Three saloon-pistols, with a supply of bulleted breech-caps, were stored
in Stalky's trunk, and this trunk was in their dormitory, and
their dormitory was a three-bed attic one, opening out of a ten-bed
establishment, which, in turn, communicated with the great range of
dormitories that ran practically from one end of the College to the
other. Macrea's house lay next to Prout's, King's next to Macrea's, and
Hartopp's beyond that again. Carefully locked doors divided house from
house, but each house, in its internal arrangements--the College had
originally been a terrace of twelve large houses--was a replica of the
next; one straight roof covering all.

They found Stalky's bed drawn out from the wall to the left of the
dormer window, and the latter end of Richards protruding from a
two-foot-square cupboard in the wall.

"What's all this? I've never noticed it before. What are you tryin' to
do, Fatty?"

"Fillin' basins, Muster Corkran." Richards's voice was hollow and
muffled. "They've been savin' me trouble. Yiss."

"'Looks like it," said McTurk. "Hi! You'll stick if you don't take
care."

Richards backed puffing.

"I can't rache un. Yiss, 'tess a turncock, Muster McTurk. They've took
an' runned all the watter-pipes a storey higher in the houses--runned
'em all along under the 'ang of the heaves, like. Runned 'em in last
holidays. _I_ can't rache the turncock."

"Let me try," said Stalky, diving into the aperture.

"Slip 'ee to the left, then, Muster Corkran. Slip 'ee to the left, an'
feel in the dark."

To the left Stalky wriggled, and saw a long line of lead pipe
disappearing up a triangular tunnel, whose roof was the rafters and
boarding of the college roof, whose floor was sharp-edged joists, and
whose side was the rough studding of the lath and plaster wall under the
dormer.

"Rummy show. How far does it go?"

"Right along, Muster Corkran--right along from end to end. Her runs
under the 'ang of the heaves. Have 'ee rached the stopcock yet? Mr. King
got un put in to save us carryin' watter from down-stairs to fill the
basins. No place for a lusty man like old Richards. I'm tu thickabout to
go ferritin'. Thank 'ee, Muster Corkran."

The water squirted through the tap just inside the cupboard, and, having
filled the basins, the grateful Richards waddled away.

The boys sat round-eyed on their beds considering the possibilities of
this trove. Two floors below them they could hear the hum of the angry
h