peculiar triumphant dance on the part of the page, accompanied by the
waving of boot and blacking-brush, till, in his disgust, Slegge made a
rush at him from behind, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and ran
him rapidly to the boot-house, sent him flying in with a savage kick,
and banged the door after him.

"A blackguard!" he cried haughtily. "That's why our boots are not half
cleaned. How dare he! The dirty, contemptible scrub! The Doctor ought
to be told of this."

Slegge stood sniffing and snorting and glaring round fiercely at the
worshippers of the two heroes of the hour, who stood flushed and
worried, ready to beat a retreat to the dormitory.

But an end was put to their reception in a very unexpected way, for
Wrench suddenly made his appearance, looking very solemn as he hurried
off to the two lads with, "The Doctor wants to see you both, sirs,
directly, in the study."

Slegge's face lit up with a malicious grin.

"Haw, haw!" he laughed. "Three cheers, boys! The Doctor wants to see
them both in his study. Impositions! Hooray! Cheer, you little
beggars! Why don't you cheer?"

The adjuration fell flat, for not a boy uttered a sound, save one who
exclaimed, "Oh, what a shame!" and then went off to the cricket-field,
trying hard, poor little fellow! to suppress the natural desire to cry
out and sob, for Slegge had "fetched him," as he termed it, a sounding
slap upon the cheek, which echoed in the silence and cut the boy's lips
against a sharp white tooth.

"What's the Doctor want?" whispered Singh, as they followed the footman
into the house.

"A wigging, I'm afraid, gentlemen," said the man who heard his words.
"But don't you mind. You write out your lines and do your imposition
like men. It was fine! What you did this morning has made every one
think no end of you, and it will never be forgotten so long as this
'ere's a school."

A tap of the knuckles, which sounded hollow and strange, for they had
reached the study-door.

"Come in!" in the Doctor's deepest and most severe tones, and the next
moment the two boys were standing separated from their preceptor by the
large study-table, while he sat back in his revolving chair with his
finger-tips joined, frowning at them severely from beneath his up-pushed
gold-rimmed spectacles.

There was silence for quite a minute, and it was not the Doctor who
spoke first, but Glyn, who, under the impression that the Doctor was
deep in thought an