tammered Plunger, not knowing what to
say.

"Otherwise engaged! Know this, Gargoyle with the wiry thatch, no
engagement should keep him from answering the call of the Mystic
Brethren. It shall be inquired into."

As he spoke, Plunger saw, with fear and trembling, that one of the
number had drawn from the box the weapons he so well remembered--the
sticks with bladders attached to the ends. He guessed what was coming,
and it came.

"Describe the Mystic Circle!" cried Mellor.

It was useless resisting. Down flopped Plunger on his knees and hands,
and crawled round the ring as quickly as possible three times, while the
bladders showered upon his head with amazing rapidity. Then the brethren
joined hands, and galloping wildly round him, repeated as before:

"Beetles of the Mystic Band
Wind we round thee, hand in hand;
Whene'er thou hear'st thy chieftain's call,
Rest not, pause not, hither crawl,
Or to the realms of Creepy-crawly,
Shivery-shaky we will haul thee."

And once again, to the strains of this extraordinary incantation,
Plunger was sent whirling about the ring from side to side, as though he
were an indiarubber ball. The last time two of them--Harry and
himself--divided honours; but this time Plunger had it all to himself.
Owing to this fact the brethren were able to give him their sole and
undivided attention, and they did it with such effect that Plunger began
to wonder whether he was himself or someone else.

"Dost thou like the Mystic Circle?" inquired Mellor, when they paused.

"Oh, y-y-yes," stammered Plunger, with a painful attempt to laugh, "very
much." And then he added quickly, as he saw the uplifted bladders ready
to descend: "But--but if you've got any more of it, you might keep it
for my brother novice."

"It shall be as thou askest, Gargoyle with the eyebrows," said Mellor.
"And now to business."

"To business? Do they call what I've just gone through pleasure?"
thought Plunger, as he waited in fear and trembling what was to come
next.

"Thou belongest to the Third Form?"

Plunger nodded.

"A wonderful scholar art thou, Gargoyle with the wiry thatch," was the
cutting comment.

"Oh, I could be much higher in the school," exclaimed Plunger, blushing
to the roots of the "wiry thatch"; "but I don't like the boys in the
upper Forms, you know. They put too much side on for me."

"You look a modest, retiring kind of fellow. That's the reason the
Mystic Brethren h