me. "It's some one knocking very gently against
that door leading into Locker's Lane," he whispered.

They groped their way across the playground until they reached the wall.
There was no mistake about it--some one was gently tapping with his
knuckles on the other side of the door.

"Who's there?" asked Jack Vance.

"I want to speak to the young gen'leman who was locked up t'other day in
the cow-shed," was the answer, given in a low voice which Diggory
instantly recognized.

"I know him," he said; "it's Joe Crump. Here, give me a leg up, and
I'll talk to him over the wall.--All right, Joe; I'm the chap."

"Well, if you are," answered the voice, "you'll remember you offered me
a bob if I could find out and tell you when somebody was going to do
something."

"Well, what's the news?"

"Give me the money first, and then I'll tell you."

Jack Vance fortunately had the required coin in his pocket, and Diggory
dropped it into Joe Crump's cap.

"Well, the news is this," said the latter, speaking in the same low
tone--"that there Noaks and Hogson are coming up here to-night just
afore nine o'clock, and they're a-going to drown your fireworks."

"Drown our fireworks! why, what ever d'you mean? How do they know we've
got any fireworks? and how can they get at them when they're all locked
up?"

"I can't say," returned Crump, "so it's no use asking me. I only knows
that Noaks is a-going to do it; 'drown 'em all in a bucket of water,'
was what he said. Remember you promised to tell nothink about me,
that's all. Good-night, mister!"

The stranger vanished in the darkness, and Diggory dropped down from the
wall.

"Here's a pretty go!" he remarked. "What are we to do? there's no time
to lose. Come on, Jack, let's go and tell Acton."

The latter was engaged on the closing sentence of his letter; but on
hearing the intelligence which Diggory had to impart, he threw the
unfinished epistle into his desk, and rose to his feet with an
exclamation of astonishment.

"D'you think it's really true? or is this fellow, Lump or Bump or
whatever you call him, trying to take a rise out of us, or telling lies
to earn the shilling?"

"I don't think so," answered Diggory, "and I'll tell you why. For some
reason or other, he's at daggers drawn with young Noaks and Hogson.
I think they've knocked him about, and he's doing it to pay them out."

"But how did they get to know about our fireworks? and how do they
reckon they're