for weeks in the darkest
corner of the shed, Frederick Plunger, Esq. was reposing. It had been
selected as the most suitable hiding-place by the conspirators. It was
large and commodious, and there were so many cracks and crannies in the
worm-eaten, dilapidated lid that there was ample breathing space within.

In this safe hiding-place Plunger had flattered himself that he would be
able to know all that passed at the meeting of the Fifth. He had not
calculated on the box being shifted from its dusty, cob-webbed corner.
But more by chance than design Arbery laid profane hands on it, and
dragging it out with the rest, turned it over and over, something after
the style of a porter with the luggage at a railway terminus in the busy
season.

Bumpety--bumpety! It seemed to Plunger, so far as he had any sensation
at all, that he was performing the part of a human catherine-wheel.

"My!" he gasped. "What are the asses doing with the box? I shall be most
frightfully sick if they don't stop it."

Bumpety--bumpety--bumpety!

"Oh, oh! What an idiot I was to get inside this coffin; it'll be the
death of me!"

Arbery and Leveson gave another jerk to the box even as Plunger was
groaning within.

"It--it--it's worse than being on the Great Wheel, or on a pleasure boat
when there's a sea on. Oh, my--oh dear! When are the silly fellows going
to stop it?" he moaned.

At last they did stop it, almost beneath the identical window on which
Moncrief minor had traced Plunger's noble features.

"That's about the ticket, isn't it, Arbery? My, it's hot work! Didn't
think that old box was so heavy. You'd fancy it was stuffed with lead
instead of broken bats and rubbish of that sort. Phew!"

Leveson wiped his forehead with his handkerchief.

"Yes; that's the thing. It'll give an extra seat or two, if they're
wanted."

"My word! They're going to sit on me," groaned Plunger. His groans were
cut short by a loud outburst of laughter from Arbery.

"What's the lunatic laughing at now?" thought Plunger.

"Hold me up, Levy!" Arbery in rising from the box had caught sight of
the caricature of Plunger on the window, and burst into a fit of
laughter. "Do you see it--do you see who it's meant for?"

Leveson, for answer, likewise broke into a peal of laughter.

"The other lunatic's going it now," Plunger muttered to himself. "Seems
to me I've hopped into an asylum instead of a box. There's a screw loose
in one of 'em. My! Aren't they going i