, I almost wish--'

And all the time Oswald was looking Dicky was pulling at his jacket to
make him get down and let Dicky have a squint. And just as she said 'I
almost,' Dicky pulled too hard and Oswald felt himself toppling on the
giddy verge of the big flower-pots. Putting forth all his strength our
hero strove to recover his equi-what's-its-name, but it was now lost
beyond recall.

'You've done it this time!' he said, then he fell heavily among the
flower-pots piled below. He heard them crash and rattle and crack, and
then his head struck against an iron pillar used for holding up the
next-door veranda. His eyes closed and he knew no more.

Now you will perhaps expect that at this moment Alice would have cried
'Murder!' If you think so you little know what girls are. Directly she
was left alone in that tree she made a bolt to tell Albert's uncle all
about it and bring him to our rescue in case the coiner's gang was a
very desperate one. And just when I fell, Albert's uncle was getting
over the wall. Alice never screamed at all when Oswald fell, but Dicky
thinks he heard Albert's uncle say, 'Confound those kids!' which would
not have been kind or polite, so I hope he did not say it.

The people next door did not come out to see what the row was. Albert's
uncle did not wait for them to come out. He picked up Oswald and carried
the insensible body of the gallant young detective to the wall, laid it
on the top, and then climbed over and bore his lifeless burden into our
house and put it on the sofa in Father's study. Father was out, so
we needn't have _crept_ so when we were getting into the garden. Then
Oswald was restored to consciousness, and his head tied up, and sent
to bed, and next day there was a lump on his young brow as big as a
turkey's egg, and very uncomfortable.

Albert's uncle came in next day and talked to each of us separately.
To Oswald he said many unpleasant things about ungentlemanly to spy on
ladies, and about minding your own business; and when I began to tell
him what I had heard he told me to shut up, and altogether he made me
more uncomfortable than the bump did.

Oswald did not say anything to any one, but next day, as the shadows of
eve were falling, he crept away, and wrote on a piece of paper, 'I want
to speak to you,' and shoved it through the hole like a heart in the top
of the next-door shutters. And the youngest young lady put an eye to
the heart-shaped hole, and then opened the s