Having now leisure to review the incredible sequence of events which had resulted in my being hounded through the streets of Cambridge by the University authorities,--when by University law I should have been one of the hounds,--in company with two undergraduates, one attired as a sort of burlesque Rob Roy and the other in a state of more than doubtful sobriety, I embarked upon a series of gloomy but useless reflections upon my imbecility. My only consolation was derived from the knowledge that I no longer wore the insignia of the Junior Egyptologist, having mislaid that accursed ornament in the course of the evening’s revels. My meditations were interrupted by the voice of The Freak. "What shall we do next?" he enquired, with great gusto. "Go home," said I, without hesitation. "How?" "Straight on: this passage must lead somewhere." "Does it? Have you ever been down it before?" "I can’t remember; but--" "Well, I have, and it does n’t lead anywhere, young feller-my-lad. That’s why that blamed bull-dog of Sandy’s has n’t followed us up harder. He knows he has got us on toast. I expect they ’re all waiting for us at the mouth of this rat-hole now." Certainly we were in a tight corner. But even now The Freak’s amazing resource did not fail him. We were standing at the moment outside a building of rather forbidding aspect, which had the appearance of a parish institute. The windows of one of the rooms on the ground-floor were brightly lighted, and even as we looked a large podgy young man, of the Sunday-School superintendent type, appeared on the front steps. We feigned absorption in a large printed notice which stood outside the door. The podgy man addressed us. "Are you coming in, gentlemen? You’ll find it worth your while. The professor is only just ’ere, ’avin’ missed ’is train from King’s Cross; so we are goin’ to begin at once." He spoke in the honeyed--not to say oily--accents of a certain type of "townee" who sees a chance of making something out of a ’Varsity man, and his conversation was naturally addressed to me. My two companions kept modestly in the shadows. "First lecture free to all," continued the podgy young man, smiling invitingly. "Members of the University specially welcomed." At this moment The Freak emerged into the full glare of the electric light, and nudged me meaningly in the ribs. "I have two friends with me," I said--"one from Scotland--er--the North of Scotland. I am taking them for an after-dinner stroll, to view the Colleges, and--er--so on." "All are welcome," repeated the young man faintly, gazing in a dazed fashion at the Marquis of Puddox. "Step inside."