Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

Fantasy Football Challenge - Library of Books for Football Fanatics

Fantasy Football Challenge presents
The Triple Alliance

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the small hand-bell--the usual signal for silence; an expectant hush pervaded the whole of the big room, showing clearly the interest which every one felt in the business on hand. "I need hardly say," began the doctor, in his clear, decisive manner, "that my object in calling you together is to inquire into a disgraceful piece of disorder which took place in the reading-room last night. I am astonished that such outrageous behaviour should be possible in what, up to the present time, I have always been proud to regard as a community of gentlemen. Such an offence against law and order cannot be allowed to pass unpunished. I feel certain that the greater number of those here present had no share in it, and I shall give the culprits a chance of proving themselves at all events sufficiently honourable to prevent their schoolfellows suffering the consequences which have arisen from the folly of individuals. Let those boys who are responsible for what occurred last evening stand up!" With one exception nobody stirred; a solitary small boy rose to his feet, and in spite of the gravity of the situation a subdued titter ran through the assembly. Apparently the whole of the row and disturbance of the previous evening was the handiwork of one single boy, and that boy the youthful "Rats." "Well, Rathson," said the head-master grimly, "am I to understand that you single-handed overturned forms and tables, scattered books and papers to the four winds, and nearly tore the clothes off another boy's back?" "N--no, sir," answered "Rats" plaintively. "Then will you explain exactly what you did do?" "I was reading--and the gas went out--and some one emptied a box of chess-men over my head--and I--I hit him--and then there was a lot of pushing, and I pushed, and--" concluded "Rats" apologetically-- "and I think I shouted." "H'm!" said the doctor; "so that's all you did. Sit down, sir.--Lucas!" "Yes, sir." "Do you remember what boys were in the reading-room last night?" "Yes, sir, but I don't think they were responsible for what happened; it was done by others who came in from outside." There was a silence. "I ask once more," said the head-master, "what boys took part in this disturbance? let them stand up!" Once more young "Rats" alone pleaded guilty. "Very well, then," continued the doctor sternly; "the whole school will be punished: there will be no half-holiday on Wednesday afternoon, and the reading-room will be closed for a fortnight.--Sit down, Rathson; you are the only boy among the many who must have been connected with this affair--the only one, I say, who has any sense of manliness or honour. Write me a hundred lines, and bring them to me to-morrow morning." The prospect of having to work on Wednesday afternoon caused, the boys themselves to take up the doctor's inquiry, and the query, "Who did it?" became the burning question of the hour. The riot had evidently been carefully planned beforehand, and the plot arranged in such a manner that those who took part in it might do so without being recognized. It was impossible to discover who really were the culprits, though the majority of the boys put it down as having been done by "some of 'Thirsty's' lot," and as being a further proof of the latter's well-known animosity towards Allingford, who had, of course, appointed Lucas as keeper of the room. "Look here!" said Diggory, accosting Fletcher Two in the playground: "what made you tell us to come to the reading-room last night? How did you know there was going to be a row?" "I didn't," murmured the other warily. "All I knew was that they were going to put 'Rats' in the 'stocks;' I hadn't the faintest idea there was going to be such a fine old rumpus." "Umph! hadn't you?" muttered Diggory, turning on his heel; "I know better." CHAPTER XVI. THE CIPHER LETTER. The reading-room row, as it was called, had pretty well blown over, when one morning Diggory accosted Jack Vance and Mugford, who were both seated at the latter's desk, sharpening their knives on an oil-stone. "I say, you fellows, look what I've found." As he spoke, he laid on the desk a slip of paper; it was evidently a scrap torn out of some exercise-book, and inscribed upon it were several lines of capital letters, all jumbled together without any apparent object in their arrangement, and, to be more exact, placed as follows:-- NVVGRMGSVTBNDSVMGSVUVOOLD HKZHHLMGLHFKKVIGSVGDLXZM HLUDZGVIZIGHGZMWRMTRMHRW VGSVXFKYLZIWFMWVIGSVHGZRIH. "Well, what is there funny about that?" asked Jack; "it looks to me as if some one had been practising making capitals." "Is it a puzzle?" inquired Mugford. "No, but I'll tell you what I think it is," answered Diggory, sitting down, and speaking in a low, mysterious tone: "it's a letter written in cipher." "A letter?" repeated Mugford, glancing at the paper. "Why, how could any one read that rubbish--NVVG?" "Of course they can, if they know the key. Didn't I say it was written in cipher, you duffer? Every letter you see there stands for something different." "Then why didn't they write the proper letters at once, and have done with it?" grumbled Mugford. "Because, you prize ass," retorted Diggory, with pardonable asperity, "they didn't want it read." "Then if they didn't want it read, why did they write it at all?" exclaimed Mugford triumphantly. "Oh, shut up! you're cracked, you--" "Look here," interrupted Jack Vance, "where did you find the thing?" "Why, you know the window in the box-room that looks out on the 'quad;' well, there's a little crack under the ledge between the wooden frame and the wall, and this note was stuck in there. I should never have seen it, only I was watching a spider crawling up the wall, and it ran into the hole close to the end of the paper. Some fellows must be using the place as a sort of post-office; don't you remember Fred Acton made one in the wainscotting at The Birches? only these fellows have invented a cipher. Well, I'm going to find it out, and read this note, just for the lark." "How are you going to do it, though? I don't see it's possible to read a thing like this; you can't tell where one word ends and a fresh one begins." "There is a way of finding out a cipher," answered Diggory; "it tells

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