of our crew,'"

in a fine tenor voice for which he was celebrated. And this being taken
as an allusion to the branch of cricket, in which Buller had learned to
become a proficient, was considered a joke, and from that time forth the
object of it was known as Tom Bowling.

Eleven o'clock came, and they all went into school, and Buller did his
best, to fix his attention on what he was about, instead of thinking of
what was coming afterwards. Dr Jolliffe's class was select, consisting
of a dozen of the most proficient scholars, Crawley and Smith being the
only two of those mentioned in this story who belonged to it. He had
hardly taken his chair ten minutes before a servant came in with a card
and a note, stating that a gentleman was waiting outside, and that his
business was very pressing. The doctor glanced at the card, which was
Lord Woodruff's, and then tore open the note, which ran thus:

"Dear Dr Jolliffe, can I speak to you a moment. I would not, you may
be sure, disturb you during school hours if there were not urgent
reason for the interruption."

"Where is Lord Woodruff?" he asked, rising from his seat.

"Waiting in the cloister at the foot of the stair, sir."

And there indeed he found him, an excitable little man, walking up and
down in a fume.

"Dr Jolliffe," he cried, directly he saw him, "were any of your boys
out last night? Tut, tut, how should you know! Look here. There were
poachers in my woods last night, and the keepers, hearing the firing, of
course went to stop, and if possible arrest them. The rascals decamped,
however, before they could reach the place, and the keepers dispersed to
go to their several homes. One of them, Simon Bradley, had some
distance to walk, his cottage being two miles and more from the place.
As he passed through a coppice on his way he came upon a boy and a
figure following with a sack, whether man or boy he could not say, as it
was in deep shadow. He collared the boy, who was big and strong, and
while he was struggling with him he was struck from behind with a life-
preserver or some such instrument, which felled him to the ground,
bleeding and senseless. After some time he came to, and managed to
crawl home, and his wife sent off to tell me, and I despatched a man on
horseback to fetch a surgeon. And Bradley is doing pretty well; there
is no immediate fear for his life. Of course he has recovered his wits,
or I could not give you these details, a