The small boy grabbed up the bits of paper, stuffed them in his pocket,
and hurried away towards the schoolroom.

"Is that one of the masters?" asked Mugford.

"No," answered Carton, "that's Oaks; he's one of the prefects.
Don't you see he's got a blue tassel to his mortar-board?"

"But what's a prefect?"

"Whew!" laughed the other, "you'll soon find out if you play the fool,
and don't mind what you're about. Why, there are fourteen of them, all
fellows in the Sixth, and they keep order and give you lines, and all
that sort of thing."

"Why, I thought it was only masters did that," said Jack Vance.

"Well, you'll find the prefects do it here," answered Carton; "and when
they tell you to do a thing, I'd advise you to look alive and do it, for
they don't reckon to speak twice."

The evening passed quickly enough. After tea came an interview with the
head-master in his study, and then what was perhaps a still more trying
ordeal--a long spell of sitting in the big schoolroom answering an
incessant fire of questions such as, "What's your name?"--"Where d'you
come from?" etc., etc.

At length the signal was given for passing on to bed, and the Triple
Alliance were not sorry to gain the shelter of No. 16 dormitory.