et you," he whispered hoarsely. "I saw the Dragon go
out, so I fired a handful of gravel at every window in turn. Come on out."

"We can't. We're locked in!" we chorused dismally.

"I'll try to catch you if you jump," he suggested. "I would break the fall,
anyway."

But the way looked long, and Simon very small.

Then: "There's a ladder," cried The Seraph, gleefully, "better twy that."

With his usual clear-sightedness, he had spied what had escaped his
seniors. Our neighbour, Mr. Mortimer Pegg, had been having some paper hung,
and, surely enough, the workmen had left a tall ladder propped against the
wall of the house. Without a second's hesitation, Simon flung himself upon
it, and with one splendid effort, hurled it from that support to the wall
of Mrs. Handsomebody's house. Then, with the strength of a superman, he
dragged it until it leaned just below our window, and stood gasping at its
base.

"Good fellow," said Angel, and began to climb out.

"Now, you hand me The Seraph," he ordered, "and I'll attend to him."

I had some misgivings as I passed his plump, clinging little person through
the window, and watched him make the perilous descent, but, in time, he
reached the ground, and then I, too, stood beside the others, and the four
of us scampered lightly down the street with no misgivings, and no fears.

Before the door of our own grocer, Simon made a halt.

"Must have somethin' wet," he gasped. "Ladder nearly floored me."

He took us in and treated us with princely unconcern to ginger beer and a
jam puff apiece. As we sucked our beer through straws, I smiled to think of
Mary Ellen, doubtless preparing bread and milk at home.

Once more we entered the garden through the creeper-hung door. We visited
the rabbits, and unchained one of the fox-terriers, which had been tied up,
Simon told us, as a punishment for eating part of a lace curtain. Bill
appeared then and said that his mother desired us to go to her in the
drawing-room, and, as it was beginning to rain, Simon agreed that it wasn't
a bad idea. We might even find something to eat in there.

As we trooped past the basement window, I lingered behind the others, and
peered for a space into the lawless region below. What met my gaze almost
took my breath away: for there was our own Mary Ellen, who should have been
at that moment cleaning the coal cellar, sitting at one end of the long
table, in her new blue dress, and plumed hat, a gentleman in livery