ed, it did occur to one or two of us that possibly
we might have jumped to a conclusion too hastily. It's wonderful how
hardy a fellow will get when he's got twenty fellows clustering round
him.

"He's alive, anyhow," said one. "Call out to him, some one," suggested
another. "You're nearest the window, Fraser," said another. Fraser was
vice-captain of the second fifteen, and always touchy whenever his pluck
was called in question.

"I'm not afraid," he said, in a voice which was hardly quite steady.
And as he spoke he threw up the window, and called out hurriedly, and in
rather deferential tones--"Who are you down there?"

I don't suppose Fraser ever did a pluckier thing than ask that question.
We listened, all ears, for the reply. But none came. Only a faint
moan, as the apparition swayed uneasily towards us, and even seemed to
try to raise itself in our direction; but never a word we heard, and we
closed the window again as much in the dark as to its identity as ever.

What could we do? We couldn't go to bed with Bubbles's or anybody's
ghost wandering about in the quadrangle below us, that was evident. But
how were we to solve the mystery, unless indeed--

It was a terrible alternative, but the only one. We thought of it a
good bit before any one proposed it. At last Fraser himself said--

"Who's game to come down into the quad?"

Fraser was on his mettle, or he would never have been so mad. At first
a dead silence was the only answer to his challenge. Then Lamb said--

"I don't mind."

If he didn't mind, why should he nearly choke saying so? However, he
broke the ice, and others followed. I considered myself as good a man
as Lamb any day (it was only my own opinion), and I wasn't going to be
outdone by him now. So I volunteered. And one or two others who
considered themselves as good as I volunteered too, until the forlorn
hope numbered a dozen.

"Come along," said Fraser, who had armed himself with a lighted candle
and led the way.

I think those who stayed behind felt a little dismayed when the last of
us glided from the door and left them behind.

Still, as far as happiness of mind was concerned, they would not have
gained much had they been of our party. For we descended the staircase
in rather depressed spirits, starting at every creak, and--some of us--
wishing twenty times we were safe back in the dormitory. But there was
no drawing back now.

What a noise the bars of the big