chance. You see I can always make him hop with
some more poetry. He can't report me to the Head, because it makes him
ridiculous. (Stalky's quite right.) But he shall have his chance."

Beetle opened the book on the table, ran his finger down a page, and
began at random:

"Or who in Moscow toward the Czar
With the demurest of footfalls,
Over the Kremlin's pavement white
With serpentine and syenite,
Steps with five other generals--"

"That's no good. Try another," said Stalky.

"Hold on a shake; I know what's coming." McTurk was reading over
Beetle's shoulder.

"That simultaneously take snuff,
For each to have pretext enough
And kerchiefwise unfold his sash,
Which--softness' self--is yet the stuff

(Gummy! What a sentence!)

To hold fast where a steel chain snaps
And leave the grand white neck no gash.

(Full stop.)"

"'Don't understand a word of it," said Stalky.

"More fool you! Construe," said McTurk. "Those six bargees scragged the
Czar, and left no evidence. _Actum est_ with King."

"He gave me that book, too," said Beetle, licking his lips:

"There's a great text in Galatians,
Once you trip on it entails
Twenty-nine distinct damnations,
One sure if another fails."

Then irrelevantly:

"Setebos! Setebos! and Setebos!
Thinketh he liveth in the cold of the moon."

"He's just come in from dinner," said Dick Four, looking through the
window. "Manders minor is with him."

"'Safest place for Manders minor just now," said Beetle.

"Then you chaps had better clear out," said Stalky politely to the
visitors. "'Tisn't fair to mix you up in a study row. Besides, we can't
afford to have evidence."

"Are you going to begin at once?' said Aladdin.

"Immediately, if not sooner," said Stalky, and turned out the gas.
"Strong, perseverin' man--King. Make him cry 'Capivi.' G'way, Binjimin."

The company retreated to their own neat and spacious study with
expectant souls.

"When Stalky blows out his nostrils like a horse," said Aladdin to the
Emperor of China, "he's on the war-path. 'Wonder what King will get."

"Beans," said the Emperor. "Number Five generally pays in full."

"Wonder if I ought to take any notice of it officially," said Abanazar,
who had just remembered he was a prefect.

"It's none of your business, Pussy. Besides, if you did, we'd have them
hostile to us; and we shouldn't be able to do any work," said Aladdin.
"They've begun alre