xcept from the one fact that the
combatants were seniors. No one cared an atom about the quarrels or its
merits. It was quite enough that it was an even match--that there was
plenty of straight hitting and smart parrying, and that it lasted over a
quarter of an hour.

It was a wonder it lasted so long. Not that the men could not stay, but
because no monitor with power to stop it appeared on the scene. Indeed,
the only monitor present was Gilks himself, and he took no steps to end
the conflict.

At length, however, while the result was still undecided, a cry of
"_Cave_!" was raised.

"Look out, here's Riddell!" cried some small boy.

A round was just beginning, and neither combatant evinced any desire to
desist on account of the captain's approach.

Riddell was not alone, Fairbairn was with him, and, being naturally
attracted by the crowd and shouting, they both hurried up in time to see
the end of the round.

As soon as it was over they pushed their way in among the crowd and
entered the ring.

"Stop the fight!" said Riddell.

The two combatants glared at him angrily, and Gilks replied, "Who says
so?"

"I say so," said Riddell, quietly.

The days were long gone by when the captain issued his orders in an
apologetic voice and a diffident manner. He had learned enough during
this term to discover the value of a little self-confidence, and had
profited by the discovery. Willoughby was far more docile to an order
than to a request, and on the present occasion neither Gilks nor Silk
seemed disposed to argue the matter.

They put on their jackets sulkily, and, without further words to one
another or to the monitors, betook their battered selves to their
several quarters.

Willoughby, perceiving that the matter was at an end, also dispersed and
returned to its several quarters. The Welchers resumed their
interrupted revel with unabated rejoicing; the melancholy Parretts
called for more hot water to eke out the consolations of their teapot;
the Limpets turned in again to their preparation, and the seniors to
their studies--every one criticising the fight, and wondering how it
would have ended, but scarcely one troubling himself much about its
merit, and less still about its consequences.

One of these consequences the principals in the engagement were not long
in learning. A message arrived for each, before the evening was over,
that they were reported to the doctor, and were to go to his room at
nine