"Look here, Moon," said Dick, without a twinkle in his big blue eyes; "it was a beastly shame, and they treated me most unfairly. We had to write an account of a trip up the Ganges and a visit to Benares. Well, you know there was a horrible plague at Benares just then, and I couldn’t afford to risk my valuable life in the town, so I skipped it, stating my reasons. And what do you think they said?" "Can’t guess." "Why, that ’twas a fake, because I didn’t know anything about the blessed old town." And he looked so solemn that Moon was half inclined to think he had been badly treated. "Did you really put that down?" asked one of the boys in the group. "Of course I did!" answered Dicky, in a tone of surprise. "They couldn’t expect me to go to a plague-spot like that!" "Didn’t I hear some yarn, too, about a dead passenger?" asked Temple. "Very likely," said the Angel calmly; "that was another misfortune. You see, we had to describe a voyage from London to Odessa, and a very nice little trip, too. Well, my passenger started in a yacht, and had a jolly good time, jotting down his descriptions every night. At last he got into the Adriatic, and the poor fellow fell overboard. The skipper fished him out, but he was quite dead; and so, of course, the trip ended. Now, what do you think the inspector had the conscience to ask me? ’Boden,’ said he, ’couldn’t you remember any more of the coast-line?’ Just as if I’d play a trick like that!" "Don’t cry, Dicky!" observed Temple. "The inspector didn’t know you as well as we do, or there would have been no need to ask such a question"—an oracular speech with rather a doubtful meaning. Jim did not join in the chaff—in fact, he scarcely heard it. His whole mind was absorbed in the forthcoming examination, and he waited impatiently for the door to be opened. When Temple and several of the others spoke to him he answered briefly, and then relapsed into silence. "What’s the matter with him, Dicky?" whispered the popular captain of the Magpies, as they entered the building. "Too much work. He’s been overdoing it, and I shouldn’t wonder if he breaks down. He’s slaved like a nigger since the news of his father’s loss came." "Poor old chap!" said Temple. "It was hard lines, and no mistake." The boys passed along a broad corridor, mounted a staircase, and entered a large room. Above the door was a card bearing the words, "Candidates for the Gayton Scholarship." "Move quietly, please," said a spectacled gentleman standing at a desk. "Each boy will find his name on the desk at which he is to sit." They were arranged in alphabetic order, and Dick found himself just behind Braithwaite. Jim was in the middle of the room, and Temple at the end. In a short time they were all seated, and the examiner read the rules and regulations. Then his colleague went round with the questions to be answered during the morning, and presently the only sound to be heard was the scratching of busy pens.