n on the way. Suddenly, however, the House tutor
shouted from the top of the stairs, "Lights out in the upper dormitories
by nine-thirty," and the procession moved upstairs.

The upper dormitories in the School House were, like most other school
dormitories, a dismal spectacle. There was a long passage running down
from the House tutor's room, and on the left were doors leading into
long, bare rooms, with the usual red-quilted beds and the usual
wash-hand basins. On the right-hand side was the bathroom. The upper
dormitories were occupied by the smaller boys of the House. Once a
prefect had been put in charge over each room, but the system did not
work very well, and soon came to an abrupt end, so that there was only
the House tutor to keep them in order till the prefects went to bed in
the lower dormitories an hour later; and then any sound was promptly
dealt with. Gordon had been placed in the largest room, which was known
as "the nursery." It contained ten beds, and only four of its
inhabitants were of more than one term's standing. Among other less
enviable claims to fame, it had the reputation of being the finest
football-playing dormitory, and every night its members would race up
from supper to play their game before the House tutor came to put out
lights at nine-fifteen. The new boys took it in turns to keep "cave,"
and it must be owned that for the first few weeks the sentinel rather
preferred the role of onlooker to that of player, and found it hard to
sympathise with those who were continually flinging abuse at the huge
football crowds at Stamford Bridge. This night there was, of course,
hardly any ragging. There was so much to talk about, and some faint
interest was even taken in the new boys, for two very important-looking
young people, Turner and Roberts, swaggered into the dormitories "just
to have a squint at the new kids," but after a casual inspection Turner
said in a lordly manner, "Good lord! what a crew," and the pair sought
better things elsewhere. Turner and Roberts were very insignificant
people during the daytime: they were little use at games, and even a
year's spasmodic cribbing had only managed to secure them a promotion
from the Second Form to the Third. But when the evening came they were
indeed great men, and ruled over a small dormitory that contained,
besides themselves, only four new boys who looked up to them as gods and
hung on their every word.

But very soon the wanderings of these