stly cold."

"Ye-es, but Mason's rooms were filled with rats every day we were out.
It took him a week to draw the inference," said McTurk. "He loathes
rats. 'Minute he let us go back the rats stopped. Mason's a little shy
of us now, but there was no evidence."

"Jolly well there wasn't," said Stalky, "when I got out on the roof and
dropped the beastly things down his chimney. But, look here--question
is, are our characters good enough just now to stand a study row?"

"Never mind mine," said Beetle. "King swears I haven't any."

"I'm not thinking of you," Stalky returned scornfully. "You aren't
going up for the Army, you old bat. I don't want to be expelled--and the
Head's getting rather shy of us, too."

"Rot!" said McTurk. "The Head never expels except for beastliness or
stealing. But I forgot; you and Stalky _are_ thieves--regular burglars."

The visitors gasped, but Stalky interpreted the parable with large
grins.

"Well, you know, that little beast Manders minor saw Beetle and me
hammerin' McTurk's trunk open in the dormitory when we took his watch
last month. Of course Manders sneaked to Mason, and Mason solemnly took
it up as a case of theft, to get even with us about the rats."

"That just put Mason into our giddy hands," said McTurk, blandly. "We
were nice to him, because he was a new master and wanted to win the
confidence of the boys. 'Pity he draws inferences, though. Stalky went
to his study and pretended to blub, and told Mason he'd lead a new life
if Mason would let him off this time, but Mason wouldn't. 'Said it was
his duty to report him to the Head."

"Vindictive swine!" said Beetle. "It was all those rats! Then _I_
blubbed, too, and Stalky confessed that he'd been a thief in regular
practice for six years, ever since he came to the school; and that I'd
taught him--_a la_ Fagin. Mason turned white with joy. He thought he had
us on toast."

"Gorgeous! Gorgeous!" said Dick Four. "We never heard of this."

"'Course not. Mason kept it jolly quiet. He wrote down all our
statements on impot-paper. There wasn't anything he wouldn't believe,"
said Stalky.

"And handed it all up to the Head, _with_ an extempore prayer. It took
about forty pages," said Beetle. "I helped him a lot."

"And then, you crazy idiots?" said Abanazar.

"Oh, we were sent for; and Stalky asked to have the 'depositions' read
out, and the Head knocked him spinning into a waste-paper basket. Then
he gave us eight cuts apiece