Some boys saw it and set up a titter, which excited the attention of the form-master, Mr. Y——, nicknamed "Stiggins," a strict disciplinarian.
"Who brought that rat into school?" he asked.
Lorne confessed that he was the culprit.
"Well, make haste to catch him and carry him out, or I shall complain of you," said Mr. Y——.
My lord laid down his Homer, but to catch the rat was not easy. Seeing himself an object of general attention, the animal darted under the scarlet curtain which separated one division from another, and, rushing amid a new lot of boys, provoked an uproar.
In a minute all the boys in the upper school-room, some two hundred and odd, were on their feet shouting, laughing, hooting, and preparing to throw their books at the rat, who, however, spared them this trouble by ducking down a hole, where he disappeared for good and a'.
Lorne had to come back, red and breathless, declaring that his game had eluded pursuit, whereupon Mr. Y——, who disliked riots, proceeded to make out a "bill" which consigned his lordship after school to the care of the Sixth Form Præposter.
Luckily Dr. Goodford took a merciful view of the affair, and, as Lorne had not yet had "first fault," absolved him from kneeling on the block.
It is to be noted that Lorne might easily have exonerated himself by explaining under what circumstances he had taken charge of the rat; but he was not the kind of boy to back out of a scrape by betraying a friend, and if Dr. Goodford had refused him the benefit of a first fault, he would certainly have taken his flogging without a murmur.
