king when we
were all hanging together, but it's quite a different thing if some of
them are going to back out. You can take me off the list of strikers
too."

"Are you going to be a coward as well?" said Dorothy sneeringly. But
it was too late. The defection started by Gerry spread rapidly. Since
the morning, the strike, which had at first seemed to be merely a more
or less harmless rag, had begun to appear in its right light, and the
hearts of the Lower Fifth were no longer in the business. Several
members of the form were glad to find an excuse for backing out of
their contract, and soon some nine or ten of the girls had retracted
their vows of defiance.

"Oh, well, of course, if you're _all_ going to funk it, it's no good
going on with it at all," said Dorothy sulkily. "We've all got to hang
together or, of course, it's no use. I should have thought you'd have
been ashamed to follow the example of a German Gerry, though!" she
added, with biting sarcasm, as she cast a look of malevolence at Gerry.

Then her eyes fell upon Jack, who was still lingering hesitatingly by
Gerry's desk, and the sight spurred her on to make one more spiteful
thrust at Gerry.

"There's _one_ thing, Gerry Wilmott, you may as well understand right
away. _You're_ not going to gain anything by what you've done
to-night. You may have broken our strike,--no strike can stand out
against a blackleg,--but all the same, you'll wish you'd stayed in with
us before you've finished. I don't know what those _rabbits_ are going
to do," with a contemptuous glance towards Hilda and the other girls
who had seceded, "but I think I can answer for the rest of the form all
right. No decent girl in the Lower Fifth will ever speak to you again,
if they can help it."

She turned to Jack.

"Surely _you_ won't have anything more to do with such a rotten coward,
Jack?" she said contemptuously.

Jack looked down at Gerry. But Gerry's eyes were fixed miserably upon
her desk, and she did not see the questioning look upon the face of the
girl with whom she most longed to be friends. And while Jack still
lingered, Phyllis Tressider clinched matters.

"She's not only a coward--she's a sneak as well!" she said, glad to see
her enemy in such disgrace again. "I bet she let those chestnuts drop
out of her pocket yesterday on purpose to get you and Nita into a row."

"Oh, Phyllis, I didn't! Jack, it isn't true; I didn't do it on
purpose!" cried Gerry, di