ll_ be cut up when he finds you aren't. He'll resign."

Dick coloured up, and looked a little foolish. "I didn't mean that," he
said.

"No very dreadful thing if you did back him up, eh?" said the monitor,
casually. "It might disgust some of your friends in the Den, but you
aren't obliged to toady to them."

"Rather not," said Dick.

"Besides, a fellow may sometimes do what's right and not be an utter
cad. Perhaps you don't think so, though. You'd cut a nobler figure,
wouldn't you, dragging down your chums from one row to another, than by
anything so paltry as doing right because it is right? I quite
understand that feeling."

"Why do you talk to me like that?" said Dick, feeling a sting in every
word of the senior's speech. "You think I went to the levee to please
myself. I didn't."

"And is that why you are sorry you went? Don't make yourself out worse
than you are, Dick. You've done a plucky thing for once in a way, and
got yourself into a row with the Den, and I really don't see that you
have very much to reproach yourself with."

"I don't care a farthing for the Den," said Dick.

"But you do for yourself. If I were you, I wouldn't let myself be
floored by one reverse. Stick to your man, and you'll get him out of
the hands of the Philistines after all."

This little talk did Dick good, and cleared his mind. It put things in
a new light. It recalled the Ghost's letter, and brought up in array
once more the better resolutions that appeal had awakened. What was the
use of his setting up as an example to his friends, when he was little
better than a rowdy himself? Yes; Dick Richardson must be looked to.
How, and by whom?

"_Dominat qui in se dominatur_," said Dick to himself, as he went off to
bed, and closed a very uncomfortable and critical day.

When he went to call Cresswell next morning he found him already up and
dressed.

"Ah, youngster, before you to-day! Have you forgotten it's a holiday?"

"So it is," said Dick, who, in his troubles, had actually overlooked the
fact.

"What do you say to coming with Freckleton and me for a day's fishing in
the Bay? Winter has given us leave if we keep inside the Sprit Rock,
and I expect he'd let you come if I asked him."

"I'd like it frightfully," said Dick, glowing with pleasure at the
invitation.

"All right. Set to work with the sandwiches. Make as many as the
potted meat will allow, and get the matron to boil half-a-dozen eggs
har