for the bell?" "Why, you fool, I shan't go into the room,
only stop on the window-sill." "Well, I don't know, but I do believe he
saw us last night, and my father said he thought so too." "Oh, well, he
can't move very quick, anyway, and he's some way off the window. _I_
shall go up."

I managed, without altering my position too much, to keep my eye on the
window-sill, and, sure enough, in a second or two a small round head
came into sight. I went on with my game. At first I could see that the
watcher was ready to duck down at the slightest provocation, but as I
took no sort of notice, he gained confidence, leant his elbows on the
sill, and then actually pulled himself up and sat down on it. He bent
over and whispered to the others below, and it was not long before I saw
a whole row of heads filling up the window-sill from end to end. There
must have been a dozen of them. I thought the time was come, and without
moving, and in as careless a tone as I could, I said:

"Come in, gentlemen, come in; don't be shy." There was a rustle, and two
or three heads disappeared, but nobody said anything. "Come in, if you
like," I said again; "you can hear the bell quite well from here, and I
shan't shut the window."

"Promise!" said the one who was sitting on the sill.

"I promise, honour bright," I said, whereupon he made the plunge. First
he dropped on to the seat of a chair by the window, and from that to the
floor. Then he wandered about the room, keeping at a distance from me at
first, and, I have no doubt, watching very anxiously to see whether I
had any intention of pouncing on him. The others followed, first one by
one and then two or three at a time. Some remained sitting on the
window-sill, but most plucked up courage to get down on to the floor and
explore.

I had now my first good chance of seeing what they were like. They all
wore the same fashion of clothes--a tunic and close-fitting hose and
flat caps--seemingly very much what a boy would have worn in Queen
Elizabeth's time. The colours were sober--dark blue, dark red, grey,
brown--and each one's clothes were of one colour all through. They had
some white linen underneath; it showed a little at the neck. There were
both fair and dark among them: all were clean and passably good-looking,
one or two certainly handsome. The firstcomer was ruddy and
auburn-haired and evidently a leader. They called him Wag.

I heard whispers from corners of the room, and appeals to W