right, Grimmy. Lancaster's sporting a silk tile, so he's
off to town. To think of your cutting our six-a-side to puff down a
dirty blow-pipe! Come out, you idiot, and get into your footer togs!"
said Sharpe.

"I'm not coming, I tell you."

"Insanity in the family, evidently," observed Poulett, judicially.

"Aren't you coming, really?"

"No, I'm not; do get out and leave me alone!"

"Never!" said Poulett. "We'll stay with him and see him through the fit,
eh?"

"Rather! We'll never desert you, Grimmy!"

"We'll let the six-a-side slide for this afternoon, and we'll help
Grimmy with his salt," suggested the egg-poacher, brilliantly; and any
amount of hidden meaning was in the word "help."

"We will! we will!" cried the rest, spotting Poulett's idea instanter,
with enthusiastic joy; and despite Grim's frenzied declamation and
eloquence they all "helped."

For two hours--as lively a couple of hours as ever were passed within
the laboratory--Gus lay low behind the far bench and enjoyed the
afternoon's performance far more than Grim. The green powder underwent
some weird experiments, each of the quintette availing himself of Grim's
knowledge and test-tubes and acid-bottles with the utmost freedom. The
analysis of Lancaster's mixture gave various results, but when Rogers
"found" rhubarb and black-lead this was held the correct find, and after
this verdict the generous five put up the test-tubes in the rack. They
all said Rogers had settled the matter, and anyway they had had a jolly
time.

"Understand," observed Poulett, as he washed away some acid stains from
his bare knees, "that Grimmy is not ashamed of his black-lead and
rhubarb hunt."

"Why those vivid blushes, then?"

"We never bargained that old Grim would copy that Fifth Form ass, Todd,
and chum up with Lancaster, did we?"

"What did you say about Todd?" inquired Grim, suavely.

"Said he was an ass."

"A what?"

"An ass, a jackass, a howling jackass!" cried Poulett, _crescendo_.

"How?"

"Remember Corker pitching into him? Said he wasn't fit for a decent
nursery, and Toddy had his mouth open all the time."

[Illustration: THE GREEN POWDER UNDERWENT SOME WEIRD EXPERIMENTS]

"Bully Cotton has given Toddy up. Toddy was too big an ass even for
Cotton," remarked Wilson.

"He looks fairly intelligent," observed Grim, in a gentle whisper.

"So did you, almost, till you started fooling like this."

Grim artistically kept the conversation on Todd,