up in his place.

"First of all, I want to tell you before the whole school that you have
been behaving in the most shamefully cruel and blackguard way, and in a
way that has produced disastrous consequences to one of the little
fellows. A big fellow like you ought to be _thoroughly_ ashamed of such
conduct. If you were capable of a blush you ought to blush for it. It
is our duty as monitors, and my duty as Head of the school, to punish
you for this conduct, as Dr Lane has left it in our hands; and I am
going to cane you for it. Stand out."

"I won't. I'll see you damned first."

A sensation ran through the school at this open defiance; but Somers,
quite unmoved, repeated--

"I take no notice of your words further than to tell you that if you
swear again you will have an additional punishment; but once again I
tell you to stand out."

Harpour quailed a little at his firm tone, and at the total absence of
all support from his followers; but he again flatly refused to stand
out.

"Very well," said Somers; "you have already defied the authority of one
monitor, and that is an aggravation of your original offence. I should
have been glad to have avoided a scene, but if your common sense doesn't
make you bear the punishment coolly, you shall bear it by force. Will
you stand out?--no?--then you shall be made. Fetch him here, some one,"
he said, turning to the sixth-form.

The second monitor, Danvers, quietly seized Harpour's right arm, and
Macon, one of the biggest fellows in the fifth-form, of his own accord
got up and seized the other, Harpour's heart sank at this, for Danvers
and the other were with him in the cricket eleven, and he was not as
strong as either of them singly.

"Now mark," said Somers; "caned you _shall_ be, to redeem the character
of the school; but unless you take it without being _made_ to take it,
your name shall also be immediately struck off the school list, and you
shall leave Saint Winifred's this evening. You'll be no great loss, I
take it. So much I may tell you as a proof that the Headmaster has left
_us_ to vindicate the name of Saint Winifred's."

Seeing that resistance was useless, Harpour accordingly stood out in the
centre of the room, but not until he had cast an inquiring look among
those who embraced his side; and these, who, as we have seen, were
tolerably numerous, all looked at Kenrick that he might give some hint
as to what they should do. Thus appealed to, Kenric