"hurrah!"

"bravo, rexworth!"

"now, you fifths, does your man want to fight?"

such were the gleeful shouts of the fourth when they beheld horace elgert on the ground. and the fifths, alarmed for the honour of their class, rushed to pick up their fallen champion, saying—

"don't make such a row! of course he will fight. get over to the other side, where we shall not be seen, and we will come!"

but ralph would not listen to any such arguments. he stood there, looking down at his fallen foe, and he said shortly—

"you fellows will please to mind your own business! i am going nowhere to fight until this chap has apologized, then, if a fight is wanted, we will move!"

"but you cannot fight here! the head will see us!" cried a score of voices.

"i cannot help that! this fellow has told a lie about my father, and he has got to unsay it, or take the consequences! i suppose that he thinks i was[pg 76] afraid because i tried to avoid a fight the very first day of being at school. well, i am not afraid! if he had only talked about me i might have taken no notice, but when he comes to speaking as he has done he is going too far, and he has got to take back his words now, or finish it here!"

meanwhile, elgert had struggled to his feet, and he looked dazed from the effects of the blow, while his face was already growing swollen and discoloured.

"stand aside!" he said hoarsely. "i will fight him here! if the head himself were looking on, i would fight him!"

"you are a pair of fools!" muttered a fifth-form monitor. "we shall be spotted, for a certainty, and all of us get carpeted for this! go calmly, you silly fellow, or he will smash you!" and he broke off in his complaint to give this last advice to elgert, who had rushed at his opponent, mad with pain and anger, and had gone down for the second time!

"look out! i knew how it would be! here comes the head!" shouted one boy; and a hurried rush took place, leaving the two boys and warren and charlton alone when the master reached the spot.

"elgert! rexworth!" he exclaimed in tones of displeasure. "what does this mean? you, too, warren! you, a monitor of the fourth, and encouraging a new boy in fighting! i am displeased, indeed!"

"it is my fault, in one way, sir," replied ralph,[pg 77] without waiting for the others to speak. "elgert said something concerning my father which angered me, and i struck him. he wanted me to come across the playground and fight where we would not be seen, but i was angry, and would not do so."

something like a smile played across the grave face for a moment as the head heard this speech.

"you boys seem to think that if i do not see you fight no offence is committed. you do not recognize the fact that fighting in itself is poor, and low, and degrading. i know that boys settle their quarrels in this manner, but i decry it. now, the fact of fighting here is a double offence, for you are within sight of my study window. i am sorry that it has happened, but i will overlook it on condition that you and elgert shake hands."

"i cannot do that, sir," was ralph's respectful answer; and elgert on his part, said:

"i will not do it!"

"boys, boys! 'cannot,' and 'will not!' neither expression is seemly! you will go to your respective studies and remain there until you are in better minds!"

"it is not that i am angry, sir," ralph said, very respectfully. "this boy has said that my father is a common thief!" ralph's voice shook just a little as the words came. "he says that his disappearance is due to that! you must see, sir, that i cannot shake hands with him after that!"

[pg 78]

"elgert, what have you to say to this?" demanded the head sternly; and elgert stammered—

"i didn't exactly say that, sir."

"yes, you did!" blurted warren. "he did say it, sir, and he has been trying to get up this fight! it is no use denying it. it began because rexworth turned him and some more out of the study he shares with charlton. they say enough unkind things about him," he added. "there was a bit of a bother, and elgert got knocked over, and he challenged rexworth to fight him after school to-day. rexworth, would not do it, and he said that if a fight was forced upon him it should be wherever he chanced to be at that moment. elgert came here and began sneering and saying unkind things, and then rexworth struck him, and that is all the truth. i know that i ought to have tried to stop it, but we and the fifth don't get on well, and so—and so——"

"because of class rivalry you allowed your companion to fight. it is not right, warren! monitors should try to enforce the rules, not to break them. elgert, you will do me two hundred lines, and be good enough to remember that if i consider any boy fit to become a scholar here it is not for you to make such statements as you appear to have done."

"i only said what my father told me!" sulkily answered elgert; and the head frowned.

"what you and your father may say in private is no concern of mine, elgert," he replied coldly;[pg 79] "what you repeat in public here is another matter, with which i have to do! do your imposition and bring it to me before class to-morrow, and mind that i have no more of this. you other lads, i will overlook this in your case this time, seeing that it appears that violent provocation was given; but, mind, there must be no more fighting in the playground boundaries! see that i am obeyed!" and the head turned away.

"don't think that we have finished yet!" said horace elgert, looking darkly at ralph. "i will have my revenge for this, as sure as you are standing there!" and, with that he went.

and the three fourth-form boys went indoors; while the rest of the lads, who had scattered, came back eagerly discussing what punishment the offenders would receive.

and the general verdict was, "it served elgert right, and that he had no business to have spoken as he had done!"

"but suppose it is right?" queried one lad. "you know, there is something queer about it!"

"something very queer," said another; "but that story is all nonsense! my dad knows mr. st. clive very well, and he told him all the story and how there was plenty of money in mr. rexworth's possession. besides, any one with eyes can see that rexworth is a gentleman, even if he has some strange ways through living abroad. elgert is too fond of thinking he is[pg 80] all the world and every one else dirt beneath his feet. it serves him jolly well right!"

"well, there is one thing," admitted a third boy, "that fellow rexworth may be queer in some ways, but he is no fool when it comes to a scrimmage, and he knows how to defend himself! i don't think any of us are likely to try for a row with him after what we have seen!"

meanwhile, ralph, ignorant of the criticisms which were being made in his favour, had gone to his own study. he felt sorry for what had occurred, and the cruel words which had been spoken had gone like arrows to his heart and brought back all his trouble. he felt like running away to mrs. st. clive and getting her to comfort him.

and then charlton came in, very gently, as if half afraid to intrude his presence upon his chum. he came and bent over ralph's chair, putting one hand on his shoulder, and whispered—

"ralph, i am so sorry! don't you worry about it!"

ralph looked up, and a brave smile came to his lips.

"hallo! is it you, charlton?" he said. "no, i won't worry about it; but i am sorry that i have commenced my school life so badly. there, we won't think of it any more! if you are not busy, you might just lend me a hand with to-morrow's exercises. if it were speaking french or spanish, i should be all[pg 81] right, but i don't seem to understand latin in the slightest."

"let us go through it," replied charlton eagerly. "i shall be glad to do it."

so troubles were forgotten, and the chums bent over the table and soon became absorbed in their task. learning lessons is not anything like so bad when you put your heart into it.

so the evening passed, and bed-time came; and once more ralph knelt down to offer up his evening prayers. and not only warren and charlton, but some other boys followed his example now, for his action had reproached them and made them think soberly of things which they had been careless about all too long.

but ralph was not easy in his mind. somehow, he felt that he had no kindly thought for elgert—and he had been praying to be forgiven, as he forgave his enemies! that was a very troublesome thought, and it was still in his mind when he fell asleep.

* * * * *

what was that noise?

ralph rexworth sat up in bed, and listened. accustomed to wake at the slightest noise that might betoken danger, and to wake with all his senses about him, he had been disturbed by a strange, scraping sound, the cause of which he could not think of.

only one dim point of light burnt in the dormitory, and all was still there save for the breathing of the[pg 82] sleepers. it was no sound of that sort which had awakened him.

there it was again—outside! he remembered having heard a sound like that once before—when the indians had risen and come to attack the ranch. he had laid and listened to them as they crawled over the tops of the sheds, and the sound was like that! it was from outside! he rose, and creeping to the window, he lifted one corner of the blind, and peeped out.

nothing there—stay, that was wrong! surely that was a ladder propped against the wall? what was a ladder doing there, for there was none there the evening before! and the window there was open! some one must have got in at that window!

was it one of the boys who had been up to mischief, or, it seemed absurd, was some thief breaking in? thieves did not, as a rule, break into schools!

he was half inclined to raise an alarm. but the thought came, that if this was some midnight escapade on the part of some of the boys, to do that might be to get them into disgrace—to make more enemies, and to interfere in what did not concern him.

that was a window just outside the fifth-form dormitory, too! elgert might be in it, and he did not want to be the means of getting him into any more trouble.

but suppose that it was a thief? ralph crept to the door and opened it noiselessly. he peered down the corridor, but nothing was to be seen or heard.

[pg 83]

stop! surely he did hear a faint sound—a very faint sound! he felt that he must go and see; a strange, uneasy feeling had possessed him; a strange presentiment that all was not right.

he crept down the passage, and turned towards the fifth-form dormitory, and a breath of cold air met him. the window was open, and the top of a ladder could be seen—and the door of the dormitory was open also!

with cautious, stealthy steps he crept on, pausing once when the boards creaked beneath his weight. there was something eerie in being here alone at midnight; it was worse than being out alone on the plains.

he reached the door, and peered into the dormitory with its long row of sleeping boys there. there was nothing here in the shape of a lark going on. all was still and silent.

there was his enemy lying asleep, his handsome face just catching a glimmer of moonlight which found its way through the blind; and as ralph looked he saw a strange apparition—a man slowly appeared, rising at the side of the bed! a man with pillow in his hands, which he was about to press down upon that sleeping boy! a man going to murder horace elgert!

like a flash the truth burst upon the watching boy, and, with a loud cry, he threw the door wide open and rushed into the dormitory.