r. Once Sid imagined that he saw
the fat man hiding in a nook in the hall where the evening gloom lay
deepest, and they raised eery echoes through the house in their
panic-stricken flight back to the top of the stairway. Past the fearsome
corner again, through the stuffy kitchen where a ray of gas-light from
the next house fell upon the tall, cylindrical water boiler and gave
them a second fright, and out into the blessed freedom of the back yard.
There they broke for the railroad tracks and home.

Mr. Fletcher had already arrived from the office, and was in the
kitchen, talking, as Mrs. Fletcher prepared supper. That meant that it
was long after six, and John was under strict orders to report upon his
immediate arrival from school! But as he came in, still panting, the
shining rod caught her eye, and his sin of omission was forgotten.

"Pea shooter! Give it here, John. One night of Halloween pranks is
enough, let alone a whole week of it."

He surrendered the weapon reluctantly. "Now mind," she added as the bit
of tin was dropped into the top drawer of the kitchen bureau, "you're
not to buy another one, either."

Mothers were peculiarly unsympathetic about premature pranks; take
Fourth of July, no matter how many firecrackers a fellow owned, he had
to sneak off to the big lot to light them if he wanted to celebrate on
even the day before.

So there was little left to do but look longingly forward to the great
night. On Monday, as he dressed, John found himself repeating, "Only
four more days." His last thought on Tuesday was, "That makes just
three." Thursday afternoon at school, as he chanted a silent refrain,
"Day after tomorrow's Halloween, day after tomorrow's Halloween," the
boy in the seat just behind tapped him stealthily on the shoulder and
passed over a bit of folded paper.

He glanced up at Miss Brown. She was filling out the monthly report
cards and was not likely to detect him, but he held the note underneath
his desk as he opened it, nevertheless. It was from Silvey and ran in
nearly illegible figures:

17-12-19-13. 14-22-22-7 26-7 7-19-22 8-19-26-24-16
26-21-7-22-9 8-24-19-12-12-15 7-12-23-26-2 26-15-15
7-19-22 7-18-20-22-9-8 7-19-22-9-22. 25-18-15-15.

He ran his hand back of the untidy jumble of school books and pads and
drew out an oft creased, finger marked sheet, the secret code of the
"Tigers":

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S
26 25 24 23 22 21