Next day the rumour spread round the school that a half-holiday was
going to be stopped, as no one had owned up.

"Safety," said Tester. "That means the chase is given up."

But the school, which, up to now, had treated the affair as a joke,
began to get annoyed. Tolerance and broadmindedness were all right as
long as their own interests were secure; but when it came to a
half-holiday being stopped because some blighter had not the decency to
own up----

"It's a scandal," said Fletcher, in front of the House studies. "First
this blighter does the school a lot of harm by swearing; and then he is
in too much of a funk to own up, and we get in a row for it. Man must be
a colossal swine."

He forgot that last night he had been treating the whole thing as a
joke. Rogers was passing by up the Headmaster's drive on the way to his
class-room, and overheard this outburst of righteous indignation. His
heart was rejoiced to see such a good moral tone in the school. As he
said in the common room: "It makes one proud to see what a sane,
unprejudiced view the school takes of this unsavoury incident."

Lovelace now hit on a great plan. "Let's organise a strike. Why should
we go into school to-morrow? If we can get enough to cut, we can't be
punished. Let's canvass."

The fiery cross of rebellion was flung down the study passages. With
lists of paper in their hands, Hunter, Mansell, Lovelace and Gordon
(Tester thought himself too big a blood for such a proceeding) dashed
into study after study urging their inhabitants to sign on for the great
strike.

"Come on, you men," Hunter said. "It is the idea of a lifetime. If
enough don't turn up, nothing can happen. You can't sack the whole
school."

A few bright rebels like Archie Fletcher signed on at once. Rudd, too,
thought it safer to put his name down. But the average person was more
cautious.

"How many have you got down?"

"Oh, about fifteen."

"Well, look here, if you get over fifty I'll join in."

As nearly everyone said this, the hopes of successful operations seemed
unlikely.

But still it all helped to disarm any trace of suspicion.

"I say, Ferguson, what do you think of all this?" said Mansell.

"I think a great creed has gone down. I shall no longer believe that
conscience and cowardice are synonymous; only conscience is the trade
name of the firm."

Mansell laughed. It was probably meant to be funny. He never quite
understood Ferguson. On the next afterno