but
little the worse. Yes, yes, a rush of blood to the head producing
cerebral disturbance."

He smiled blandly, receiving the homage of the Fifth.

"And now, Lovell, what do you know about this? Did this fit take place
here?"

"In my room, sir."

"In your room--eh? What was Scaife, a Lower Boy, doing in your room?"

"Lawrence gave him his 'fez' to-day, sir."

Lawrence nodded.

"Ah! And Scaife was excited, perhaps unduly excited--eh?"

The Fifth joined in a chorus of, "Yes, sir.--Oh, yes, sir--awfully
excited, sir.--Never saw a boy so excited, sir."

"That will do. Now, Lovell, go on!"

"We had some siphons in our room, sir." A stroke of genius this--for
the siphons were still on the table and the syrups, and the _debris_ of
cakes and meringues. Rutford would be sure to examine the scene of the
catastrophe; and the whisky bottle was carefully hidden. "We were
having a spread, sir, and we asked Scaife to join us. His play to-day
made him one of us."

The other boys gazed admiringly at Lovell. What a cool, knowing hand!

"Yes, yes, I see nothing objectionable about that."

"Well, sir--we were rather noisy----"

"Go on."

"To speak the exact truth, sir, I fear we were _very_ noisy; and
Trieve, it seems, heard us. Instead of sending for me, sir, he sent
Verney for Scaife--"

"Ah!"

Lovell's hesitation at this point was really worthy of Coquelin _cadet_.

"Of course you know, sir, that Scaife's getting his 'fez' releases him
from house-fagging. We thought Trieve had forgotten that, sir; and
that it would be rather fun--I'm not excusing myself, sir--we thought
it would be a harmless joke if we persuaded Scaife not to go."

"Um!"

"We were very foolish, sir. And then Trieve sent another message
saying that Scaife was to go to his room at once to be--whopped."

"To be whopped. Um! Rather drastic that, very drastic under the
circumstances."

"So we thought, sir; and I went to represent the facts to Trieve----"

"Well?"

"I'm not much of a peacemaker, I fear, sir. Trieve refused to listen
to me. He insisted upon whopping Scaife for what he called
disobedience and impudence. Upon my honour, sir, I tried, we all
tried, to persuade Scaife to take his whopping quietly, but he seemed
to go quite mad. He has a violent temper, sir----"

"Yes, yes."

"A very violent temper. He--he----"

"Frothed at the mouth," put in a bystander. "I particularly noticed
that."

"Really, really-