Tulloch's stood some little distance along the Lower Richmond Road. There were but one or two houses, standing back from the road between it and the main road up the hill, and there was little fear of anyone being abroad at that time in the morning. There was, as yet, but a faint gleam of daylight in the sky; and it was dark in the road up the hill, as the trees growing in the grounds of the houses, on either side, stretched far over it. "I say," Jim Sankey said, "won't it be a go, if Johnny Gibson isn't there, after all?" "He will be up there by four," Bob said, confidently. "He said his father would be going out in his boat to fish, as soon as it began to be daylight--because the tide served at that hour--and that he would start, as soon as his father shoved off the boat. "My eye, Jim, what is that ahead of us? It looks to me like a coach." "It is a coach, or a carriage, or something of that sort." "No, it isn't, it is a light cart. What can it be doing here, at this hour? Let us walk the other side of the road." They crossed to the left, as they got abreast of the cart. A man, whom they had not noticed before, said sharply: "You are about early." "Yes, we are off to work," Bob replied, and they walked steadily on. "He couldn't see what we were like," Jim Sankey said, when they had got a hundred yards further. "Not he," Bob said. "I could not make out his figure at all, and it is darker on this side of the road than it is on the other. "I say, you fellows, I think he is up to no good." "What do you mean, Bob?" "Well, what should a cart be standing on the hill for, at this time in the morning? That's Admiral Langton's, I know; the door is just where the cart was stopping." "Well, what has that got to do with it, Bob? The cart won't do him any harm." "No, but there may be some fellows with it, who may be breaking into his house." "Do you think so, Bob?" "Well, it seems likely to me it may be his house, or one of the others." "Well, what are we to do, Bob?" "I vote we see about it, Jim. We have pretty nearly half an hour to spare, now, before Johnny Gibson will come along. We have got our hockey sticks, you know." "But suppose there shouldn't be any men there, Bob, and we should be caught in the grounds; They would think we were going to steal something." "That would be a go," Bob said, "but there isn't likely to be anyone about, at half past three; and if there were, I don't suppose he would be able to catch us. But we must risk something, anyhow. It will be a bit of fun, and it will be better than waiting at the top of the hill, with nothing to do till, Johnny Gibson comes." They were now past the wall in front of Admiral Langton's, and far out of sight of the man in the cart. "There is some ivy on this wall," Bob said. "We can climb over it, by that. Then we will make our way along, until we can find some place where we can climb over into the admiral's garden." "Perhaps there are some dogs about," Wharton objected.