boots, and--I--I fell over it!"

"Over what?"

"The bo--od--y," whispered Simson.

"Has anybody got a light?" shouted Arthur.

But at that moment a light appeared at the door, and Ainger came in.

"What's all this row--what's the matter?"

"Simson says somebody's been murdered in the boot-box," replied Arthur.
"I say, hadn't we better go and see?"

It was a practical suggestion. The corridor was already full of half-
dressed inquirers, and a moment later Mr Railsford's door opened. The
story was repeated to him.

"Come with me, Ainger," said he, quietly; "the rest of you return to
your dormitories, and remain there."

Arthur, seized by a noble desire not to leave his future kinsman
unpro