reply, but
somehow the words failed him, and turning on his heel he walked away to
his own study.

"Confound that fellow Fletcher!" he muttered between his teeth.
"He always takes precious good care to sneak away when there's any row
on. If it wasn't for that money I owe him, I'd punch his head."

Half an hour later there was a sharp rap at the door, and Allingford,
Oaks, and Acton entered the room.

"Well," said Thurston, looking up with a frown from the book he was
reading, "what d'you want now? I don't remember asking you fellows to
come and see me. A chap can't call his study his own nowadays."

"No," answered Acton grimly. "If a chap wants to work, a lot of
blackguards come and wreck his furniture."

"Look here, Thurston," said the captain coldly, "we've no wish to stay
here longer than we can help. We've come simply to tell you this--that
after what's happened to-night the prefects are determined that
to-morrow morning you send in your resignation to the doctor."

"And supposing I don't choose to send in my resignation?" returned the
other.

"Then," answered the captain calmly, "we shall send it in for you."

There was a moment's silence; then Thurston rose from his chair, and
closing his book flung it down with a bang upon the table.

"All right," he said; "I'll do it. You fellows have been set against me
from the first. I know all about it, and before I leave this place I'll
pay you out."

"I almost wish we'd left it till after the holidays," said Oaks, as the
three prefects walked down the passage.

"No," said Allingford firmly; "if we hesitate, and the fellows see it,
we're lost. It must be done at once."

"Well, perhaps so," answered Oaks; "but I'll tell you this--Thurston
means mischief. I wish he was going to leave. He won't forget this in
a hurry, and my belief is we shall hear more about it next term."

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ELECTIONS.

Thurston's resignation, as might have been expected, gave rise to a
considerable amount of excitement and conflicting opinion. Nearly every
boy in the school saw clearly that he was both unworthy and unfitted to
fulfil the duties of a prefect, but the peculiar circumstances under
which he had, as "Rats" put it, been given "notice to quit," caused a
large number of his schoolfellows to side with him, and condemn the
action of the captain. Only a few of the general public knew exactly
what the row had been. The Sixth Form authorities, refus