mutiny against. But now, even
this luxury was denied them.

Naturally the wrath of Clapperton and his friends fell on the traitors
in their own camp whose presence at the meeting had made it impossible
to discredit it as entirely one-sided in its composition.

That Corder would go, every one was prepared for. He had laid up for
himself yet one more rod in pickle, and should punctually taste its
quality.

But the mutiny of the juniors was a surprise. No one imagined that
their threats at revolt were anything more than the ordinary bluster in
which these young braves notoriously dealt. Had they sinned in
ignorance it would have mattered less. But they had gone to the meeting
in deliberate defiance of their captain's order, and in the face of his
warning as to what the consequences of disobedience would be.

The discipline of the house was at an end if a flagrant act of
insubordination like this was to be allowed to pass unnoticed. Besides,
if allowed to spread, other fellows would go over to the enemy, and the
"moral" effect of the strike would be at an end.

A peremptory summons was therefore dispatched to Percy and his friends
to appear before the prefects of their house that same evening.

"That all?" inquired Percy of the middle-boy who brought the message.
"We hear you. You needn't stop."

"I'll tell him you'll come?" said the messenger.

"I don't mind what you tell him. Cut out of our room, that's all. We
aren't particular, me and my chaps; but we draw the line at louts."

"He says if you don't come--"

"What's to prevent him saying anything he likes? Look here, young
Gamble," (Gamble was at least two years the senior of any boy present),
"if you don't cut your sticks, they'll be cut for you. So there."

Gamble gave a general invitation to the party to come and try to tamper
with his sticks, and departed with a final caution as to the
desirability of obeying their captain.

"Lick," said Percy, when he had gone, "how much grub have we got in the
room?"

"What are you talking about? You aren't hungry surely, after that go-in
at the shop?"

"Have we got enough for two days?"

The party opened their eyes, and began to suspect the drift of the
inquiry.

"No; but Maynard owes us a loaf, and Spanker some butter, and those kids
in Reynolds' study half a tongue."

"All right; go out and get it all in, sharp. Scrape up all you can."

"What, are we going to have a blockade?"

"Rather. Yo