CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
RODS IN PICKLE FOR RAILSFORD.
Grandcourt assembled after the holidays in blissful ignorance of the episode narrated in our last chapter.

Branscombe's illness had been an isolated case, and apparently not due to any defect in the sanitary arrangements of his house.

And as no other boy was reported to have spent his holidays in the same unsatisfactory manner, and as Railsford himself had managed to escape infection, it was decided by the authorities not to publish the little misadventure on the housetop.

The captain of Bickers's house was absent on sick leave, and the Master of the Shell (who had been nursing a stubborn cold during the holidays) would not be in his place, so it was announced, for a week.

That was all Grandcourt was told; and, to its credit, it received the news with profound resignation.
True, some of the more disorderly spirits in Railsford's house were disposed to take advantage of his absence, and lead the much-enduring Monsieur Lablache, who officiated in his place, an uncomfortable dance.
But any indications of mutiny were promptly stamped upon by Ainger and the other prefects, who, because they resented monsieur's appointment, were determined that, come what would, he should have no excuse for exercising his authority.