.

"The doctor must deal with this matter, Mills," said Railsford sternly.
"You must go to him to-morrow evening."

"Oh, Mr Railsford, he'll expel me!" howled the culprit.

"Good job, too," ejaculated Dig, _sotto voce_.

"Possibly," said the master. "Where is the money?"

Dig's spirits rose. He knew he would get his rights!

"The stamps--here, sir," said the wretched Mills, going to his desk.

"And where is the list of names?"

Mills produced it, tremulously. Railsford's brows knit as he glanced
down it.

"Each of these boys gave you six stamps?"

"Twenty-one sixpences, ten-and-six," said Dig, rehearsing his mental
arithmetic.

"Yes, sir. I really didn't mean to cheat, sir."

"Yes, you did," yapped Dig, who now that he was to finger his winnings
had perked up wonderfully.

"Silence, Oakshott," said Railsford angrily. "Your name is here, last
on the list. Take back your six stamps, and write me out one hundred
lines of Livy by Thursday morning."

Poor Dig turned green, and staggered back a pace, and stared at the six
stamps in his hand.

"Why!" gasped he. "I had Blazer--I--"

"Be silent, sir, and go to your study, and tell Tilbury to come here."

In due time Tilbury came, and received back his six stamps, and a
hundred lines of Livy, and an order to send the next boy on the black
list to receive a similar reward for his merits. And so the tedious
process went on, and that afternoon, in Mills's study, twenty boys sadly
took back six stamps each, and received among them two thousand lines of
Livy, to be handed in on Thursday morning. One name remained: the first
on the list, and consequently the last in the order in which Railsford
had taken it.

"I will return these," said he, taking up the six remaining stamps, "to
Felgate myself."

Mills made one more appeal.

"Do let me off going to the doctor, sir!" implored he. "Why, sir, I
never thought it could be wrong if Felgate went in for it, and they've
all got their stamps back, sir. Please let me off."

"I cannot do that. If the doctor treats you less severely than you
deserve, it will be because you have made this reparation, instead of
carrying out the act of dishonesty you had it in your mind to
perpetrate."

And he left him there, and proceeded, with a heart as heavy as any he
had worn since he came to Grandcourt, to Felgate's study.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

THE NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB.

Felgate, as we have said, had almost