CHAPTER VIII.
THIRD FORM ORATORY.
At the end of the first fortnight our three friends had begun to find their feet at Ronleigh, and the sense of being "outsiders" in everything was gradually wearing off as they grew more intimate with their schoolfellows.
Jack Vance and Diggory soon became popular members of "The Happy Family," and their loyalty to Mugford caused the latter's path to be much smoother than it probably would have been had he been compelled to tread it alone.
Carton turned out a capital fellow; Rathson, the small, sandy-haired boy mentioned in the previous chapter, and who generally went by the name of "Rats," took a great fancy to Jack; while Maxton repeated his assertion that young Trevanock was "the right sort," and as a further mark of his favour presented the new-comer with a moleskin of his own curing, which looked very nice, but, as "Rats" put it, "smelt rather fruity." But it was not in the Third Form only that Diggory began to find friends; for by a lucky chance he was fortunate enough to make a good impression on the minds of the great men, who, as a rule, took no further notice of the small fry than to exact from them a certain amount of obedience, or in default a certain number of lines or other "impots." One morning, soon after breakfast, a little group was gathered round Carton's desk in the big school-room, discussing the value of some foreign stamps, when a small boy came up to them, saying,-- "Is Trevanock here?
Well, Acton wants you now at once in his study." "Hullo," said Carton, looking up from the sheet of specimens in front of him--"hullo, Diggy! What have you been up to ?" "I haven't been doing anything," answered the other.

"What do you think he wants me for ?" "I don't know, but it sounds rather like getting a licking.

At all events, you'd better hurry up; prefects don't thank you for keeping them waiting.

His is the third door on the right as you go down the passage." Diggory hastened to obey the summons, wondering what it could mean.
He found the door, and in answer to the loud "Come in!" which greeted his knock turned the handle, and found himself for the first time inside one of the Sixth Form studies.
It was a small, square room, and looked very cosy and comfortable with its red window-curtains, well-filled bookshelf, and many little knick-knacks that adorned the walls and mantelpiece.

An array of silver cups, several photographs of cricket and football teams, and a miscellaneous pile of bats, fencing-sticks, Indian clubs, etc., standing in one corner, all spoke of the athlete; while carelessly thrown down on the top of a cupboard was an article for the possession of which many a, boy would have bartered the whole of his worldly wealth--a bit of worn blue velvet and the tarnished remnant of what had once been a gold tassel--the "footer cap" of Ronleigh College.
But it was not so much the furniture as the occupants of the study that attracted Diggory's attention.