part of a scholar. But even here he was
not allowed wholly to forget his new responsibilities. Nearly all those
around him were fellow-monitors, who had just come smarting from the
doctor's summary rejection of their petition; and Riddell could tell by
their angry looks and ill-tempered words that he, however innocent, was
the object of their irritation. He had never been a favourite before,
but it certainly was not pleasant to have to learn now by the most
unmistakable signs that he was downrightly unpopular and disliked by
those from whom he should have had his warmest backing up.

And yet, strange to say, it was this sense of his own unpopularity which
more than anything nerved him to a resolution to stick to his post, and,
come what would of it, do his best to discharge his new unwelcome tasks.
If only he could feel a little more sure of himself! But how was it
likely he could feel sure of himself after his lamentable failure of the
morning?

But the lamentable failure of the morning, as it happened, was nothing
to other failures speedily to follow on this same unlucky day.

Scarcely was Riddell back in his study after first school, hoping for a
little breathing space in which to recover his fluttered spirits, when
Gilks entered and said, "I say, there's a row going on in the Fourth.
You'd better stop it, or the doctor will be down on us."

And so saying he vanished, leaving the captain about as comfortable with
this piece of intelligence as he would have been with a bombshell
suddenly pitched into his study.

A row in the Fourth! the headquarters of the Limpets, each one of whom
was a stronger man than he, and whom Wyndham himself had often been put
to it to keep within bounds!

With an ominous shiver Riddell put on his cap and sallied out in the
direction of the Fourth. A man about to throw himself over a precipice
could hardly have looked less cheerful!

Gilks's report had certainly been well founded, for long before the
captain reached his destination the roar of battle sounded up the
passage. It may have been an ordinary Limpet row, or it may have been a
special diversion got up (with the connivance of one or two unfriendly
monitors) for the special benefit of the new captain. Be that as it
may, it was a disturbance calling for instant suppression, and the idea
of Riddell going to suppress it was ridiculous even to himself.

He opened the door, unnoticed by the combatants within both on account