"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 punishme............