r best to drown him and
break his neck and crack his skull all at one onslaught; and as if that
wasn't enough, the Welchers had stepped in at the same moment and added
poison and suffocation to the other crimes of which the unlucky master
was the victim.

Of course he would think it from the beginning to end one elaborate and
fiendish plot against his life. It would not matter to him which boys
committed one assault and which another. He had figured as the victim
of all parties, and all parties, there could be no doubt, would now be
included under one terrific sentence.

In the presence of this common doom, schoolhouse, Parretts, and Welchers
for the first time that term showed symptoms of a passing brotherhood.

They stood rooted to the spot and speechless for at least two minutes
after the ill-starred master had vanished, then Telson--usually the
first to recover his wits--whistled drearily and low, "Whew! we will
catch it!"

"Think we'll be expelled?" said Cusack.

"Shouldn't wonder," said Parson, retreating slowly into his study,
followed by the rest.

"He'll send us up to the doctor, certain," said King.

There was a long unpleasant pause, at the end of which Cusack said,
"Well, it's no use staying here. Come on, you fellows."

"May as well stay," suggested Parson. "We'd better all turn up
together."

So it was decided not to break up the party, and that evening the
unwonted spectacle of Telson, Parretts, and Welchers, sitting amicably
together in one study, might have been noted as one of the greatest
wonders of that wonderful term.

Of course boys could not sit and talk of nothing. And of course it was
hardly to be expected they would confine their conversation altogether
to a review of their misdeeds. The talk gradually became general, and
occasionally even animated.

"Guess Pil and I will have to shut up chemistry after this," said
Cusack.

Pilbury smiled grimly.

"What do you call the beastly stuff?" asked Telson.

"Sulphuretted hydrogen," said Cusack, briskly. "First of all you take
a--"

"Oh, shut up shop! We don't want a chemistry lecture," broke in Parson.

There was a brief pause, then Philpot asked, "I say, is it true then,
there's not going to be a new race?"

"Of course not," said Parson; "what's the use when we can't be sure of
fair play?"

"Jolly right too," said Cusack, delighted to agree with his old enemy
for once; "those schoolhouse cads are cheats, every one of t