self-measurement, and was mysteriously closeted in his
own study every other evening with a tape. Other boys were beginning to
"sit up" a little in the prospect of the coming examination, and
generally there was an air of expectation about the place which was
prophetic of the coming event.

On the afternoon, however, on which my story opens, two boys as they
walked arm-in-arm along the cliffs towards Raveling, appeared to be
engrossed in consultation, which, to judge by their serious faces, had
nothing to do with Christmas. Let me introduce them to the reader. The
taller of the two is a fine, sturdy, square-shouldered youth of fifteen
or thereabouts, whose name in a certain section of Swishford is a
household word. He is Bowler, the cock of the Fourth, who in the
football match against Raveling a fortnight ago picked up the ball at
half-back and ran clean through the enemy's ranks and got a touch-down,
which Blunt himself acknowledged was as pretty a piece of running as he
had seen in his time. Ever since then Bowler has been the idol of the
lower school.

His companion is a more delicate-looking boy, of about the same age,
with a cheery face, and by no means unpleasant to look at. He is
Gayford, as great a favourite in his way as Bowler, a boy whom nobody
dislikes, and whom not a few, especially Bowler, like very much.

These are the two who walked that afternoon towards Raveling.

"Are you sure the fellow in the book doesn't make it all up?" said
Bowler dubiously.

"Not a bit of it," replied his companion. "My uncle's a captain, you
know, and he says there are hundreds of islands like it, the jolliest
places you ever saw, any amount of food, no wild animals, splendid
weather all the year round, magnificent mountains and valleys and woods
and bays, gorgeous fishing and hunting, oceans of fruit trees,
everything a fellow could wish for, and not a soul on one of them."

"Rum," said Bowler reflectively; "seems rather a waste of jolly islands
that."

"Yes; but the thing is they're hundreds of miles away from inhabited
islands, so no one ever sees them."

"Except your uncle. I wonder he wasn't tempted to get out and take
possession of one."

"That's just exactly what he said he was tempted to do," replied
Gayford, stopping short excitedly. "He said very little would have
tempted him to do it, Bowler."

"Oh!" was Bowler's only reply.

"And I tell you another thing," continued Gayford, "he gave me an o