they often offended); further, that they
were malignant in their dispositions, untrustworthy in their characters,
pernicious and revolutionary in their influences, abandoned to the
devils of wilfulness, pride, and a most intolerable conceit. Ninthly,
and lastly, they were to have a care and to be very careful.

They were careful, as only boys can be when there is a hurt to be
inflicted. They waited through one suffocating week till Prout and
King were their royal selves again; waited till there was a
house-match--their own house, too--in which Prout was taking part;
waited, further, till he had his pads in the pavilion and stood ready to
go forth. King was scoring at the window, and the three sat on a bench
without.

Said Stalky to Beetle: "I say, Beetle,_quis custodet ipsos custodes_?"

"Don't ask me," said Beetle. "I'll have nothin' private with you. Ye can
be as private as ye please the other end of the bench; and I wish ye a
very good afternoon."

McTurk yawned.

"Well, ye should ha' come up to the lodge like Christians instead o'
chasin' your--a-hem--boys through the length an' breadth of my covers.
_I_ think these house-matches are all rot. Let's go over to Colonel
Dabney's an' see if he's collared any more poachers."

That afternoon there was joy in Aves.

SLAVES OF THE LAMP

The music-room on the top floor of Number Five was filled with the
"Aladdin" company at rehearsal. Dickson Quartus, commonly known as Dick
Four, was Aladdin, stage-manager, ballet-master, half the orchestra, and
largely librettist, for the "book" had been rewritten and filled
with local allusions. The pantomime was to be given next week, in the
down-stairs study occupied by Aladdin, Abanazar, and the Emperor of
China. The Slave of the Lamp, with the Princess Badroulbadour and the
Widow Twankay, owned Number Five study across the same landing, so
that the company could be easily assembled. The floor shook to the
stamp-and-go of the ballet, while Aladdin, in pink cotton tights, a blue
and tinsel jacket, and a plumed hat, banged alternately on the piano and
his banjo. He was the moving spirit of the game, as befitted a senior
who had passed his Army Preliminary and hoped to enter Sandhurst next
spring.

Aladdin came to his own at last, Abanazar lay poisoned on the floor, the
Widow Twankay danced her dance, and the company decided it would "come
all right on the night."

"What about the last song, though?" said the Emperor,