nt men, who
became at once on our side to the extent of driving their friends back;
and before they could recover from the surprise consequent upon the
dog's assault, the gate was banged to and locked.

"Show the light, and see where that fellow came over the wall, Cob,"
whispered Uncle Dick; and I made the light play along the top, expecting
to see a head every moment. But instead of a head a pair of hands
appeared over the coping-stones--a pair of great black hands, whose
nails showed thick and stubby in the lantern light.

"There, take that," said Uncle Dick, giving the hands a quick tap with
his stick. "I don't want to hurt you, though I could."

By that he meant do serious injury, for he certainly hurt the owner of
the hands to the extent of giving pain, for there was a savage yell and
the hands disappeared.

Then there was a loud scuffling noise and a fresh pair of hands
appeared, but they shared the fate of the others and went out of sight.

"Nice place this," said Uncle Bob suddenly. "Didn't take return
tickets, did you?"

"Return tickets! No," said Uncle Jack in a low angry voice. "What!
Are you tired of it already?"

"Tired! Well, I don't know, but certainly this is more lively than
Canonbury. There's something cheerful about the place. Put up your
umbrellas, it hails."

I was nervous and excited, but I could not help laughing at this, for
Uncle Bob's ideas of hailstones were peculiar. The first that fell was
a paving-stone as big as a half-quartern loaf, and it was followed by
quite a shower of the round cobbles or pebbles nearly the size of a fist
that are used so much in some country places for paths.

Fortunately no one was hit, while this bombardment was succeeded by
another assault or attempt to carry the place by what soldiers call a
_coup de main_.

But this failed, for the hands that were to deal the _coup_ received
such ugly taps from sticks as they appeared on the top of the wall that
their owners dropped back and began throwing over stones and angry words
again.

Only one of our assailants seemed to have the courage to persevere, and
this proved to be our old friend. For as I directed the light along the
top of the wall a pair of hands appeared accompanied by the usual
scuffing.

Uncle Dick only tapped them, but possibly not hard enough, for the arms
followed the hands, then appeared the head and fierce eyes of the man we
had found asleep.

"Coom on, lads; we've got un n