ravery amongst the boys, now came out a few
yards into the playground; and, as the boys began to gather round him,
he moved on again a little way, making a point of keeping himself
nearest to the danger, if any danger there were, but not going so far as
to preclude an easy retreat.

Now, in naval law, during an action there is a tradition that the safest
place for a sailor, and where he is least likely to be hit, is the hole
through which a cannon-ball or shell has crashed into the ship.
Possibly, being a mathematician, Mr Morris may have calculated the
possibilities against the elephant that had marched through that piece
of fence coming back through it again. And so it was that as the
Doctor's grounds were clear, the enemy having departed, he followed
farther and farther out into the cricket-field, and then headed a
cluster of the first-form boys who, unknown to the Doctor, were making
for the broken fence. The fact that they soon saw the elephant's
pursuers pass through, and with them the bald-headed man, with their
fellow-pupils Glyn and Singh on each side leading, had doubtless
something to do with the forward movement.

Slegge, too, was the biggest and loudest there. He was looking very
white, almost as white as Ramball's bald head, but he said it was all a
"jolly lark;" and then for want of something else to say to express how
he was enjoying himself, he made the same remark again, and then laughed
aloud. But it was the same sort of laugh as would be uttered by the
victim of a practical joke who has suddenly sat down upon a tin-tack or
a pin.

Mr Morris, too, grew braver and braver, and he smiled a ghastly smile
which rather distorted his features as he addressed his pupils.

"Come along, boys," he said. "This is a holiday indeed. We are going
to search for the unknown quantity. An elephant hunt in the Doctor's
grounds! It is quite a novelty."

"But it isn't in the Doctor's grounds now, sir," said Burney.

This was meant to be facetious; but it turned Mr Morris's smile into a
glare, and brought down upon the boy's head a rebuke from Slegge.

"Here, don't you be so fast, youngster," cried the latter, with the
wisdom of a sage in his stern look. "Just remember whom you are talking
to, if you please." Then, to curry favour with the master, "I beg your
pardon, Mr Morris, would this be an Indian or an African elephant?"

"Well, Mr Slegge," said the mathematical master, with his ghastly smile
coming