hat's all you did. Sit down, sir.--Lucas!"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you remember what boys were in the reading-room last night?"

"Yes, sir, but I don't think they were responsible for what happened; it
was done by others who came in from outside."

There was a silence.

"I ask once more," said the head-master, "what boys took part in this
disturbance? let them stand up!"

Once more young "Rats" alone pleaded guilty.

"Very well, then," continued the doctor sternly; "the whole school will
be punished: there will be no half-holiday on Wednesday afternoon, and
the reading-room will be closed for a fortnight.--Sit down, Rathson; you
are the only boy among the many who must have been connected with this
affair--the only one, I say, who has any sense of manliness or honour.
Write me a hundred lines, and bring them to me to-morrow morning."

The prospect of having to work on Wednesday afternoon caused, the boys
themselves to take up the doctor's inquiry, and the query, "Who did it?"
became the burning question of the hour.

The riot had evidently been carefully planned beforehand, and the plot
arranged in such a manner that those who took part in it might do so
without being recognized.

It was impossible to discover who really were the culprits, though the
majority of the boys put it down as having been done by "some of
'Thirsty's' lot," and as being a further proof of the latter's
well-known animosity towards Allingford, who had, of course, appointed
Lucas as keeper of the room.

"Look here!" said Diggory, accosting Fletcher Two in the playground:
"what made you tell us to come to the reading-room last night? How did
you know there was going to be a row?"

"I didn't," murmured the other warily. "All I knew was that they were
going to put 'Rats' in the 'stocks;' I hadn't the faintest idea there
was going to be such a fine old rumpus."

"Umph! hadn't you?" muttered Diggory, turning on his heel; "I know
better."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CIPHER LETTER.

The reading-room row, as it was called, had pretty well blown over, when
one morning Diggory accosted Jack Vance and Mugford, who were both
seated at the latter's desk, sharpening their knives on an oil-stone.

"I say, you fellows, look what I've found." As he spoke, he laid on the
desk a slip of paper; it was evidently a scrap torn out of some
exercise-book, and inscribed upon it were several lines of capital
letters, all jumbled together without any apparent