te heat, "I've stood a lot
from you this term--a jolly lot. I've done your dirty work, and--"

"What do you mean? What dirty work have I asked you to do?"

"Plenty that you've not had the pluck to do yourself."

"I dare you to repeat it, you liar!"

"You shall do your own in future, I know that."

"Dangle, hold your tongue, you cad!"

"I shall do nothing of the kind, you snob!"

Whereupon ensued the most wonderful spectacle of the half, a fight
between Clapperton and Dangle. It was nearly dark, and no one was
about, and history does not record how it ended. But in Hall that night
both appeared with visages suspiciously marred, and it was noted by many
an observant eye that diplomatic relations between the two were
suspended.

But while old friends had thus been falling out on Rollitt's account,
old enemies had on the same grounds been making it up.

The juniors having recovered of their colds, and finding themselves once
more in the full possession of their appetite, their liberty, and their
spirits, celebrated their convalescence by a general _melee_ in Percy's
room, under the specious pretext of a committee meeting of the shop-
directors. This business function being satisfactorily concluded, they
turned their attention to the condition of things in general.

That Fellsgarth should have got itself into a regular mess during their
enforced retirement caused them no surprise. What else could any one
expect?

But that any one should dare to suspect and make things hot for a fellow
without consulting _them_, caused them both pain and astonishment. It
quite slipped their memories that not long since some of them had been
glad enough to listen to disparaging talk about the School hermit. That
was a detail. On the whole they had stuck to him, and they meant to
stick to him now!

Many things were in his favour. He had won a goal for the School. He
had dispensed with his right to a fag, and had let the juniors of all
grades generally alone. He was on nodding terms with Fisher minor, one
of their lot. He had come up Hawk's Pike at much personal inconvenience
to look for them. And he had been a customer to the extent of six
Abernethys at the School shop.

For all these reasons (which were quite apart from party considerations)
it was decided _nem. con_. that Rollitt was a "good old sort" and must
be stuck by.

Whereupon the nine of them sallied out arm in arm across the Green, on
the look-out for