the playground.

It was a bright, frosty day, and the whole place seemed full of life and
activity. There was plenty to engage their attention, and much that was
new and singular after their comparatively quiet playground at The
Birches. But whatever there was to awaken their interest out of doors,
a thing was destined to happen during their first morning school which
would be a still greater surprise than anything they had yet encountered
during their short residence at Ronleigh.

At nine o'clock the clanging of the big bell summoned them to the
general assembly in the big schoolroom. They took their places at a
back desk pointed out to them by the master on duty, and sat watching
the stream of boys that poured in through the open doors, wondering how
long it would take them to become acquainted with the names of such a
multitude.

The forms passed on in their usual order, and the new boys were
conducted to a vacant classroom, where they received a set of
examination papers which were intended to test the amount of their
knowledge, and determine the position in which they were to start work
on the following day.

Jack Vance, Diggory, and Mugford sat together at the first desk, just in
front of the master's table, and were soon busy in proving their
previous acquaintance with the Latin grammar. Presently the door
opened, and a voice, which they at once recognized as Dr. Denson's,
said, "Mr. Ellesby, may I trouble you to step here for a moment?"
None of the trio raised their eyes from their work. There was a
muttered conversation in the passage, and then the door was once more
closed.

The master returned to his desk, dipped his pen in the ink, and
addressing some one at the back of the room, inquired,--

"What did Dr. Denson say your name was?"

"Noaks, sir."

The Triple Alliance gave a simultaneous start as though they had
received an electric shock, and their heads turned round like three
weathercocks.

There, sure enough, at the back desk of all, sat the late leader of the
Philistines, with a rather sheepish expression on his face, somewhat
similar to the one it had worn when the marauders from Horace House had
been ushered into Mr. Welsby's study.

Jack Vance looked at Mugford, and Mugford looked at Diggory. "Well, I'm
jiggered!" whispered the latter, and once more returned to his
examination paper.

At eleven o'clock there was a quarter of an hour's interval. Being
still, as it were, stranger