e a chance
with us if we showed fight. If we were to say to him, 'We won't do these
extra tasks; and if you touch one of us the whole lot will pitch into
you,' what could he do then?"

"I will tell you what he could do, Sankey," Tom Room, a quiet, sensible
boy, replied. "If we were in a desert island it would be all well
enough, he could not tyrannize over us then: but here it is different.
He would just put on his hat and go into the town, and in ten minutes he
would be back again with the six constables, and if that wasn't enough
he could get plenty of other men, and where would our fighting be then?
We should all get the most tremendous licking we have ever had, and get
laughed at besides through the town for a pack of young fools."

Ned broke into a good tempered laugh.

"Of course you are right, Room. I only thought about Hathorn himself.
Still, it is horribly unfair. I will do it today. But if he goes on with
it, as he threatens, I won't do it, let him do what he likes."

For some days this state of things continued. There was no longer any
sound of shouting and laughter in the playground. The boys walked about
moody and sullen, working at their lessons. They were fast becoming
desperate. No clue had been obtained as to the destroyer of the cat,
and the schoolmaster declared that if it took him months to break their
spirits he would do it.

Ned Sankey had said nothing at home as to his troubles. His father
noticed that he ran off again as soon as his dinner was over, and that
he no longer said anything as to the sports in which he was engaged in
playtime; also, that his lessons occupied him from tea time until he
went up to bed.

"Anything is better than this," Ned said one day to some of the boys of
his own age. "In my opinion it's better to have a regular row. What Room
said was quite true; we shall get the worst of it; but the story will
then come out, and it will be seen what a beastly tyranny we have been
undergoing. I tell you, I for one will not stand it any longer, so
here goes," and he threw his book up into a tree, in whose branches it
securely lodged.

His comrades followed his example, and the news that Sankey and some
of the other fellows were determined to put up with it no longer soon
spread, and in five minutes not a book was to be seen in the playground.
The spirit of resistance became strong and general, and when the bell
rang the boys walked into the schoolroom silent and determined, but