"All serene," said Fisher; "I'll let you have the lot in ten minutes." It was now considerably more than ten hours since the rash undertaking had been given, and the accounts were considerably more confused than they had been when Fisher sat down to square them. The Club and House accounts were hopelessly mixed. Some fellows appeared to have paid several times over to both funds, and others not once to either. Worse than that, Fisher could not find his memorandum of what he had paid out in small disbursements since term began. Still worse, when he did come in desperation to lump both funds together, and deduct the total amount he had spent, he found himself between £4 and £5 out of pocket! That was the serious discovery which, on this particular morning, was preying on his spirits and making him look a picture of bewilderment. "I'm bothered if I can make it out," said he to himself. "Everybody's marked down as paid--I remember noticing that weeks ago. At that rate I ought to have £25 for the Clubs, and £9 12 shillings for the House. Yes, that's right--I had that; there's a note of it; three lots--£15 7 shillings 6 pence on September 1, £7 2 shillings 6 pence on September 13, and £12 2 shillings on another day--that makes the total. There you are. Why on earth did I put them away in separate lots? Then I paid £5 for the new goals, and something else--what was it? Oh, that was for the House balls--oh, but we are lumping the two together. What was it? I know, 17 shillings 6 pence--that's £5 17 shillings 6 pence; and something else, I know, came to a pound--£6 17 shillings 6 pence. Take that from £34 12 shillings, leaves £27 14 shillings 6 pence--and I've only got £22 18 shillings 6 pence! Where, in the name of wonder, has the rest gone?" And once more the dismal operation of adding up, counting, and subtracting began anew, with the same, or almost the same, result--there was a mistake of something like £4 10 shillings, whichever way you looked at it. Dalton, who came in presently, could throw no further light on the problem. He added up the columns, counted the money, subtracted the payments and arrived at the same result. Had the difference been smaller, it might have been accounted for by a few subscriptions omitted or a few payments not entered. But £4 10 shillings was too big a sum to leak away by accident; and, with the exception of the new goals, Fisher major was confident nothing had been spent approaching the figure. Dalton then proposed a fresh hunt through the study, in case the missing sum might be hidden for safety in some corner. So the room was turned upside down; the bed-clothes were shaken out, pockets searched, books turned over, tea-pots peered into; but all to no purpose. The captain looked in while the search was proceeding. "Have you got the-- Hullo, what's up?" "Why," said Fisher major, "there's a discrepancy. We ought to have £27 14 shillings 6 pence, and there's about £4 10 shillings short."