." 66

"Nestie whispered something in Speug's ear." 92

"Speug was dragged along the walk." 96

"They were so friendly that they gathered
round the party." 114

"They were brought in a large spring cart." 118

"Watching a battle royal between the tops." 134

"Before the hour the hall was packed." 158

"Thomas John next instant was sitting on the floor." 170

"The school fell over benches and over another." 174

"His hand closed again upon the sceptre of authority." 202

"They drank without any cup." 218

"Before him stood London John bearing the seductive
advertisement." 240

"A bottle of ferocious smelling-salts was held
to the patient's nose." 252

"SPEUG"

I

Muirtown Seminary was an imposing building of the classical order,
facing the north meadow and commanding from its upper windows a fine
view of the river Tay running rapidly and cleanly upon its gravel bed.
Behind the front building was the paved court where the boys played
casual games in the breaks of five minutes between the hours of study,
and this court had an entrance from a narrow back street along which, in
snow time, a detachment of the enemy from the other schools might steal
any hour and take us by disastrous surprise. There were those who wished
that we had been completely walled up at the back, for then we had met
the attack at a greater advantage from the front. But the braver souls
of our commonwealth considered that this back way, affording
opportunities for ambushes, sallies, subtle tactics, and endless
vicissitudes, lent a peculiar flavour to the war we waged the whole
winter through and most of the summer, and brought it nearer to the
condition of Red Indian fighting, which was our favourite reading and
our example of heroism. Again and again we studied the adventures of
Bill Biddon, the Indian spy, not only on account of his hairbreadth
escapes when he eluded the Indians after a miraculous fashion and
detected the presence of the red varmint by the turning of a leaf on the