y pounded over ploughed fields and the day dragged
slowly on to its weary close and two hundred very tired privates at last
fell into a six-fifty train.

Two days later a notice was brought round by the school _custos_: "Roll
for all those who went to Salisbury Plain on Wednesday in the big
schoolroom at six P.M." There is nothing quite so enjoyable as
the sensation that a big row is on, in which you yourself have no part.
Gordon trembled with excitement. He whispered excitedly to the man on
his left, Lidderdale, a man in Rogers': "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much. Some silly ass put his bayonet through a carriage
window. Rogers was gassing about it in the dormitories last night."

"Oh!" said Gordon. Very disappointedly he returned to his academic
activities. He had had hopes of some splendid row, and after all, it was
only about a silly ass and a bayonet. Rotten! Fancy being made late for
tea because of that. But, as it turned out, his hopes were satisfied.
When he reached the big schoolroom, everything certainly looked most
formal. In front of the big dais where the choir stood during the
concerts sat all the masters in a half-circle. The Chief sat in the
centre.

"Are they all here, Udal?" the Chief asked the senior sergeant.

"Yes, sir."

The Chief rose.

"I have to address you to-night on a very serious subject. During the
field day last Wednesday, someone in this room disgraced not only his
school, but the King's uniform. An officer from another school has
written to tell me that he overheard two of you talking outside the
canteen in language that would disgrace a costermonger. I sincerely wish
he had taken their names at once. As it is, I do not know their names.
The officer in question said that both boys were over seventeen, and
that the shorter of the two said nothing at all, as far as he could
hear. Now I want the names of both those boys. If they own up to me
to-night, I shall most certainly deal very severely with one at least of
them. If they do not come to me of their own free will, I may be forced
to ask the officer to come down and identify the boys, in which case
both will from that instant cease to be members of Fernhurst School."

In a state of high excitement the school poured down to tea.

"I bet it's someone in Christy's," said Bradford.

Christy believed in leaving his house entirely to his prefects. It was a
good way of avoiding responsibility; but his choice of prefects was not
altoge