each sanctuary before the other two could overtake him;
but he soon discovered that the gate was shut fast, and all his efforts
would not bring him within reach of the bell-handle--he was too short.

So he sat down on the doorstep in resigned despair, and waited for his
enemies. Behind the gate was a large many-windowed house, with steps
leading up to a portico. In the playground to his right the school
gymnasium, a great gallows-like erection, loomed black and grim through
the mist, the night wind favouring the ghastliness of its appearance by
swaying the ropes till they creaked and moaned weirdly on the hooks, and
the metal stirrups clinked and clashed against one another in irregular
cadence.

He had no time to observe more, as Coker and Coggs joined him, and, on
finding he had not rung the bell, seized the occasion to pummel him at
their leisure before announcing their arrival.

Then the gate was opened, and the three--the revengeful pair assuming an
air of lamb-like inoffensiveness--entered the hall and were met by Mrs.
Grimstone.

"Why, here you are!" she said, with an air of surprise, and kissing them
with real kindness. "How cold you look! So you actually had to walk. No
cabs as usual. You poor boys! come in and warm yourselves. You'll find
all your old friends in the schoolroom."

Mr. Bultitude submitted to be kissed with some reluctance, inwardly
hoping that Dr. Grimstone might never hear of it.

Mrs. Grimstone, it may be said here, was a stout, fair woman, not in the
least intellectual or imposing, but with a warm heart, and a way of
talking to and about boys that secured her the confidence of mothers
more effectually, perhaps, than the most polished conversation and
irreproachable deportment could have done.

She did not reserve her motherliness for the reception room either, as
some schoolmasters' wives have a tendency to do, and the smallest boy
felt less homesick when he saw her.

She opened a green baize outer door, and the door beyond it, and led
them into a long high room, with desks and forms placed against the
walls, and a writing table, and line of brown-stained tables down the
middle. Opposite the windows there was a curious structure of shelves
partitioned into lockers, and filled with rows of shabby schoolbooks.

The room had been originally intended for a drawing-room, as was evident
from the inevitable white and gold wall-paper and the tarnished gilt
beading round the doors and window