The small boy flushed with pleasure at the request from such popular and distinguished persons as Wilson and Deering, and readily made way. Mr. Roylston, who seldom failed to see anything that was going on around him, stopped for a moment and looked at them with an expression of stern disapproval. The boys thought that he was about to order them to the end of the line, but for once he disappointed them, and after a significant compression of his lips, went on with the call-over. There was a general titter along the line. Soon it was Kit’s turn, and he was at Mr Roylston’s side. The master held a paper in his hand, on which was printed the school list. It was the duty of the master of the day to note on such a slip opposite each boy’s name the plans that he reported for the afternoon. “Wilson and Deering, sir,” said Kit. Mr. Roylston faced him. “Now that they have usurped the places of a score or so of boys who were in line before them, what do the Messrs. Wilson and Deering propose to do in such a hurry?” “We are going to town, sir, to meet my mother who is arriving on the five o’clock train.” “Ah, indeed!” said Mr. Roylston. “I am very sorry to put Mrs. Wilson to any inconvenience, but I fear I must do so. As you both are gated for the month, it is impossible for me to acquiesce in your ingenuous proposal.” “Beg your pardon, sir,” said Kit, “but the Head has declared bounds off for the afternoon.” “Undoubtedly,” commented Mr. Roylston, “but I have had the unpleasant duty of gating you for a month. Next!” Wilson and Deering were swept on by the crowd. Without further ado, they cut across the field, climbed the stone wall and started across the meadows for the town. In Monday Port they loafed about until five o’clock, when they went to the depôt and met Mrs. Wilson. She was accompanied by two very pretty and attractive girls, Betty, Kit’s sister, and Barbara Worthington, her great friend and a boyish flame of Kit’s. The party had a merry time on the drive out the Port Road and a pleasant tea on the old-fashioned gallery of the Inn, in the golden light of the Indian summer afternoon. Absorbed in the unusual pleasure attendant upon the presence of girls at Deal, they quite forgot the predicament they were in with Mr. Roylston. The master in charge had a better memory, and was waiting for them at the entrance of the cloister that led into the refectory, where the school was gathering for supper. He was very angry. “I will trouble you,” he said, “to come with me at once to the Head. You have been flagrantly disobedient.” The boys followed him without a word across the quadrangle to the Rectory. “A very annoying case, Doctor Forester,” Mr. Roylston began when they were closeted with the Head in his study. “I gated Wilson and Deering for a month, but despite my warning at call-over, they deliberately ignored the gating and went to town this afternoon.”