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240 off when we ought to be jawin' them. Beetle talks to us as if we were a lot of blackguards and—and all that. And when they've hung us up to dry, they go out and slam the door like a house-master. All your fault, Tulke.'

'But I didn't kiss her.'

'You ass! If you'd said you had and stuck to it, it would have been ten times better than what you did,' Naughten retorted. 'Now they'll tell the whole school—and Beetle 'll make up a lot of beastly rhymes and nick-names.'

'But, hang it, she kissed me!' Outside his work, Tulke's mind moved slowly.

'I'm not thinking of you. I'm thinking of us. I'll go up to their study and see if I can make 'em keep quiet!'

'Tulke's awf'ly cut up about this business,' Naughten began, ingratiatingly, when he found Beetle.

'Who's kissed him this time?'

"and I've come to ask you chaps, and especially you, Beetle, not to let the thing be known all over the school. Of course, fellows as senior as you are can easily see why.'

'Um!' said Beetle, with the cold reluctance of one who faces an unpleasant public duty. 'I suppose I must go and talk to the Sixth again.'

'Not the least need, my dear chap, I assure you,' said Naughten hastily.'I'll take any message you care to send.'

But the chance of supplying the missing adjective was too tempting. So Naughten