fter that each boy
was busy over his work, and neither spoke a word. Their thoughts may
not all have been in the books before them; in fact it may safely be
said they were not. But they were thoughts that did not require words.
Only when Wyndham rose to go, and wished his friend good-night, Riddell
indirectly referred to the subject of their talk.

"By the way, Wyndham, Isaacs has given up the school librarianship; I
suppose you know. How would you like to take it?"

"What has a fellow got to do?" asked Wyndham.

"You have to issue the new books every Monday and collect the old ones
every Saturday. There are about one hundred boys subscribe, and they
order the new book when they give up the old, so it's simple enough."

"Takes a lot of time, doesn't it?" said Wyndham.

"No, not very much, I believe. Isaacs shirked it a good deal, and you'd
have to keep the lists rather better than he did. But I fancy you'd
enjoy it rather; and," he added, "it will be an excuse for seeing less
of some not very nice friends."

Wyndham said he would take the post, and went off happier in his own
mind than he had been for a long time, and leaving Riddell happier too,
despite all his failures and vexations elsewhere, than he had been since
he became captain of Willoughby.

But, though happy, he could hardly be elated. His effort that evening
had certainly been a success, but how long would its effects last?

Riddell was not fool enough to imagine that his promise to old Wyndham
was now discharged by that one evening's talk. He knew the boy well
enough to be sure that the task was only just begun. And his
thankfulness at having made a beginning was tempered with many anxieties
for the future. And he might well be anxious!

For a day or two Wyndham was an altered boy. He surprised his masters
by his attention in class, and his schoolfellows--all except Riddell--by
the steadiness of his behaviour. He avoided his former companions, and
devoted himself with enthusiasm to his new duties as librarian, to which
the doctor, at Riddell's suggestion, had appointed him.

This alteration, approved of as it was in many quarters, was by no means
appreciated by two boys at Willoughby. It was not that they cared
twopence about the society of their young Limpet, or that they had any
moral objection to good behaviour and steady work. What irritated Gilks
and Silk over the business was that they saw in it the hand of an enemy,
and felt