al cry of "cave, cave." In an instant the room was
in confusion; some one dashed the candles upon the floor, the table was
overturned with a mighty crash, and plates, glasses, and bottles rushed
on to the ground in shivers. Nearly every one bolted for the door, which
led through the passage into the street; and in their headlong flight
and selfishness, they stumbled over each other, and prevented all
egress, several being knocked down and bruised in the crush. Others made
for the tap-room; but, as they opened the door leading into it, there
stood Mr. Ready and Mr. Gordon! and as it was impossible to pass without
being seen, they made no further attempt at escape. All this was the
work of a minute. Entering the back parlor, the two masters quickly took
down the names of full half the boys who, in the suddenness of the
surprise, had been unable to make their exit.

And Eric?

The instant that the candles were knocked over, he felt Wildney seize
his hand, and whisper, "This way all serene;" following, he groped his
way in the dark to the end of the room, where Wildney, shoving aside a
green baize curtain, noiselessly opened a door, which at once let them
into a little garden. There they both crouched down, under a lilac tree
beside the house, and listened intently.

There was no need for this precaution; their door remained unsuspected,
and in five minutes the coast was clear. Creeping into the house again,
they whistled, and Billy coming in, told them that the masters had gone,
and all was safe.

"Glad ye're not twigged, gen'lmen," he said; "but there'll be a pretty
sight of damage for all this glass and plates."

"Shut up with your glass and plates," said Wildney. "Here, Eric, we must
cut for it again."

It was the dusk of a winter evening when they got out from the close
room into the open air, and they had to consider which way they would
choose to avoid discovery. They happened to choose the wrong, but
escaped by dint of hard running, and Wildney's old short cut. As they
ran they passed several boys (who having been caught, were walking home
leisurely), and managed to get back undiscovered, when they both
answered their names quite innocently at the roll-call, immediately
after lock up.

"What lucky dogs you are to get off," said many boys to them.

"Yes, it's precious lucky for me," said Wildney. "If I'd been caught at
this kind of thing a second time, I should have got something worse than
a swishing."