"I'd forgotten Kay's for the moment. Now you mention it, they are rather a crew. But I shouldn't think they'd find it worth while to rot about here. It isn't as if they were on their native heath. People have a prejudice against having their tent-ropes loosed, and they'd get beans if they did anything in that line. I remember once there was a tent which made itself objectionable, and it got raided in the night by a sort of vigilance committee from the other schools, and the chaps in it got the dickens of a time. None of them ever came to camp again. I hope Kay's'll try and behave decently. It'll be an effort for them; but I hope they'll make it. It would be an awful nuisance if young Billy made an ass of himself in any way. He loves making an ass of himself. It's a sort of hobby of his." As if to support the statement, a sudden volley of subdued shouts came from the other end of the Eckleton lines. "Go it, Wren!" "Stick to it, Silver!" "Wren!" "Silver!" "S-s-h!" Silence, followed almost immediately by a gruff voice inquiring with simple directness what the dickens all this noise was about. "Hullo!" said Kennedy. "Did you hear that? I wonder what's been up? Your brother was in it, whatever it was." "Of course," said Jimmy Silver, "he would be. We can't find out about it now, though. I'll ask him tomorrow, if I remember. I shan't remember, of course. Good night." "Good night." Half an hour later, Kennedy, who had been ruminating over the incident in his usual painstaking way, reopened the debate. "Who's Wren?" he asked. "Wha'?" murmured Silver, sleepily. "Who's Wren?" repeated Kennedy. "I d'know.... Oh.... Li'l' beast.... Kay's.... Red hair.... G'-ni'." And sleep reigned in Blackburn's tent. VI THE RAID ON THE GUARD-TENT Wren and Billy Silver had fallen out over a question of space. It was Silver's opinion that Wren's nest ought to have been built a foot or two further to the left. He stated baldly that he had not room to breathe, and requested the red-headed one to ease off a point or so in the direction of his next-door neighbour. Wren had refused, and, after a few moments' chatty conversation, smote William earnestly in the wind. Trouble had begun upon the instant. It had ceased almost as rapidly owing to interruptions from without, but the truce had been merely temporary. They continued the argument outside the tent at five-thirty the next morning, after the _reveille_ had sounded, amidst shouts of approval from various shivering mortals who were tubbing preparatory to embarking on the labours of the day. A brisk first round had just come to a conclusion when Walton lounged out of the tent, yawning.