But Duane was to find out pretty thoroughly that the way of transgressors is not an easy path to tread. A stiff restraint of manner in the Upper Fifth classroom was all the condemnation the seniors would allow themselves to show; anything in the nature of hooliganism was "bad form" and derogatory to their dignity. They left that to their juniors. The Carslake juniors, however, had no intention of allowing the matter to drop so readily, and were far more willing to accept the belief that Duane, and not Kitty, was guilty for Kitty had always been more popular with them than their head prefect. After their usual indignation meeting, Duane received a somewhat smudged sheet of exercise-book paper requesting her resignation as head prefect of Carslake's, a request to which she returned a decided refusal. Thereafter the juniors did all they could in hundreds of little ways to show their reluctance to acknowledge her authority, though they did not dare to rebel outright. The final inter-house cricket match had to be scratched at the last minute because the juniors refused to play in a team captained by Duane, while from the cricket committee came a politely worded request that she should resign her place in the school eleven. A few days later, from the hockey committee came the still politer intimation that with much regret they felt obliged to withdraw Duane's hockey colour. Cricket was practically over, it is true, but for the next two terms hockey would reign supreme at Easthampton. Strange to say, Duane's own seniors were not so hard on her as the rest of the school, France declaring sturdily that she had been Duane's friend for the last six years and thought it would be disloyal to allow the recent trouble to make any difference; Bertha Salter, with a kind of defiance, was heard to declare that she even had a sort of admiration for Cato and her "nerve"; while kind-hearted Margaret could not refrain from proffering her sympathy to Duane for the loss of her hockey colour. "Yes, I'm afraid I shan't be able to show my shining genius at hockey next term by scoring all the goals for the school," Duane agreed, rather cheerfully than otherwise. "However, I console myself with the thought that the school matches are not the only ones played." At first the other three head prefects wondered if they should go further in the matter. They could do no more themselves if Duane continued obdurate. Should they or should they not take this new development to the Principal? But there were other even more important matters to engross their attention now. Examinations had begun. The Upper Fifth were in the throes of the Senior Cambridge, the Sixth departed "en bloc" to London for a week, to sit for matriculation, while even the juniors had their own class examinations to occupy their minds.