"Were you going to set upon him?" asked Arthur.

"We were not going to put a finger upon him; I give you my word, we
were not," said Hurst.

"What, then, were you going to do?"

But the boys would not be caught. "It might stop fun, you know, Mr.
Hamish. You might get telling your brother Tom; and Tom might let it
out to Gaunt; and Gaunt might turn crusty and forbid it. We were going
to serve the fellow out; but not to touch him or to hurt him; and
that's enough."

"As you please," said Hamish. "He is a surly old fellow."

"He is an old brute! he's a dog in a kennel! he deserves hanging!"
burst from the throng of boys.

"What do you think he went and did this afternoon?" added Hurst to the
two Channings. "He sneaked up to the dean with a wretched complaint of
us boys, which hadn't a word of truth in it; not a syllable, I assure
you. He did it only because Gaunt had put him in a temper at one
o'clock. The dean did not listen to him, that's one good thing. How
_jolly_ he'd have been, just at this moment, if you two had not come
up! Wouldn't he, boys?"

The boys burst into a laugh; roar upon roar, peal upon peal; shrieking
and holding their sides, till the very Boundaries echoed again.
Laughing is infectious, and Hamish and Arthur shrieked out with them,