and though still remaining a
stanch Thurstonian, refrained from making himself aggressively obnoxious
to the Triple Alliance. The hatchet had been buried for nearly a
fortnight when an event happened which caused Ronleigh College to be
once more convulsed with excitement and party feeling--a certain air of
mystery which pervaded the whole affair tending to considerably increase
the interest which the occurrence itself awakened.

Allingford had not, perhaps, been altogether wise in his choice of Lucas
as keeper of the reading-room. The latter was a studious, hard-working
boy in the Fifth, whose parents were known to be in comparatively poor
circumstances, and the captain had named him in preference to Ferris,
thinking that the guinea which was given as remuneration to the holder
of this post, as well as to the two librarians, would be specially
acceptable to one who seldom had the means to purchase the books which
he longed to possess.

The duties of the keeper of the reading-room were to receive and take
charge of the papers and magazines, to keep the accounts, and to be
nominally responsible for the order of the room. I say nominally, as
the law relating to absolute silence was never actually enforced; and as
long as the members amused themselves in a reasonably quiet manner, and
without turning the place into a bear-garden, they were allowed to
converse over their games of chess or draughts, and exchange their
opinions on the news of the day.

Lucas was, if one may say it, a little too conscientious in the
execution of his duties, and rather apt to be fussy and a trifle
overbearing in his manner. He posted copies of the rules on each of the
four walls of the room, and insisted on decorous behaviour and perfect
silence. The consequence was that he soon became the butt of
innumerable jokes: fellows said they weren't in school, and meant to
enjoy themselves.

"Rats" hit on the idea of carrying in an old newspaper under his coat.
This he surreptitiously produced, and pretended to read as though it
belonged to the room. At a favourable moment, with an exclamation of,
"Well, this is a rotten paper!" he suddenly crunched the sheet up in his
hands and tore it into fifty pieces. Lucas, naturally imagining that
the property of the room was being destroyed, rushed up exploding with
wrath. An explanation followed, and the whole assembly went off into
fits of merriment, at the latter's expense.

By the time this tri