the Gargoyles ought to be good enough for us."

"That's just where you're wrong, Mellor," answered Wyndham coolly.
"What's good enough for a Gargoyle isn't good enough for a Bede--is it,
Bedes?"

A murmur of ready assent went up at this appeal--from all except Mellor.

"You see, you are half a Gargoyle yourself, Mellor, or you would have
known that. You belong to the amphibia at present. When you've grown out
of that you will know better, won't he, Bedes?"

A laugh went up--from all except Mellor. The storm which had looked
threatening began to clear under the ready tact of Wyndham. Still, the
boys did not like the idea of letting Paul go scot-free.

"Yes, you'll know better than that by-and-by, Mellor," said the youth
addressed as Murrell. "Your education was neglected as a Gargoyle.
You'll improve as you go along. But, I say, Wyndham, what are you going
to do with the specimen you've got? You can't stick it in the museum,
you know. So turn it over to us again. We won't hurt it. We'll only give
it a run to the sand-pit, and a roll down. It will do it good. Eating
sand is better than eating dirt."

"Yes, hand him over," came in a chorus.

"No," came the decided answer, as Wyndham twined his arm in Paul's. "The
Gargoyle is my property."

"What are you going to do with him?" demanded Murrell.

"I want to have a little quiet talk with him, that's all."

What could Wyndham want with a little quiet talk with a Gargoyle? It
could only be for one purpose--to gather information which might be of
use to the Bedes in any future campaign against Garside. So the boys
reluctantly turned away, and left Wyndham and Paul together.

"Why have you come a second time to my help?" came in a choking voice
from Paul when they were alone.

"Really, I don't know," smiled Wyndham. "Does it matter much? Do you
mind?"

"Mind! After what happened at the sand-pit the other day. Mind! I would
rather have been under an obligation to any one than you."

"Do you mean it?" asked Wyndham, now quite grave.

"Of course I do. I was never more in earnest in my life. I had hoped to
clear off the debt that was between us, and now you have placed me in
your debt a second time."

"If you mean by debt that little service I was only too pleased to do
for you at the well, I thought it was quite cleared off."

"How?"

"By the service you did for me at the sand-pit the other day."

"You are mocking me?"

"I was never more serious in my life,