cast
down by our troubles. I wish I could help him to a little of the
ballast he so greatly needs. But, although I am the master of this
house, I seem scarcely ever to see him. I hear him, though. I hear him
this minute. He and his chum occupy the room over me, and when they
execute a war dance--which occurs on an average six times a day--it
makes me tremble for my ceiling. I have a notion Arthur spends his
weekly allowance rather recklessly, and am thinking of suggesting to
your father that a reduction might be judicious," etcetera, etcetera.

Had Railsford guessed, as he wrote these rather despondent lines, that
his youthful kinsman in the room above was hugging himself for his own
astuteness in tracking out his (Railsford's) villainy, he might perhaps
have regarded the situation of affairs as still less cheerful. As it
was, after the first discovery, the hope had begun to dawn upon the
Master of the Shell, as it had already dawned on Barnworth, that some
good might even result from the present misfortunes of the house. And
as the days passed, he became still more confirmed in the hope, and,
with his usual sanguine temper, thought he could see already Railsford's
house starting on a new career and turning its troubles to credit.

Alas! Mark Railsford had rough waters still to pass through. And the
house, before it was to start on its new career, had several little
affairs to wind up and dispose of.

Among others, the Central Criminal Court Assizes were coming on, and the
boys were summoned, "at their peril," not to fail in appearing on the
occasion.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

A "CAUSE CELEBRE."

Wake, of the Fifth, was one of those restless, vivacious spirits who,
with no spare time on their hands, contrive to accomplish as much as any
ordinary half-dozen people put together. He formed part of the much-
despised band of fellows in his form contemptuously termed "muggers."
In other words, he read hard, and took no part in the desultory
amusements which consumed the odd moments of so many in the house. And
yet he was an excellent cricketer and runner, as the school was bound to
acknowledge whenever it called out its champions to do battle for it in
the playing-fields.

More than that, if anyone wanted anything doing in the way of literary
sport--in the concoction of a squib or the sketching of a caricature--
Wake was always ready to take the work upon himself, and let who liked
take the credit. He had a