ve
seen what was going on--that if Providence was going to be tempted in
this fashion again, the matter would be brought before the Town Council.
The Count himself would have been faithfully dealt with had he not been
considered a helpless tool in the hands of Speug, who was now understood
to have filled the cup of his sins up to the brim. He might indeed have
been at last expelled from the Seminary, of which he was the chief
ornament, had it not been that the Count went to the Rector and
explained that the idea had been his from beginning to end, and that it
was with the utmost difficulty he could induce Speug even to be present.
For, as I said, the Count was a perfect gentleman, and always stood by
his friends through thick and thin; but the thrashing which Speug got
from Bulldog was monumental, and in preparation for it that ingenious
youth put on three folds of underclothing.

What Speug bitterly regretted, however, was not the punishment, which
was cheap at the money, but the loss of the next two items in his
programme. He had planned a boxing competition, in which the main
feature was to be a regular set-to between Dunc Robertson and himself,
to decide finally which was the better man, for they had fought six
times and the issue was still doubtful; and Speug, who had a profligate
genius outside the class-rooms, had also imagined a pony race with
hurdles; and as about twenty fellows, farmers' sons and others, had
ponies, of which they were always bragging, and Speug had the pick of
his father's stables, he modestly believed that the affair would be
worth seeing. When the hurdle race was forbidden, for which Speug had
already begun to make entries and to arrange weights with his father's
valuable assistance, he took the matter so much to heart that his health
gave way, and Mr. McGuffie senior had to take him to recruit at the
Kilmarnock Races, from which he returned in the highest spirits and full
of stories.

For some time after this painful incident the Count lay low and adopted
a deprecating manner when he met the fathers and mothers of Muirtown;
but he gave his friends to understand that his resources were not at an
end, and that he had a surprise in store for the Seminary. Speug ran
over every form of sport in casual conversation to discover what was in
the Count's mind, but he would not be drawn and grew more mysterious
every day. One Saturday evening in midsummer he took Speug and Nestie
into his confidence