it guiltily, and, lifting the slanting desk which stood
there, examined the surface below. Dick had been perfectly correct.
There it was, glaringly fresh and distinct, not large but very deeply
cut and fearfully legible. "R. Bultitude." It might have been done that
day. Dick had probably performed it out of bravado, or under the
impression that he was not going to return after the holidays.

Paul dropped the desk over the fatal letters with a shudder. The
slightest accidental shifting of it must disclose them--nothing but a
miracle could have kept them concealed so long. When they did come to
light, he knew from what he had seen of the Doctor, that the act would
be considered as an outrage of the blackest and most desperate kind. He
would most unquestionably get a flogging for it!

He fetched a large pewter ink-pot, and tried nervously to blacken the
letters with the tip of a quill, to make them, if possible, rather less
obtrusive than they were. All in vain; they only stood out with more
startling vividness when picked out in black upon the brown-stained
deal. He felt very like a conscience-stricken murderer trying to hide a
corpse that _wouldn't_ be buried. He gave it up at last, having only
made a terrible mess with the ink.

That settled it. He must fly. The flogging must be avoided at all
hazards. If an opportunity delayed its coming, why, he must do without
the opportunity--he must make one. For good or ill, his mind was made up
now for immediate flight.

All that afternoon, while he sat trying to keep his mind upon long sums
in Bills of Parcels, which disgusted him as a business man, by the
glaring improbability of their details, his eye wandered furtively down
the long tables to where the Doctor sat at the head of the class. Every
chance movement of the principal's elbow filled him with a sickening
dread. A hundred times did those rudely carved letters seem about to
start forth and denounce him.

It was a disquieting afternoon for Paul.

But the time dragged wearily on, and still the desk loyally kept its
secret. The dusk drew on and the gas-burners were lit. The younger boys
came up from the lower class-room and were sent out to play; the Doctor
shortly afterwards dismissed his own class to follow them, and Paul and
his companions had the room to themselves.

He sat there on the rough form with his slate before him, hearing
half-unconsciously the shouts, laughter, and ring of feet coming up from
the dar