Diggory's face wore something of the same expression which Jack and
Mugford had seen upon it when long ago their friend first distinguished
himself at The Birches by going down the slide on skates. He gave a
nervous little cough, and advancing towards the head-master's table,
laid thereon the cipher note, at the same time remarking, "If you
please, sir, we know who screwed up little--hem! Mr. Grice's door, or,
at all events, we think we do."

So sudden and unexpected was this announcement that it caused the doctor
to half rise from his chair, while Oaks and Allingford turned and gazed
at the speaker in open-mouthed astonishment. They none of them expected
for a moment that the three youngsters had come for any more important
purpose than to solicit orders for new caps or "journey-money," and this
confession came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

"What!" exclaimed the head-master, taking the scrap of paper, and
glancing alternately from the mystic word to the boy's face--"what on
earth is this? Explain yourself."

It would be unnecessary to attempt a verbatim report of Diggory's
evidence; in doing so we should but be repeating facts with which the
reader is already acquainted. Let it suffice to say that, with many
haltings and stumbles, he gave a full account of his finding the first
cipher, translating the same, attending the secret meeting, and, lastly,
discovering on the previous day the brief note which he had just
produced.

The telling of the tale occupied some considerable time, for the doctor
had many questions to ask; and when it came to the account of the
conversation which had taken place under the pavilion, his face visibly
darkened.

"My eye," remarked Diggory, an hour later, "I wouldn't go through that
again for something! I swear that by the time I'd finished the
perspiration was running down my back in a regular stream."

"Well," said the doctor, turning to Jack Vance and Mugford, when their
companion had finished speaking, "and what have you two got to say?"

"Only the same as Trevanock, sir; we--we found it out together."

"Then, in the first place, why didn't you tell me all this before?"

"We were afraid to, sir," faltered Jack Vance; "and we thought it would
be sneaking."

"Dear, dear," exclaimed the head-master impatiently, "when will you boys
see things in a proper light? You think it wrong to tell tales, and yet
quite right that innocent people should suffer for things done