it must be time to get up; but there was not a faint gleam of light yet
at the window, and I resolutely refused to rise, sending my companion
back to bed, and going off again, to wake at last with the sun shining
brilliantly in by the curtain. This time I jumped up, with the full
impression upon me that I had overslept myself; while there lay Mercer
on his back, with his mouth wide-open, and giving vent every now and
then to a guttural snore.

And now we shall be too late, I thought, as I hurried on my trousers,
slipped out of the dormitory door, to run down to the end of the
passage, where I could look out and see the sun shining brightly on the
gold letters of the clock face, where, to my great delight, the hands
pointed to half-past four.

Plenty of time, and I went back and roused up Mercer, who started into
wakefulness, looking quite guilty.

"All right!" he said. "I only just shut my eyes. What's o'clock?"

"Time you were dressed," I whispered. "Don't talk loud, or you'll wake
the others."

We washed and dressed with wonderful celerity, and then crept out and
down-stairs, to open one of the schoolroom windows, jump out, and close
it after us. Then, in the delicious fresh morning, with the trees all
dewy, we started off to go through the shrubbery, and were half-way to
the lodge, when Mercer caught me by the arm.

"Look!" he said. "Magglin!" and there, going across one of the fields
beyond the road, was that individual, with the pockets of his jacket
seeming to be sticking out; and the same idea struck us both.

"He's been poaching!"

But he passed out of sight directly, and we hurried on down to the
lodge, to find Lomax standing at the door smoking his morning pipe.

"Five minutes before your time," he said. "That's a good sign. You
both want to learn, so you'll learn quickly. Wait a minute, I've just
done my bad habit. I learned that years ago, and it's hard to break
oneself of it. There, that'll do," he continued, lifting up one foot,
and bending down, so as to knock the ashes out of his pipe by tapping
the bowl on his heel. "Come along! I've cleared the decks for you."

In fact, as we entered the room, we found that the table and chairs had
been taken out, and the little square of carpet and hearthrug rolled up
together and stood in a corner, while on the window sill lay the two
pairs of boxing-gloves, like four hugely swollen giants' hands, and they
looked so ridiculous that we both la