Evidently the majority regarded the announcement in a jocular manner; and when a distant shout of laughter came up from the passage below, and down from the landing above, it was clear that Forders did not take the matter very much to heart.
"It was ridiculous, when you come to think of it," soliloquised Clapperton, "that a blundering ass like Fisher major should have brought the School into such a precious mess." The noise gradually died away as fellows one by one dropped of to bed.
Clapperton waited till they were gone before he followed.

As he passed the notice board he glanced at the document which had lately cost him so much pain.

It was still there; but not as he left it.

A sentence had been squeezed in between his own words and his signature at the bottom of the sheet, which, as it was a fair imitation of his back-sloped handwriting, had all the appearance of forming part of his manifesto.
Clapperton gasped with fury as he read the amended notice:-- "Notice.
"The head-master wishes it to be known that, the Club money supposed to be missing has been found by the treasurer, and that I am a beast and a sneak to have accused Rollitt of stealing it.
"Geo.

Clapperton." He tore the paper from the board, and stamped on it in his rage.