"Well, what do you want? You've no business on this side; go to your own house." "All right, Clapperton," said Fisher, speaking with unwonted rapidity. "I only thought you'd like to know my brother's found the money. Hurray! Rollitt's no thief; ain't you glad?--Yeow!" This last exclamation was in response to a grab from the enraged Clapperton, which, though it failed to catch the messenger, clawed his face. "I've had enough of this," said the senior. "I don't care--. Hullo! where's my key?" The key was not to be seen. He looked out into the passage; it was not there. No one else was in sight. He returned viciously to his seat at the table, and began to read again. The door had opened, and Ashby, on tip-toe, was in the room before the senior noticed the fresh intrusion. "Rollitt's no thief; ain't you glad? The money's found. Hurray, Clapperton!--done it!" exclaimed Ashby, all in one breath, dancing out of the room in conscious pride at his exploit. "All very well," said D'Arcy, whose turn came next; "how am I to do it?" "No shirking," said Wally; "I come after you." "Look here," said D'Arcy; "if you chaps give me a leg-up, I'll let him have it through his window. I can reach round from this passage window to his if you hang on to my legs." "Good dodge," said Wally, admiringly, "but we'd better turn the key on the door first. If he came out and spotted us holding you, we might have to drop you." So the key was quietly put in the lock and turned; and D'Arcy, firmly held by the heels, wriggled himself out of the window, and, with the aid of a pipe, pulled himself up, with his face to the window of Clapperton's study. That worthy was beginning to congratulate himself that he would be spared a further repetition of the uncomfortable news that night, when a sudden, loud voice at one of the open lattice panes almost startled him out of his skin. "Oh, Clapperton! Ain't you glad? Rollitt's no thief. The money's found. Good evening--have you used our soap? Haul in, you chaps! Sharp!" The persecuted senior, after the first surprise, made a frantic rush, first at the window, and then, finding the bird flown, at the door. The latter was locked. He could hear a scuffling and scrambling in the lobby outside, followed by a stampede; after which dead silence prevailed, save for the vicious kicking of the imprisoned hero at his own door. "Whew!" said Wally, fanning himself when the juniors were safe back in Percy's study. "That was a squeak, if you like. How on earth am I to do it?" "Better let him off," suggested some one. Wally resented the suggestion as an insult. "Not likely," said he. "I'll do it. I don't care, if you all back up." And in a minute, when the sound of the kicking had ceased, and Clapperton had apparently retired once more to his work, he crept out into the lobby, followed stealthily by the whole band.