ine, my boy. By Jove, I _am_ glad to get them again."

"_Cave_ there! Westover!" called some one near him. And, as if by
magic, the passage was empty in a moment, our heroes being the last to
scuttle into their dormitory, with Aspinall between them.

Dick lay awake for some time that night. He was excited, and
considered, on the whole, he had made a fair start at Templeton. He had
won the new boys' race, and he was the whipper-in-elect of the Templeton
Harriers. Fellows respected him; possibly a good many of them feared
him. Certainly, they let him alone.

"For all that," meditated he, "it won't do to get cocked up by it.
Father said I was to be on my guard against fellows who flattered me, so
I must keep my eyes open, or some one will be trying to make a fool of
me. If Cresswell's a nice fellow, I'll have a talk with him to-morrow
about young Aspinall, and see if we can't do anything to give him a leg
up, poor young beggar. I wonder if I'm an ass to accept the whipping-in
so easily? Any how, I suppose I can resign if it's too much grind.
Heigho! I'm sleepy."

CHAPTER SIX.

HOW OUR HEROES BEGIN TO FEEL AT HOME.

Heathcote awoke early the next morning with his friend the junior
seriously on his mind. One or two fellows were already dressing
themselves in flannels as he roused himself, amongst others the young
hero who had threatened to fight him the evening before.

"Hallo!" said that young gentleman, in a friendly tone, as if nothing
but the most cordial courtesies had passed between them, "coming down to
bathe?"

"All serene," said Heathcote, not, however, without his suspicions. If
any one had told him it was a fine morning, he would, in his present
state of mind, have suspected the words as part of a deep-laid scheme to
fool him. But, he reflected, he had not much to fear from this mock-
heroic junior, and as long as he kept him in sight no great harm could
happen.

"Come on, then," said the boy, whose name, by the way, was Gosse; "we
shall only just have time to do it before chapel."

"Wait a second, till I tell Dick. He'd like to come, too," said
Heathcote.

"What's the use of waking him when he's fagged? Besides, he's got to
wash and dress his baby, and give him his bottle, so he wouldn't have
time. Aren't you ready?"

"Yes," said Heathcote, flinging himself into his hardly-regained
garments.

The "Templeton Tub," as the bathing place was colloquially termed, was a
small natu