The first thing that the doctor noted was the open window and the ladder, and the next, that a confused babel of sound was going on in the Fifth's room; and as he strode to the door he was met, full tilt, by a boy with torn clothes, apparently seeking to free himself from the grasp of half a dozen Fifth Form boys. To his bewilderment, the Head saw that this boy was his new scholar, Ralph Rexworth. His strong hand gripped the boy's arm, and his voice thundered out a command for silence, which the boys obeyed all save Ralph, who cried-- "If you do not follow him at once, he will be off, sir! These fellows stopped me, and he has got a good start!" "He! Who?" cried the Head. And the boy replied-- "The man who was in the Fifth, sir. He knocked me down, and bolted; and then the boys woke, and got me, and would not let me go!" "You have been dreaming, boy. Silence, all! Kesterway, you are head monitor. Explain to me! All boys from other Forms back to their rooms; there is no cause for any alarm. At once, please! Now, Kesterway!" "I can tell you nothing, sir. I heard a noise, and woke; and there was Elgert, and one or two others holding a boy who kicked and struggled; and just as I jumped out of bed and ran round, he broke away and rushed for the door." "It was Rexworth, sir!" cried one boy. "He was in our room trying to play some trick upon Elgert. They have been having a row, sir." "Will you have the goodness to hold your tongue, sir!" exclaimed the master, a trifle irritably; and the boy subsided at once. "Elgert, what have you to say? Did this boy attempt to play any tricks on you?" "Yes, sir! I was asleep and I was aroused by a violent cry and a blow, and some one was struggling on my bed, as if he had jumped on and was trying to hold me down; I gripped hold of him, and found it was Rexworth. The other fellows woke, and began crying out; and then, when they found who it was that had made the row, they got angry and went for him!" "That will do. Now you, sir, what have you to say? Speak up, and tell the truth! Why have you disturbed the whole household in this disgraceful manner?" So the doctor asked, and terribly angry did he look; but very different was his expression when he had heard Ralph's story. It sounded incredible that any one should attempt to enter the school for the deliberate purpose of injuring any boy; and he would have put the story down as a fabrication, but there was the plain evidence in the shape of the open window and the ladder. If Ralph had invented it, he must have managed to leave the house, drag the ladder across the playground, raise it to the window, and then go back and open that window; and that also seemed absolutely impossible.