tables, all occupied with games of chess or draughts,
or in the perusal of magazines and papers. Even Grundy, who never read
anything but an occasional novel, was poring over the advertisement
columns of _The Daily News_, with apparently great interest, while young
Fletcher was equally engrossed in the broad pages of _The Times_.
An attempt to put "Rats" in the stocks utterly failed, from the fact
that those who were usually foremost in acts of disorder refused to
render any assistance, and even went so far as to nip the disturbance in
the bud with angry ejaculations of "Here, dry up!"--"Stop it, can't
you?"

"I say," murmured Diggory, after sitting for a quarter of an hour
listlessly turning over the pages of a magazine, "Fletcher's sold us
about that lark; I don't see the use of staying here any longer."

Hardly had the words been uttered when some one in the passage outside
crowed like a cock. There was a rustling of newspapers, and the next
instant all four gas-jets were turned out simultaneously, and the room
was plunged in total darkness. What followed it would be difficult to
describe. The door was flung open, there was an inrush of boys from the
passage, and the place became a perfect pandemonium. Tables were
overturned, books and magazines went whizzing about in the darkness, a
grand "scrum" seemed in progress round Lucas's desk, while amid the
chorus of whoops, whistles, and cat-calls the latter's voice was
distinctly audible, crying in angry tones,--

"Leave me alone, you blackguards; let go, I say!"

Jack and Diggory listened in amazement to the uproar with which they
suddenly found themselves surrounded, and not wishing to risk the chance
of having a form or a table upset on their toes, remained seated in
their corner, wondering how the affair would end.

At length, piercing the general uproar, came the distant _clang, clang_
of the bell for preparation. The tumult suddenly subsided, and there
was a rush for the passage. Hardly had this stampede been accomplished
when some one struck a match and lit the gas-jet nearest the door: it
was Gull.

He stood for a moment looking round the room with a sardonic smile upon
his face, evidently very well pleased with the sight which met his gaze.
The place certainly presented the appearance of a town which had been
bombarded, carried by storm, and pillaged for a week by some foreign
foe. Most of the furniture was upset or pulled out of place, magazines
a