`Not with three thorough-goin' young devils like you, I ain't. I've been had. I've been ambuscaded. Horse, foot, an' guns, I've been had, an'--an' there'll be no holdin' the junior forms after this. M'rover, the 'Ead will send me with a note to Colonel Dabney to ask if what you say about bein' invited was true.'

`Then you'd better go in by the Lodge-gates this time, instead of chasin' your dam' boys--oh, that was the Epistle to King--so it was. We-ell, Foxy?' Stalky put his chin on his hands and regarded the victim with deep delight.

`Ti-ra-la-la-i-tu! I gloat! Hear me!' said M`Turk. `Foxy brought us tea when we were moral lepers. Foxy has a heart. Foxy has been in the Army, too.'

`I wish I'd ha' had you in my company, young gentlemen,' said the Sergeant from the depths of his heart; `I'd ha' given you something.'

`Silence at drum-head court-martial,' M`Turk went on. `I'm advocate for the prisoner; and, besides, this is much too good to tell all the other brutes in the Coll. They'd never understand. They play cricket, and say, "Yes, sir," and "Oh, sir," and "No, sir."'

`Never mind that. Go ahead,' said Stalky.

`Well, Foxy's a good little chap when he does not esteem himself so as to be clever.'

`"Take not out your 'ounds on a werry windy day,"' Stalky struck in. `I don't care if you let him off.'

`Nor me,' said Beetle. `Heffy is my only joy--Heffy and King.'

`I'ad to do it,' said the Sergeant plaintively.

`Right O! Led away by bad companions in the execution of his duty, or--or words to that effect. You're dismissed with a reprimand, Foxy. We won't tell about you. I swear we won't,' M`Turk concluded. `Bad for the discipline of the school. Horrid bad.'

`Well,' said the Sergeant, gathering up the tea-things, `knowin' what I know o' the young dev--gentlemen of the College, I'm very glad to 'ear it. But what am I to tell the 'Ead?'

`Anything you jolly well please, Foxy. We aren't the criminals.'

To say that the Head was annoyed when the Sergeant appeared after dinner with the day's crime-sheet would be putting it mildly.

`Corkran, M`Turk, & Co., I see. Bounds as usual. Hullo! What the deuce is this? Suspicion of drinking. Whose charge?'

`Mr. King's, sir. I caught 'em out of bounds, sir: at least that was 'ow it looked. But there's a lot be'ind, sir.' The Sergeant was evidently troubled.

`Go on,' said the Head. `Let us have your version.'

He and the Sergeant had dealt with each other for some seven years; and the Head knew that Mr. King's statements depended very largely on Mr. King's temper.

`I thought they were out of bounds along the cliffs. But it come out they wasn't, sir. I saw them go into Colonel Dabney's woods, and--Mr. King and Mr. Prout come along--and--the fact was, sir, we was mistook for poachers by Colonel Dabney's people--Mr. King and Mr. Prout and me. There were some words, sir, on both sides. The young gentlemen slipped 'ome somehow, and they seemed 'ighly humorous, sir. Mr. King was mistook by Colonel Dabney himself--Colonel Dabney bein' strict. Then they preferred to