The next thing, as Mr. Brandiston considered, was to see whether the work of the examinees themselves would shed any light upon the mystery. The examination was held in the morning. As soon as Mr. Brandiston had collected the papers, he glanced with eager interest at Gerald Eversley’s. It was a brilliant performance. If it had been done by him honestly, it was a proof of remarkable knowledge. One particular expression in it struck Mr. Brandiston especially. In a passage of Cicero which he had set, occurred the words _quodcunque in solum venit_. Not a boy, as it proved, except Eversley, had translated them rightly. But he gave the exact modern equivalent for them--‘whatever is on the _tapis_.’ Still, Mr. Brandiston was only puzzled; circumstances, he could not help feeling, were suspicious, but Gerald Eversley, although undoubtedly eccentric, had the reputation of being an unusually conscientious, as well as an unusually clever, boy. Mr. Brandiston, however, could not help reflecting that he had lately threatened him with the consequences of failing in his examination, and especially in his own paper. He resolved, therefore, to ascertain, if possible, whether Gerald Eversley had actually been in his study on the critical Wednesday evening. To avoid exciting suspicion, he sent first for the other boy whose name had been mentioned by the butler. Venables admitted at once that he had come to the study, but said he had come to bring Mr. Brandiston the list of the ‘placings’ of all the boys in the house. The ‘placings’ were the positions which all the boys occupied in their forms according to weekly order; and it was the regular duty of the head of the house to bring the list of them to Mr. Brandiston, though in this week they had been brought on an earlier day than usual, owing to the beginning of the examination. Venables added that, as he had not found Mr. Brandiston in the study, he had taken the list away; he offered to fetch it at once. The butler having now been proved right in regard to one of the boys whom he professed to have seen going to the study, Mr. Brandiston thought it well to assume that he was right in regard to the other. Accordingly, when Gerald Eversley came into the room Mr. Brandiston addressed him in these words: ‘Eversley, will you tell me why you came to the study on Wednesday evening between nine and ten?’ Gerald looked surprised. ‘You know you did come, Eversley,’ continued Mr. Brandiston, assuming a confidence which was not altogether his at heart. This is not an uncommon way of some masters. ‘Yes, sir,’ answered Gerald. Mr. Brandiston felt relieved. ‘Will you tell me,’ he said, ‘what you came for?’ Gerald hung his head down for a moment; then he replied, ‘Please, sir, I came to ask if I might “stay out.”’ (To ‘stay out,’ it must be explained, in the language of schoolboys, is to be absent from school with the permission of the house master.) ‘What was the matter with you?’ asked Mr. Brandiston.