be got, and a supper of sausages, kidneys, and beef-steak pies to
all the rebels. Light come, light go; they wouldn't have been
comfortable with money in their pockets in the middle of the half.

The embers of Flashman's wrath, however, were still smouldering, and
burst out every now and then in sly blows and taunts, and they both felt
that they hadn't quite done with him yet. It wasn't long, however,
before the last act of that drama came, and with it, the end of bullying
for Tom and East at Rugby. They now often stole out into the Hall at
nights, incited thereto, partly by the hope of finding Diggs there and
having a talk with him, partly by the excitement of doing something
which was against rules; for, sad to say, both of our youngsters, since
their loss of character for steadiness in their form, had got into the
habit of doing things which were forbidden, as a matter of adventure;
just in the same way, I should fancy, as men fall into smuggling, and
for the same sort of reasons. Thoughtlessness in the first place. It
never occurred to them to consider why such and such rules were laid
down; the reason was nothing to them; and they only looked upon rules as
a sort of challenge from the rule-makers, which it would be rather bad
pluck in them not to accept; and then again, in the lower parts of the
school they hadn't enough to do. The work of the form they could manage
to get through pretty easily, keeping a good enough place to get their
regular yearly remove; and not having much ambition beyond this, their
whole superfluous steam was available for games and scrapes. Now, one
rule of the House which it was a daily pleasure of all such boys to
break, was that after supper all fags, except the three on duty in the
passages, should remain in their own studies until nine o'clock; and if
caught about the passages or Hall, or in one another's studies, they
were liable to punishments or caning. The rule was stricter than its
observance; for most of the sixth spent their evenings in the fifth-form
room, where the library was, and the lessons were learnt in common.
Every now and then, however, a praepostor would be seized with a fit of
district visiting, and would make a tour of the passages and Hall and
the fags' studies. Then, if the owner were entertaining a friend or two,
the first kick at the door and ominous "Open here," had the effect of
the shadow of a hawk over a chicken-yard; every one cut to cover--one
small boy di