"

Ugh! Why did not some of the fellows wake up? How unnaturally still
they all were! I would have given all my pocket-money to two of them to
start another steeplechase that moment over the beds. In fact, I had
half a mind to--

As I reached this point a sudden noise made my blood run cold, and froze
me to my bed.

It did not seem to be in the dormitory, or on the stairs outside, or in
the quadrangle below. None of my companions appeared to have heard it,
for they all slept on quietly, and the silence which followed was doubly
as intense as that which had gone before. What could it be?

I do not fancy I was a particularly cowardly boy, but somehow that sound
terrified me. I could neither move nor call out. All I could do was to
lie and listen.

There it was again! this time not so sudden, but far more distinct.
There was no mistaking it now. As sure as I lay there, it was something
on the roof! It sounded like something crawling slowly and by fits and
starts along the gutter just above the dormitory. Sometimes it seemed
to spring upwards, as though attempting to reach a higher position, and
then sullenly slip down and proceed on its crawling way.

Yes, without doubt Fergus had told the truth!

Suddenly a voice in a loud whisper at the other end of the dormitory
exclaimed--

"Listen! I say, listen!"

It was Lamb's voice. There was at least some comfort in knowing that I
was not the only one awake.

With a desperate effort I sat up in my bed and replied--

"Oh, Lamb, what is it?"

His only reply was a gasp, as the noises recommenced. The body,
whatever it was, seemed to have dragged itself forward, so as to be now
just over our heads. The ceiling above us went right up into the roof,
and I could distinctly hear a rustling sound against the tiles, followed
by an occasional upward leap, sometimes almost wild in its eagerness.
How could I mistake these sounds? The chimney was immediately above us,
and it was towards this goal, as I well knew, that the hapless and
legless Bubbles was destined fruitlessly to aspire. At last one bound
more frantic than the rest, followed by a sudden clatter of displaced
tiles, unloosed my tongue, and I fairly cried out--

"Oh!"

Half a dozen fellows were on the alert in an instant.

"Who's that called out?" cried one. "I'd like to scrag him."

"What's the row, whoever it is?" demanded Fergus.

"Hush! Listen!" was all I could reply.

There must have be