and Foe
CHAPTER XXXIV. The Mystic Order of Beetles
CHAPTER XXXV. A Remarkable Discovery
CHAPTER XXXVI. The "Fox-hole"
CHAPTER XXXVII. The Letters at the Tuck-Shop
CHAPTER XXXVIII. "Forgive, and Ye shall be Forgiven"
CHAPTER XXXIX. The Missing Flag
CHAPTER XL. How the Flag found its Way back to the Turret
CHAPTER XLI. Friends in Council
CHAPTER XLII. Unexpected Tidings
CHAPTER XLIII. The Storm Breaks
CHAPTER XLIV, In the Garden
CHAPTER XLV. How the Vote was Carried
CHAPTER XLVI. Waterman does a Strange Thing
CHAPTER XLVII. In the Fox's Hole
CHAPTER XLVIII. The Burning Ship
CHAPTER XLIX
CHAPTER L. The Petition—What befell it

A SERIES OF EXCELLENT STORIES

ILLUSTRATIONS

Falcon was dead.... To make good his escape, no time must be lost.

"'I am Mr. Moncrief,' said that gentleman, stepping forward."

"As ill-luck would have it, Hibbert ran full tilt against Mr. Weevil, just as he reached the outer door."

"Slightly raising himself from his position on the roof, Crick lifted the flagstaff from its socket, and drew it quickly beneath the trap-door."

"The boy was kneeling beside him,—it was Moncrief minor.... 'Are you all right?' came in a whisper from the boy."

THE HERO OF GARSIDE SCHOOL

CHAPTER I

THE MOTHER'S PRAYER

"God grant that it may never happen, Paul; God grant that England may never be invaded, that her foes may never land upon our shores."

And the lips of Mrs. Percival moved in silent prayer. Paul regarded the loved face of his mother for a minute or two thoughtfully, as though he were longing to put to her many questions, but dared not. At length he said, breaking the silence:

"Did father ever speak of it?"

It was one of the greatest griefs of Paul's life that he had never known his father. He had been a captain in the Navy, but was unfortunately cut off in the prime of his career by a brave attempt to save the life of a man who had flung himself overboard. The man was saved, but Captain Percival was drowned, leaving a widow and son to lament his loss. Paul at that time was only a year old, so that it was not till the years went on he understood the greatness of his loss. Often and often his thoughts turned to the father who had been snatched from him by a sudden and untimely death, especially when he saw the boys of his school who were fortunate enough to possess both parents; but often as his thoughts went to his father, he rarely spoke of him to his mother. He could see that the pain and sorrow of his death were still with her—that the awful moment when the news came of that sudden, swift catastrophe had written itself upon her heart and memory in writing which would never be effaced.

Paul did not find out all that he had become to his mother till some time after his father's death—not, in fact, till his first term at school had ended. He had never been away from home so long before, and he never forgot how she pressed him to her, and with what tender earnestness she said, "Ah, dear, you do not know how I have missed you."

That same night, when she had thought him fast asleep, she entered his room, looked long and earnestly in his face by the light of a candle, and then stole gently out. And that Sunday, when he went to the old church with her, he felt her hand steal into his as the vicar read the Litany; and the pressure of her hand waxed closer as the vicar's voice sounded through the church: "From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death." Then rose the fervent response from the congregation, "Good Lord, deliver us." And none prayed it more fervently than the widow as she knelt by the side of her son.

It was not only that Mrs. Percival had lost her husband at