"We must be off." A new cause for anxiety now presented itself to Diggory's mind in the thought that he would be late in taking his place in the big schoolroom.

He knew that Noaks and Hawley would have to be in time for the assembly; but the two Sixth Form boys were not amenable to the same rule, and might linger behind.
Thurston, however, rose to his feet, blew out the candle, and the four conspirators groped their way in a body out through the low doorway.
Diggory waited until he thought they must have reached the school buildings, and then prepared to follow.

The bell had stopped ringing some minutes, and without looking very carefully where he was going, he ran as fast as he could out of the match-ground, and across the junior field.

Suddenly, right in front of him, and within fifty yards of the paved playground, a dark figure seemed all at once to rise out of the ground.

It was Noaks! The latter had dropped a pencil-case, and had been left by his companions searching for it on his hands and knees.
"Hullo!" he exclaimed, catching the small boy by the arm.