e it.'

'But do they know we have sent him to Coventry?' asked Leonard.

'Are they bats--do they go about with their eyes shut--haven't you
noticed that Howard has been up in the chemistry "lab." yesterday and
to-day all the lunch time? I saw Skeats speaking to him yesterday just
after we came into the playground, and the two walked away together.
It was the same again to-day, only Howard was looking out for him, and
went to meet him as soon as he appeared. Now what are we going to do,
if the masters try to beat us at this game?'

'I say it isn't fair,' answered Morrison.

'Fair! I call it the meanest thing I ever heard of, and shows that
Torrington's is going to the dogs, masters and all. I wish you'd speak
to your pater about it, Morrison. I think you might, now Skeats has
taken to interfering with us like this.'

Leonard shrugged his shoulders. 'I think it would be better for
somebody else to come and see my father, if they think he had anything
to do with sending that boy here. You don't know the pater. He'd just
turn me inside out, and then laugh at me; but he couldn't serve any
other fellow that way.'

But Taylor shook his head. It was true that he did not know Dr.
Morrison, but he had heard that this gentleman had said it would be
for the advantage of Torrington's to receive a few scholarship boys,
for they were sure to be sharp, studious lads, and it would waken the
other boys up and put them on their mettle. So he declined to go and
see Mr. Morrison, but declared that Leonard ought to undertake the
mission on behalf of the school.

'Look here, Curtis!' he called to another lad, who, like himself, was
one of the elders of the class, and consequently domineered a good
deal over the rest. 'Morrison won't do his duty in upholding the
honour of the school. You come and talk to him.'

'What's the row?' asked Curtis loftily, sauntering up with his hands
in his pockets, and looking down upon Leonard Morrison as a big
overgrown lad likes to look at one of his smaller schoolfellows, as if
to intimidate him with his superior height and bulk.

'Now, then, little Morrison, speak up. What is it?' he said in a
sleepy tone, but trying to look fierce.

'Why, it's just this, Curtis, that beggar we have sent to Coventry
don't seem inclined to take himself out of the school, and so somebody
must be made to move him.'

'Of course,' said Curtis, who did not mind who the somebody might be,
so long as he was not called u