ts.

"Stupid ass!" growled D'Arcy. "It's all up now. Why couldn't he have
let them be?"

A short and sharp _melee_ followed. The Classics were reinforced
rapidly, and the Moderns, seeing their plot detected and fearing the
intervention of the seniors, sullenly raised the blockade, and allowed
the door to open.

Whereat in tumbled Percy Wheatfield with five young Moderns at his
heels--the very five who had been waiting for the clock to strike in
Wally's study.

"What do you mean by keeping us out!" demanded Percy of his brother, who
chanced to be the first person he encountered.

"What are you talking about?" retorted Wally, extremely chagrined to
discover who it was he had been helping. "We were the chaps who let you
in! It was your own cads who were keeping you out. Ask them."

"We thought you were Classics," said one of the offenders, letting the
cat out of the bag.

"Oh, you beauty! Wait till I get some of you outside," bellowed the
outraged Percy.

"Order! Shut up, you kids down there!" was the cry from the front.

"Shut up, you kids down there!" echoed D'Arcy and Ashby on their own
account.

"Ranger one hundred and twenty-three. Hands up for Dangle; and if the
youngsters down there don't make less noise, I'll adjourn the meeting,"
said the captain. This awful threat secured silence while the counting
proceeded. D'Arcy's face grew longer and longer, and Wally at the back
began to breathe vengeance on the world at large.

"Hands down."

The captain turned and said something to Clapperton; and Fisher major,
who overheard what was said, looked very glum. Every one knew what was
coming.

"Ranger one hundred and twenty-three votes, Dangle one hundred and
twenty-four. Dangle is--"

The shouts of the Moderns drowned the last words, and the captain had to
wait a minute before he could finish what he had to say.

"The votes are very close," said he. "If any one would like, we can
count again."

"No, no!" cried Ranger. "It's all right. I don't dispute it."

"That concludes the elections," said the captain.

And amid loud cheers and counter-cheers the meeting dispersed.

The prefects of Wakefield's house met that evening in Yorke's study to
talk over the events of the afternoon.

The captain was the only person present who appeared to regard the
result of the elections with equanimity.

"After all," said he, "though I'm awfully sorry about old Ranger, it
seems fairer to have the off