ntleman's way. 'I tell you what it is,
Howard,' he said, when they had reached the comparative shelter of the
playground, where the hooting had to cease, for fear the master should
insist upon knowing what it was about. 'I have been thinking a lot of
what we were talking about last night, and it's my opinion that there
would not be so many tyrants in the world if they did not find easy
victims. You knuckled under to "the cock of the walk" at the first
touch, when you ought to have said, "Now, what do you mean by sending
me to Coventry? What rule of the school have I broken?"'

'Ah, but you know we are not rich people. I am only a scholarship boy,
and come from a board school.'

'As if I didn't know that. As if my pater has not told me a dozen
times lately that he wishes he had sent me to a board school when I
was young. Bless you, we are not rich. My father is only a doctor,
like Morrison's, and there are swarms and swarms of children in the
nursery, so you may know we haven't got money to roll in, like Curtis.
No, old fellow, we are two poor boys, and so we'll just stand shoulder
to shoulder, and fight the lot, if they want to fight us. Now mind,
you've got to fight for me, and I'll fight for you; and we'll let 'em
see what two can do, if nobody else joins us. Little Morrison will,
though I think Taylor has led him a dog's life lately; and so I should
think he would be glad enough to cut that shop, and join Howard and
Co.'

Horace laughed as he had not done since he had been at Torrington's.
He was ready enough to fight for his new friend, and when one or two
tried to hustle them apart as they were going to school, he did not
hesitate to push one of them off, when he was crowding down upon
Warren.

The boy turned and scowled at Horace. 'Who are you?' he demanded
angrily.

'The scholarship boy, and this is my friend,' he said, still holding
on to Warren, and dealing some sharp thrusts at those who were trying
to push between them. There could be no great demonstration here in
the lobby of the school, or the masters would want to know what the
quarrel was about.

At dinner time there was little opportunity for the new friends to
meet, for the science master, if he did not know, shrewdly guessed the
attitude taken by the rest of the class towards the scholarship boy,
and so had contrived to find something for him to do in the chemistry
laboratory during the recess; and Horace was only too glad of the
change to do