oom, indeed!" cried Ricketts. "_We'll_ let them see whose
room it is!"

"Kick open the door, can't you?" said Tom Senior.

They did kick open the door between them. The lock was a weak one, and
soon gave way.

Once inside, the evicted ones indulged their triumph by an uproar of
more than usual vehemence, longing that it might tempt into their
clutches the daring intruders who had presumed to interfere with their
possession. No one came. They had their fling undisturbed. But before
they quitted their stronghold one of their number, by diligent
searching, had found in the lock of a neighbouring study-door a key
which would fit theirs. Repairing, therefore, the catch, damaged by
their late forcible entry, they calmly locked the door behind them when
they went, and affixed to it, in the identical place where the other
notice had hung, "Fifth Form. Private study. Not to be entered without
permission."

Of course, the news of this interesting adventure soon spread, and for a
day or two the diligent as well as the idle on either side looked on
with increasing interest for the issue of the contest.

For a while the Fifth had the best of it. They defied the enemy to turn
them out, and procured and fixed an additional lock on the door. The
Sixth threatened to report the matter to the Doctor, and summoned the
invaders for the last time to capitulate. The invaders laughed them to
scorn, and protested the room belonged to them, and leave it they would
not for all the monitors in the world. The monitors retired, and the
Fifth enjoyed their triumph.

But next day the Doctor abruptly entered the Fifth Form room, and said,
"There is an unoccupied room at the end of the top landing, which some
boys in this class have been making use of to the annoyance of other
boys. This room, please remember, is not to be entered in future
without my permission."

Checkmate with a vengeance for the Fifth!

This event it was which, trivial in itself, re-kindled once more with
redoubled heat the old animosity between the two head Forms at Saint
Dominic's. Although the original quarrel had been confined to only
half-a-dozen individuals, it became now a party question of intense
interest. The Sixth, who were the triumphant party, could afford to
treat the matter lightly and smile over it, a demeanour which irritated
the already enraged Fifth past description. The two Forms cut one
another dead in the passages. The Fifth would gla