The Triple Alliance

s your

ry Tre

e class

road grin on his own face-"now, then, there's nothing to laugh at.-

class-mates, the youngster seemed rather to enjoy the joke, and imme

n turning round, he smiled complacently at the occupants of the desks behind, as muc

ief from the depressing monotony of the serious business in hand-this little incident, I say, happened in the second class of a small preparatory school, situated on th

ho, with an unmarried daughter, Miss Eleanor, acting as housekeeper, and his nephew, Mr. Blake, performing the duties of a

stered round the big table in the dining-room; no new faces had appeared, and Fred Ac

olars, went to sit at the feet of Mr. Welsby himself; while the second remained b

or brought him into the room, and after a few moments' whispered conversation with her cousin, smiled round the class and then withdrew. Every one w

more friendly manner than was customary on these occasions. He was a wiry little chap, with bright eyes, for ever on the twinkle, and black hair pasted down upon his head, so as not

games of cricket or football, and the boys were forced to content themselves with such substitutes as prisoner's base, cross tag, etc., or in carrying

a jolly fellow," and the fact that his popularity extended far and wide among a large circle of friends and acquaintances, caused him to have a good many irons in the fire of one sort and another. During their hours o

h snow; but Acton was equal to the occasion, and as soon as din

of the playground; a straight, steep path lay between this and the house, and the youthful dux,

n level ground? Of course not, when we've got this jolly hill to go down; not if I

a bit crooked, and runs

o straight; that's half the fun of the thing-it'll make it all

f men digging their own graves before being shot, the company set about putting this fearful projec

ght have flashed across the memory as at the last gasp of a drowning man; and if fortunate enough to whiz through the doorway, and pull up "all standing" on the level stretch beyond, it was to draw a deep breath, and regard the successful performance of the feat as an escape from catastrophe which was nothing short of miraculous. The unevenness of the ground made it almost impossible to steer a straight course. A boy might be half-way down the path, w

he company were temporarily disabled, and

yards from the commencement his legs flew from under him, he soared into the air like a bird, and di

omewhat damped the sufferer's ardour; but instead of that

ent at the top to take breath, suddenly excla

th the skates. He sat down on a bank, and was proceeding to put them on, when he discovered that, by some ove

're mine," fa

put '

don't w

say you

Acton, I real

's got to go down that slide

remarked in a casual manner that if Mugford didn't wish to do it,

im, and did not wish to see him dashed to pieces against the playground wall before their very eyes. Acton, however, had decreed that "some one had got t

x; "here's one chap a

; the bell 'll r

in arming Diggory for the enterprise, and in a fe

," he said

adventurous juvenile rushed down the path, shot like an arrow through the doorway, and the next instant was see

called him a trump; while Jack Vance presented him on the spot with a mince-pie, which had been slightl

t there was never a more popular boy

r in the cloak-room, "that was awfully good of you to go

d you fellows at once that I wasn't a muff. I don't mind telling you I was in rather a fu

s, gave the boys plenty of opportunity of testing the character of their new companion, or, in plainer English, of finding out the stuff he was made of; and wha

t enough for a new boy's first day at school; yet before it closed he was d

y timbers, the queer shape of some of the bedrooms and attics, the narrow, crooked passages, and the little unexpected flights of stairs, were all things belonging to a bygone

sent to have been bestowed upon him in recognition of his daring exploit-"I say, Diggy, you're in my bedroom: there's

do you

'd come over and rag us, and we should drive them back. Miss Eleanor came up one night, and caught us in the middle of a battle. O Diggy, she is a trump! Blake asked her next day before us all which boys had been out on the landing, because he meant to punish them; and she laughed, and said: 'I'm sure I can't tell you. Why, when I saw they were all in their night-shirts, I shut my eyes at once!' Of co

" interrupted Diggory; "have

is term Kennedy and Jacobs sleep in the room above ours, and next to the big attic. They're always reading sea stories, and they call their room the 'Main-top,' because it's so

foot of their beds and discussing the formation of a few simple rules

," said Mugford; "I'll do i

e. "We'll give you coat and wai

missiles struck Diggory on the shoulder, and the other struck Mugford fair and square on the side of the head, the fragments flying all over the floor. There was a subdued ye

ed Jack Vance; "I will pay them out. I wo

f the ledge," answered Diggory. "Look here-let's sw

rambled into bed, forgetting all about the proposed race in their eagerness to

ar anything of the ghos

gf

st?" aske

s haunted, and Kennedy and Jacobs say the ghost must be in the big attic next their

always

say, whenever

eir heads well under the clothes, and then we'll rush in and bag their pillows, or drag them out of bed, or something of that sort. You aren't afraid to go into the at

"and it'll be an awful lark catching t

though I suppose we'd better

in an undertone until the sound of footsteps and the gleam of a candl

e; "we must give him time to

boys, in semi-undress, were creeping

"there are several loose boards

g faintly through a little skylight formed of a single pane o

shivering in the cold and darkness, to put the project into execution. During the period of waiting the conversation had turned on ha

ered Mugford,

latter, giving Diggo

the part of the ghost, and there was no excus

he muttered

as though it were the handle of a galvanic battery, while Mugford an

of something falling inside the attic, and this was

ve; then followed another scream, if anything more horrible than the last, and acco

rdly had they started when the door of the "Main-top" was flung open, and its two occupants rushed down after them. As though to ensure the retreat being nothing less than a regular rou

ement, they rose to their feet, and after surveying each other for a mo

lows doing up ther

" answered Vance; "but just when we got u

the key turning in the

whispere

h, they all three darted into their room just as the maste

ering down the passage, "what's the meaning of this disturbance? I thought t

ennedy and Jacobs in one

hat ghost? Wh

their sudden fright, taking care, however, to make no mention

laughing, and without a word turned on his heel and went quickly upstairs.

st; I've been trying to la

nd Vance could no longer restrain their curiosity; they hopped out of bed and glanced round the corner of the door. Th

he trap, chain and all, right across the room, but that finished him; he was as dead as a

bs, and did so rather sheepishly. They felt they had been making too

the new boy, after a

llows out for throwing those snowballs; we must do it some other night. And now we three must swear to be

gory: "we'll call it '