en out
come dozens of books."

"Well, Wright," said Montagu, "if that happens again next examination,
I'd speak out about it."

"How?"

"Why, I'd get every fellow who disapproves of it to give me his name,
and get up and read the list, and say that you at least have pledged
yourselves not to do it."

"Humph! I don't know how that would answer. They'd half kill me for
one thing."

"Never mind; do your duty. I wish I'd such an opportunity, if only to
show how sorry I am for my own past unfairness."

And so talking, the four went in, and the two elder went to their study.

It was too true that drinking had become a common vice at Roslyn School.
Accordingly, when Eric came in with Wildney about half an hour after,
Owen and Montagu heard them talk about ordering some brandy, and then
arrange to have a "jollification," as they called it, that evening.

They got the brandy through "Billy." One of Brigson's most cursed
legacies to the school was the introduction of this man to a nefarious
intercourse with the boys. His character was so well-known that it had
long been forbidden, under the strictest penalty, for any boy ever to
speak to him; yet, strange to say, they seemed to take a pleasure in
doing so, and just now particularly, it was thought a fine thing, a sign
of "pluck" and "anti-muffishness," to be on familiar and intimate terms
with that degraded and villainous scoundrel.

Duncan had made friends again with Eric; but he did not join him in his
escapades and excesses, and sat much in other studies. He had not been
altogether a good boy, but yet there was a sort of rough honesty and
good sense in him which preserved him from the worst and most dangerous
failings, and his character had been gradually improving as he mounted
higher in the school. He was getting steadier, more diligent, more
thoughtful, more manly; he was passing through that change so frequent
in boys as they grow older, to which Eric was so sad an exception.
Accordingly Duncan, though sincerely fond of Eric, had latterly
disapproved vehemently of his proceedings, and had therefore taken to
snubbing his old friend Wildney, in whose favour Eric seemed to have an
infatuation, and who was the means of involving him in every kind of
impropriety and mischief. So that night Duncan, hearing of what was
intended, sat in the next study, and Eric, with Ball, Wildney, Graham,
and Pietrie, had the room to themselves. Several of them were lower
boy