I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I said,
'I want to know if this is the bear-pit or the monkey-house.' My eye,
you should have seen them! I dropped down in a trice, and they all
rushed to the doors; but they couldn't lift the latch, because Mug and
Jack were holding fast to the stump. We waited a moment, and then let
go and ran for it. You may judge what happened next. It's a regular
sea of mud outside those gates. They all came rushing out together, and
I saw Noaks and Hogson go head first over the rope, and two or three
others fall flat on the top of them. It was a sight, I can tell you!"

"Yes, but that wasn't all," interrupted Jack Vance. "Bernard, one of
their big chaps, hopped over the rest and came after us. We ran for all
we were worth, but he collared me. Mugford went for him, and hung
on to his coat like a young bull-terrier, and got a smack on the nose;
and just then Diggory turned, and came prancing back, and ran his head
into the beggar's stomach, and that doubled him up, and so we all got
away. But," concluded the speaker, turning towards his wounded comrade,
"I never thought old Mug had so much grit in him before; he stuck to it
like a Briton!"

A demonstration of the most genuine enthusiasm followed this warlike
speech. Acton folded Diggory to his breast in a loving embrace, Shaw
and Morris stuffed the door-key down Mugford's back, while the remainder
of the company executed a war-dance round Jack Vance.

"My eye," cried the dux, "won't the Philistines be wild!
Fancy upsetting them in the mud, and knocking Bernard's wind out!
They won't be in a hurry to meddle with us again. Well done, Diggy!"

"It wasn't I alone," said the author of the enterprise; "we did it
between us--the Triple Alliance."

"Then three cheers for the Triple Alliance!" cried Acton.

The company shouted themselves hoarse, for every one felt that the
honour of The Birches had been retrieved, and that the day was still far
distant when they would be crushed beneath the iron heel of young Noaks,
or be exposed as an unresisting prey to the ravages of the wild hordes
of Horace House.

CHAPTER IV.

THE SUPPER CLUB.

As this story is to be a history of the Triple Alliance, and not of The
Birches, it will be necessary to pass over many things which happened
at the preparatory school, in order that full justice may be done to the
important parts played by our three friends in an epoch of strange and
sti