"Well, if there are, they are most likely chained up. We must risk something. "Well, here goes. If you don't like it, Wharton, you can stay behind." So saying, he put his hockey stick between his teeth, and then proceeded to climb up the wall, by means of the ivy. The wall was but nine feet high and, as soon as he gained the top, Bob said: "Come on, you fellows. I am going to drop down." In two minutes he was joined by the other three. "There is a path, just beyond," Bob said; "let us go by that. Don't you fellows say a word. As Wharton says, there may be some dogs about." Quietly they stole along the path, which ran parallel to the road, until it turned off at right angles. "Now, the first tree that grows against the wall we will get over by," Bob whispered. After going twenty yards, he stopped. "This tree will do." "But what are you going to do, if there should be some men?" Wharton asked, in a tone that showed he objected, altogether, to the proceeding. "It depends upon how many of them there are," Bob replied. "Of course, the admiral has got some men in the house; and they will wake up, and help us, if we give the alarm. Anyhow, we ought to be able to be a match for two men, with these sticks, especially if we take them by surprise. "What do you say, Jim?" "I should think so," Jim replied. "Anyhow, if you are game to go on, I am. "What do you say, Fullarton?" "Oh, I am ready," Fullarton, who was a boy of few words, replied. "Only, if there is anyone, Bob, and we get into a row with them, of course it will all come out about us; and then shan't we get it, just!" "I suppose we shall," Bob admitted, "but I don't see we can help that. "Well, we are in for it, now," and he began to climb the tree and, working along a limb which extended over the wall, he dropped down into the garden. The others soon joined, Wharton being more afraid of staying behind, by himself, than of going with the rest. "Now, what are we to do next?" "I should say we ought to find out whether anyone has got into the house. That is the first thing. Then, if they have, we have got to try to wake up the people, and to frighten the men inside. "Have you got some string in your pockets?" "I have got some." They all had string. "What do you want string for, Bob?" "String is always useful, Jim. We may want to tie their hands. But what I was thinking was, we might fasten it across the stairs, or some of the passages; and then set up a sudden shout, and they would think the watchmen had come, and would make a bolt; and when they got to the string over they would go, and then we would drop on them with these hockey sticks, before they could get up. "Well, come on. There mayn't be anyone here, after all. Now we will go up to the house, and creep round." The house stood thirty or forty yards away and, stepping as noiselessly as they could, the boys crossed the lawn and moved along the front. Suddenly, Tom Fullarton caught hold of Bob's arm.