we had the satisfaction of seeing a fairly
brisk inflow. We would fain have waited to see the fatal little island
disappear below the surface. But the first bell was already an sounding
when the water completed the circle, leaving it standing up more
prominent than ever.

To our horror, at this precise moment Tempest strolled down.

"Hullo! what are you two after? Fishing? One way to catch them,
letting all the water out."

"It was an experiment," said Dicky, who, like myself, was very pale as
he looked first at the Dux, then at the guilty hillock in the pond.

"So it seems. In other words, you're making a jolly mess, and are
enjoying yourselves. I hope you'll enjoy it equally, both of you, when
Hummer sees what you've done."

"Shall you tell him?" I asked, somewhat breathlessly. The Dux laughed
scornfully.

"You deserve a hiding for asking such a thing. Come here! Jump out on
to that little island there, and stay there till I tell you."

"Oh, Dux, please not," said I, in a tone of terror, which was quite out
of proportion to the penalty. The pistol was only two inches below the
surface!

"Do you hear? Look sharp, or I'll chuck you there."

That might be worse. It might hurt me and cut up the soil. So I jumped
gingerly out, and stood poised with a foot in the water on either side,
dreading at any moment to see the stones slip and the tell-tale gleam of
the buried weapon.

"If you don't stand properly," said the Dux, "I'll make you sit down.
Come along, young Brown, it's time we went up to school."

"How long am I to stay, please?" I inquired.

"Till you're in water up to the knees," said the Dux, as he turned away,
with the faithless Dicky beside him.

Up to the knees! I stood loyally for five minutes, during which the
water gained about an eighth of an inch up my ankles. Then the second
bell rang, and things became desperate.

Accordingly I knelt in the water until I could confidently assert that I
was wet, very wet indeed, up to the knees; which done, I posted as fast
as my ill-used legs would carry me to morning school.

CHAPTER THREE.

"WHEN SHALL WE THREE MEET AGAIN?"

Once more Dr Plummer reserved himself for the afternoon. Perhaps it
was the haunting tyranny of the defunct Hector; perhaps it was pique at
being baffled, so far, in finding the culprit; whatever may have been
the reason, he was in an ominously uncompromising mood when at last he
returned to the fateful qu