here, if
I were you I would cut!"

"I don't think you would. If you were me you would stand your ground,
and that's what I mean doing," smiled Paul.

"You're jolly cheeky, Gargoyle! Now, look here, take the advice of one
who wants to do you a good turn--cut! There are a lot of the Bedes
hanging about, and if they happen to get hold of you, there won't be
much left of you, I can tell you! Are you insured?"

"No."

"My stars! I wouldn't like to be standing in your shoes--I really
wouldn't! Tired of life--eh? That's why you're poking your head into the
lion's den--eh?"

"Wrong again--quite wrong. I've come to see one of your fellows who's
been very kind to me--Wyndham."

"Oh, Wyndham! The one you ran away from at the sand-pits?"

Paul winced under the jibe. He had not yet got over that weakness.
Murrell was regarding him curiously. No answer coming from his victim,
he spoke again:

"You want me to fetch Wyndham?"

"If you would be so kind."

"Well, if you don't take the cake--likewise the bun, and the biscuit! A
Gargoyle has the superb cheek to ask a Bede to be his errand-boy! Stands
Scotland where it did? Is the world going round, or is it standing
still? Am I standing on my head or my heels? Now, then--your last
chance! If you don't want to go back in pieces, take it!
Going--going--gone!"

"I don't intend going till I've seen Wyndham," said Paul firmly. "If you
won't do me the favour I ask, I must keep on till I find some one a
little more courteous."

He was about to pass on, when Murrell stopped him with a friendly pat on
the shoulder.

"All right! You needn't get into a wax! You're not such a bad sort of
fellow, after all, for a Gargoyle! Wait here! Shan't be long!"

His tone had suddenly changed, and before Paul could say anything
further he was gone. Paul was so astonished that he could scarcely
believe the evidence of his eyes and ears. In an instant Murrell's
attitude had changed from a threatening to a friendly attitude. Was it
meant to mislead him? Had he no intention of going for Wyndham? Did he
mean instead to acquaint some of the boys who had previously set on him
of his arrival, so that they might carry out the purpose which they had
been forced to relinquish? This view seemed certainly the more probable
of the two, and therefore Paul was very agreeably surprised when, a
couple of minutes later, he saw the well-known figure of Wyndham coming
from the college gates towards him. His handso