AMARYLLIS flung herself into his arms. "If only I am not ploughed! But, darling STREPHON, I have a request to make of you. I implore you to sit in the gallery to-morrow throughout the examination, and so, looking up to your face, I shall gain fresh courage." "Sweet, I will do so," cried STREPHON. "And--you know the deaf-and-dumb alphabet, I think? If so, and an answer has slipped your memory, perhaps----" "Nay," said AMARYLLIS, firmly. "'Tis unnecessary. And we must run no risks." * * * CHAPTER II. The great examination had begun. Ranged at the long rows of tables sat the fairest of England's maidenhood; some conning the paper with painful perplexity, while others scribbled down the answers with feverish haste, or gazed imploringly up to the gallery whence their anxious lovers regarded them. Amongst these was plainly visible the heroic form of STREPHON SMITH. Seated on a daïs at the end of the room was Professor PLUMBOSS, the chief examiner, the same who had ploughed no fewer than 5428 candidates at the last examination. Perhaps it was the effect of the constant terror of assassination in which he lived, but on this particular morning the Professor seemed ill-at-ease. Ever and anon he pressed his hand firmly on his head, as if he wished to retain a wig in its place; now and then he fumbled mysteriously with his beard. Could it be a false one? But AMARYLLIS had no leisure to observe such trifles. With unfaltering pen she dashed off the answers to all the questions without a moment's hesitation, and she had finished a good half-hour before the appointed time. With all her wondrous grace of movement she tripped lightly up the room, and handed over her papers to the Professor. Surely there was an ill-disguised twinkle of elation in his eyes as he took them. And then, when AMARYLLIS had left, with her papers in his hand, he edged nearer and nearer to the fire-place. As if by accident, he prepared to drop them into the flames. Little had he recked that the eagle eye of STREPHON SMITH was upon him. With a single bound that intrepid hero leaped from the gallery to the floor, rushed upon the Professor, with one resolute sweep of his hand knocked off his wig, spectacles and false beard, and disclosed the pale and trembling features of his hated rival, MELIBOEUS BROWN! * * * CHAPTER III. And so the plot was discovered just in time. The nefarious BROWN had kidnapped the Professor on his way to the hall, had stolen his robes, and disguised himself so as to play the part of the examiner himself. Another minute, and his wicked plan would have succeeded, AMARYLLIS'S papers would have been burnt, and she and STREPHON would have been separated for ever. Thanks to the latter's courageous action, the impostor had been detected, and was subsequently sentenced to several years' imprisonment.