“Perhaps there is,” protested Tony. “We’ve all been in scrapes now and then. We weren’t always the angels we are now, Jim.” “Likely not, but I notice they didn’t hold up my ante-angelic days against me. Why, you aren’t even a prefect, do you know it?” “By Jove, I’m not, am I?” exclaimed Deering. That fact until then had not occurred to him. “There’s something fishy behind it, mark my words. I wish we could find out what it is.” “Perhaps we shall,” said Tony. “But anyhow, I’m not going into a grouch over the affair.” “Nobody wants you to, but I wish you would show a little more sense of the rotten way you have been treated. By Jove, Tonio, I have it! it’s the Gumshoe!” Tony found no answer to this exclamation, but Jimmie, excited by his theory, did not wait for one. “D’ye remember Reggie Carroll telling us that the Gumshoe would get even?” “When?” “Why, after the show-up he got when you and Kit licked Ducky Thornton and he took you two to the Head for breaking his gating. And also after the time Gumshoe soured on you about the Soft-toed Sammy billet-doux.” “Yes, I remember something of the sort. Perhaps he is responsible. But anyway, kiddo, I’m dished, and that’s a fact.” “Oh, that Kit was one of us now, boy; wouldn’t we get even?” Tony sighed. “I reckon we would. But he isn’t!” “No, worse luck! I wish——” What Jimmie wished was left unsaid, for at that moment Doctor Forester caught up with them, and called to Deering. “Will you please stop at the Rectory, Anthony, for a few moments? I want a word with you.” “Certainly, sir,” said Tony and waited for the Head, as Jimmie, with a “So long,” hurried on to a first hour recitation. The Doctor was very cordial in his manner to Tony, and waved him to a comfortable chair in his study before he opened his conversation. “I dare say,” he began, “that you, as were others, were somewhat surprised to learn who is to be Head Prefect this year.” Tony flushed and looked uncomfortable. “I do not mean,” went on the Head quickly, “to suggest that you had no occasion for surprise. It is an open secret, I fancy, that you were slated for the position.” “Of course,” said Tony, with some embarrassment, “I had some reason to suppose that I was being considered.” “More than that, I am frank to say,” continued the Doctor, “I had quite determined on your appointment. I wish you to understand that I changed my mind strictly with the understanding that the reasons for the change should be thoroughly explained to you.” “Yes, sir.” “I wish you to know that there is but one reason why I have not chosen you for Head of the School. The mild or mischievous infractions of discipline in your younger days, I do not take into account. You were concerned, I have learned, in fact, you were the author of a squib in which one of the senior masters was held up to ridicule.” “Yes, sir.”