eres."

"I wish I knew how. I see no chance whatever, unless--" and here a
brilliant idea suddenly struck him--"unless I get the Nightingale. Of
course; I say, Cripps, will you wait till September?"

"What! Three months! And how do you suppose I'm to find bread to eat
till then?" exclaimed Mr Cripps.

"Oh, do!" said Loman. "I'm certain to be able to pay then. I forgot
all about the Nightingale."

"The Nightingale? It must be an uncommon spicy bird to fetch in thirty
pound!"

"It's not a bird," said Loman, laughing; "it's a scholarship."

"A what?"

"A scholarship. I'm in for an exam, you know, and whoever's first gets
fifty-pounds a year for three years."

"But suppose you ain't first? what then?"

"Oh, but I'm _sure_ to be. I've only got Fifth Form fellows against me,
and I'm certain to beat them!"

"Well," said Mr Cripps, "I don't so much care about your nightingales
and cock-sparrows and scholarships, and all them traps, but I'd like to
oblige you."

"Oh, thank you!" cried Loman, delighted, and feeling already as if the
debt was paid. "And you'll get your friend to wait too, won't you?"

"Can't do that. I shall have to square up with him and look to you for
the lot, and most likely drop into the workhouse for my pains."

"Oh, no. You can be quite certain of getting the money."

"Well, blessed if I ain't a easy-going cove," said Mr Cripps, with a
grin. "It ain't every one as 'ud wait three months on your poll-parrot
scholarships, or whatever you call 'em. Come, business is business.
Give us your promise on a piece of paper--if you must impose upon me."
Loman, only too delighted, wrote at Mr Cripps's dictation a promise to
pay the thirty pounds, together with five pounds interest, in September,
and quitted the Cockchafer with as light a heart as if he had actually
paid off every penny of the debt.

"Of course I'm safe to get it! Why ever didn't I think of that before?
Won't I just work the rest of the term! Nothing like having an object
when you're grinding."

With this philosophical reflection he re-entered Saint Dominic's, and
unobserved rejoined the spectators in the cricket-field, just in time to
witness a very exciting finish to a fiercely contested encounter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

SIXTH VERSUS SCHOOL.

Never had a Sixth versus School Match been looked forward to with more
excitement at Saint Dominic's than the present one. Party feeling had
been running high all the ter