nger
which might at some future meeting have been once more fanned into a
flame.

Grundy disappeared round the corner of the building; but Allingford
remained for a moment or two, watching Jack Vance as he fastened on his
collar and resumed his coat.

"Well, what was the row about?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Nonsense; fellows don't fight for nothing. What was it? Any great
secret?"

"Oh no," answered Jack, laughing: "it began about that lot of verses
that was pinned upon the notice-board this morning. Grundy said
Thurston was turned out of the team, and I said he wasn't."

The captain smiled thoughtfully, and going down on one knee examined the
wounded cheek. "Put some cold water to it," he said, and then walked
away.

That look was worth fifty bruises, and for it Jack would have continued
the fight with Grundy to the bitter end. Diggory and Mugford fell upon
his neck, and were loud in their declarations that in another round
their champion would have "knocked the stuffing out" of his opponent.
That this would really have been the case is, as I remarked before,
rather doubtful; but one fact is certain--that the conflict caused the
three friends to be more firmly established than ever in their loyalty
to the side of law and order.

For a couple of days fellows continued to talk about the skit on the
eleven, and to hazard guesses as to who was the writer. As the
majority, however, pronounced it "a dirty shame," and spoke of the
author as "some mean skunk," the poet wisely concluded to conceal his
identity, and by the end of the week the matter was, for the time being,
practically forgotten.

CHAPTER XV.

THE READING-ROOM RIOT.

Thurston followed up his withdrawal from the football team by a number
of other actions which clearly showed a determination to spend what was
known to be his last term at Ronleigh in living at open enmity with
those who had once been his friends and associates. He never played
unless it was in one of the rough-and-ready practice games, composed
chiefly of stragglers, who, from being kept in and various other causes,
were too late for the regular pick-ups, and came drifting on to the
field later in the afternoon. He severed his connection with the
debating society, and shunning the society of his comrades in the Sixth,
was seen more frequently than ever hobnobbing with Gull and Hawley, or
lounging about in conversation with Noaks and Mouler.

Fletcher senior, a mean, double-