s with the discipline of the
house."

"It will never be right as long as Mr Bickers stays at Grandcourt,"
blurted Stafford; "he has a spite against everyone of our fellows."

"You forget you are talking of a colleague of mine, Stafford," said
Railsford, whom a sense of duty compelled to stand up even for a master
whom he felt to be an enemy. "I can't suppose one master would
willingly do anything to injure the house of another."

Ainger smiled in a manner which offended Railsford considerably.

"I am sorry to find," he said, rather more severely, "that my head boys,
who ought to aim at the good of their house, are parties to a feud
which, I am sure, can do nobody any good. I must say I had hoped better
things."

Ainger looked up quickly. "I am quite willing to resign the captaincy,
sir, if you wish it."

"By no means," said Railsford, a little alarmed at the length to which
his protest had carried him, and becoming more conciliatory. "All I
request is that you will do your best to heal the feud, so that we may
have no obstacle in the way of the order of our own house. You may
depend on me to co-operate in whatever tends in that direction, and I
look to you to take the lead in bringing the house up to the mark and
keeping it there."

At this particular juncture further conference was entirely suspended by
a most alarming and fiendish disturbance in the room above.

It was not an earthquake, for the ground beneath them neither shook nor
trembled; it was not a dynamite explosion, for the sounds were dull and
prolonged; it was not a chimney-stack fallen, for the room above was two
storeys from the roof. Besides, above the uproar rose now and then the
shrill yapping of a dog, and sometimes human voices mingled with the
din.

Railsford looked inquiringly at his prefects.

"What is that?" he said.

"Some one in the room above, sir," replied Barnworth. "It was Sykes'
study last term," added he, consulting Ainger. "Who's got it this
time?"

"Nobody said anything to me about it," said the house-captain.

"The room above this is occupied by Herapath and Oakshott," interposed
Railsford.

The captain made an exclamation.

"Did they get your leave, sir?"

"Not exactly; they told me they were going to have the study this term,
and I concluded it was all right. Is it not so?"

"They are Shell boys, and have no business on that floor. All the Shell
boys keep on the second floor. Of course, they'll say t