I hopped over the wall at the back into the field, and waited there for about a quarter of an hour, and then, as no one came, I made tracks home." "That's all very fine.

You took precious good care to save your own bacon; you always do." "Oh, go on!" answered Fletcher, rising from his chair; "you're in a wax to-night.

Well, ta, ta! Don't you resign." This little passage of arms was not the first of the kind that had taken place between Fletcher and Thurston, and it did not prevent a renewal of their friendship on the morrow.
The latter, following either his own inclination or the advice of his chum, decided not to resign his position as a prefect, and in a few days' time the majority of the school had wellnigh forgotten the fracas at the Black Swan.
Among those in high places, however, the affair was not so easily overlooked.

The big fellows kept their own counsel, but it soon became evident that Thurston was being "cut" and cold-shouldered by the other members of the Sixth; while he, for his part, as though by way of retaliation, began to hob-nob more freely than ever with boys lower down in the school and of decidedly questionable character.
"It's awfully bad form of a chap who's a prefect chumming up with a fellow like Mouler in the Upper Fourth," said Carton one afternoon.
"I wonder old 'Thirsty' isn't ashamed to do it.

And now he's hand and glove with those chaps Hawley and Gull in the Fifth; they've both got heaps of money, but they're frightful cads." From the morning following their return to Ronleigh the Triple Alliance had been kept in a continual state of uneasiness and suspense, wondering what action Noaks would take regarding his discovery of their visit to The Hermitage.
The days passed by, and still he made no further reference to the matter, and took no notice of any of the three friends when he happened to pass them in the passages.