of the boys grew alarmed, and all were glad to see
the boy open his eyes and the colour slowly return to his face. They
were outside the school premises when the incident occurred, and they
all took care to walk away as quickly as they could, lest the master's
attention should be called to the quarrel, and they be compelled to
give an account of it, which would not have been at all to their
taste, as they preferred to manage their own affairs in their own way,
with as little interference from the masters as possible in what they
regarded as their own private business.

Taylor was one of the first to walk off when he saw Warren was getting
better, and the rest, who had hoped to enjoy the spectacle of a fight,
were disappointed. There were plenty to urge Warren to 'take it out'
of Taylor another day, and plenty more to side with the bigger lad,
and urge him to 'have it out' with Warren for his 'cheek' in daring to
dispute the authority of the majority of the class, and speak to the
scholarship boy when he had been sent to Coventry.

Leonard Morrison was one of the foremost in urging Taylor to fight it
out.

'The school expects it of you,' urged Leonard. 'He said your father
was----'

'Shut up, will you!' snarled Taylor, turning his angry gaze upon
Leonard. 'If he has taken that fellow out of Coventry, it was a plucky
thing to do in the face of the whole class, and I like pluck,' he
added, 'though I may get the kicks.'

It was plain that 'the cock of the walk' was seriously hurt or alarmed
by what Warren had said, for he ceased to crow as loudly as usual, and
walked home without noticing what his satellites said, his eyes bent
on the ground, and evidently lost in thought over something that
disturbed him more than the prospect of a fight with Warren.

Of course, as this was the latest phase of the scholarship boy
question, it occupied more of the thought and attention than the
earlier question; and so Horace walked into school the next morning
chatting with one or two others, and no protesting hisses were
raised.

It was noticed that Warren was not with him, and he looked round
anxiously from time to time in search of his friend. But the day
passed, and he did not appear, and the boys' spirits were damped a
little in consequence, for they remembered now that they had heard
that a blow on the head might prove dangerous to Warren.

But, to the relief of everybody, the two friends were seen coming
along the road to