two by swooping down on
'em just like Indians would, you know."

"You didn't frighten me, I tell you," protested Plunger.

"Of course not; but Crusoe, when he first saw savages, never sprinted
along half so quickly as you did, I'll warrant! Greased lightning wasn't
in it with you, Plunger."

Plunger did not answer, but diligently set to work getting his other arm
into the sleeve of his coat.

"Well, but what's become of the other fellows on the raft--Moncrief,
Sedgefield, and the others?" inquired Paul.

"Oh, they were still on the raft, floating gaily along, when we left.
Goodness knows when they would get ashore," says Baldry.

"It's a bit unfortunate, you see, for none of the fellows now left on
the raft understand anything about punting," put in Plunger. "It's
rather a pity I couldn't have got back to them."

"It's just that that makes me feel easy. There's a good chance of their
pulling through, now you're not with them, Plunger," was Baldry's
ungracious response. "Why, here they are!"

As he was speaking, in fact, three of the four entered--Bember,
Sedgefield, and Harry Moncrief. After they had spent some time on the
raft, drifting aimlessly on the river, a boatman had towed them ashore.
Fixing the raft in its place by the bridge, they had returned in all
haste to the school, anxious to know what had happened to their
companions. When they had learned all particulars, Sedgefield exclaimed:

"I don't care what those Fifth Form fellows say or think, but will you
take my hand, Percival?"

Paul willingly gripped the hand extended to him. Bember and the others,
with the exception of Harry, followed suit. Harry struggled with himself
for a moment. He could not help remembering, in spite of his effort to
forget it, that Paul was responsible for the thrashing that his cousin
had received at the hands of a Beetle, and that he had seen him shaking
hands with the same obnoxious creature. Yet what could have been nobler,
Harry told himself, than the way in which, at the risk of his own life,
Paul had gone to the rescue of Hibbert, and had returned a few minutes
later to save Plunger and Baldry? He had witnessed it all from the raft,
with his heart in his mouth. Yes, it was a noble deed. He had never seen
a nobler. What was the defeat of Stanley--the wound of his
pride--compared with it? Instinctively his hand went out to Paul as the
other hands had done, when Viner entered the room.

"Have you heard the news?" he