Stephen hoped so too, and went off, highly elated, with Loman's rod under his arm. Loman pulled rather a long face at hearing the price, and pulled a still longer face when Stephen told him about the bat. He read his fag a long lecture about getting into debt and pledging his pocket-money in advance. That evening Stephen was solemnly tossed up for by the Guinea-pigs and Tadpoles. "Heads, Guinea-pigs; tails, Tadpoles." It turned up heads, and from that time forward Greenfield junior was a Guinea-pig. CHAPTER SEVEN. THE "DOMINICAN," NUMBER ONE. The eventful day had come at last. Anthony and his confederates had worked hard, evening after evening, in the secrecy of their studies, and the first number of the _Dominican_ was ready for publication. The big frame had been smuggled in, and the big sheet was now safely lodged behind the glass, with its eight broad columns of clearly-written manuscript all ready to astonish Saint Dominic's. Two nails had surreptitiously been driven into the wall outside the Fifth Form room, on which the precious document was to be suspended, and Tony only waited for "lights out" to creep down and, with the aid of Ricketts and Bullinger, fix it in position. Everything succeeded well. The secret had been kept most carefully, and when, next morning, Saint Dominic's woke up and swarmed down the passage past the Fifth Form class-room, the sight of a huge frame, with the words _The Dominican_ staring out from it, and several yards of writing underneath, fairly startled them. Master Paul, the fag who had been deputed to the no easy task of preserving the structure from injury, had a hard time of it, there was such a hustling and crowding in front of it whenever classes were not going on. The little boys squeezed in front; the bigger boys read over their heads; the Sixth examined it from the back of the crowd, and the Fifth Form from various positions watched with complacency the effect of this venture. At first it was looked upon as a curiosity, then as a joke; then gradually it dawned on Saint Dominic's that it was a Fifth Form production, and finally it appeared in its true light as a school newspaper. Loman, attracted by the crowd of boys, strolled down the passage to the place and joined the group, just as a small boy was reading aloud the following descriptive extract from: "Our Special Correspondent in Guinea-pig Land.