door and shoved them out, but unfortunately the Sub-Warden, who had
a habit of being in the wrong place, was standing outside the room, and
Lambert, who most certainly looked upon him as an old friend, put an
arm round him, and hurried him at break-neck speed down the stairs.
Webb followed, and when I got into the quadrangle he was on one side of
the Subby and Lambert on the other.

They were persuading him to dance. I tried to seize Lambert, while
Ward went for Webb; but as I did so they suddenly released their man,
and instead of grabbing Lambert I got my arm entangled in the Subby's.
I let it go quickly, but he recognized me, and said something about a
disgraceful occurrence. It would have been giving Lambert and Webb
away to tell him that I was acting the part of rescuer, so I stood
looking at him, while Ward drove the other two men out of the
quadrangle. As he did not say anything I expressed a hope that he was
not hurt, but it was more from a wish to prove myself sober than from
any anxiety as to his condition that I made the remark. I thought he
understood this, for he neither answered nor wished me good-night when
he went back to his staircase. I was afraid he had been considerably
jolted and was not quite himself. I turned round after watching him
out of sight, and found Murray standing by my side.

"You had better come to bed," he said, and his tone suggested that I
was incapable of looking after myself, so I told him that I was as
sober as a judge.

"I waited up for you," he said.

"To see if you could be of any use, I suppose," I asked ungraciously.

"And when Lambert and Webb began to shout the back quad down, I came
out to see what had happened. What were you talking to the Subby
about?"

"Our arms got interlocked," I replied, as we walked over to our
staircase. "The fact is the Subby ought to go to bed in decent time."

"He could hardly be expected to sleep with a wine going on in the rooms
below him."

"I forgot all about that."

"And so apparently did everybody else who was there, though I should
have thought the scout would have warned Collier."

"Dennison managed the whole thing, I said, and you can thank your stars
you can go to bed without the prospect of a row and a thundering
headache."

Then I went into my room and sported my oak, for the rumblings of
Lambert and Webb could still be heard in the quadrangle.

CHAPTER VI

JACK WARD AND DENNISON

The morning followin