ith the keen eye of an old
campaigner, Roarin' Sandy's Archie saw the moment to strike. The
master had worked up a little energy and was again making for Nancy;
now was the time to divert his attention; he beckoned to his henchman.
As Peter Lauchie entered he showed himself a worthy follower of a
worthy leader, for he strode solemnly up the aisle, dragging in his
wake a respectably-sized hemlock tree, the branches of which swept up
the floor and whipped the boys and girls in the faces, evoking shrieks
of laughter. He paused before the master's desk and solemnly handed
him the sapling.

"Here's the switch to hide Scotty _MacDonald_, sir," he said with great
seriousness, and a fine emphasis on the name.

The master turned like an animal at bay, and the school broke into a
torrent of laughter. He grasped the tree and raised it above his head.
"Ah'll batter the cursed impidence out o' ye, ye curse o' a MacDonald!"
he roared, making a drive at the boy.

But Peter Lauchie knew that the master need not now be taken seriously;
he darted down the aisle, McAllister after him, bearing his clumsy
weapon, and mowing down all within three yards of his path. The boy
leaped over the wood box, dodged round the stove, upset the water pail
over the girls and came careering back.

Number Nine rose to the occasion; their year of Jubilee, so long
delayed, had come at last. The boys joined in the chase, and soon the
master became the pursued as well as the pursuer. The girls shrieked
and fled to the wall, all except such amazons as Nancy Caldwell and
Roarin' Sandy's Teenie, who joined in the race, materially assisting
Peter by getting in the master's way or catching hold of his flying
coat-tails.

The chase did not last long; the prey, exhausted, fled out of doors and
the master subsided into a chair. He brought the school to some
semblance of order and made a feeble attempt at teaching. But by the
afternoon he was uproariously genial. He spent an hour conducting a
competition in which the boy who could stand longest on the hot stove
received the highest marks, and finally went to sleep with his feet on
the desk and his red handkerchief spread over his face.

But the affair was not without material benefit to Scotty. In his
gallant refutation of the charge against him, and in the miraculous way
he had averted the master's vengeance, he had won a place in the heart
of every MacDonald. Thereafter, no one outside the clan dared