I was still rather afraid that the rank and file had been passing a dull evening and would not come again, and I tried to express as much to them. But they said: "Dull? Oh no, M; why we've found out all sorts of things!" "Really? What sort of things?" "Well, inside the wall in that corner there's the biggest spider I've ever seen, for one thing." "Good gracious!" I said. "I hate 'em. I hope it can't get out?" "It would have to-night if we hadn't stopped up the hole. Something's been helping it to gnaw through." "Has it?" said Wag. "My word! that looks bad. What was it made the hole?" Some called out, "A bat," and some "A rat." "It doesn't matter much for that," said Slim, "so long as it's safe now. Where is it?" "Gone down to the bottom and saying awful things," Red answered. "Well, I _am_ obliged to you," I said. "Anything else?" "There's a lot of this stuff under the floor," said Dart, pointing with his foot at a half-crown which lay on the table. "Is there? Whereabouts?" said I. "Oh, but I was forgetting; I can look after that myself." "Yes, of course you can," they said; "and lots of things happened here before you came. We were watching. The old man and the woman, they were the worst, weren't they, Red?" "Do you mean you've been here before?" I asked. "No, no, but to-night we were looking at them, like we do at school." This was beyond me, and I thought it would be of no use to ask for more explanations. Besides, just at this moment we heard the bell. They all clambered down either me or the chairs or the tablecloth. Slim lingered a moment to say, "You'll look out, won't you?" and then followed the rest on to the window-sill, where, taking the time from Captain Wag, they all stood in a row, bowed with their caps off, straightened up again, each sang one note, which combined into a wonderful chord, faced round and disappeared. I followed them to the window and saw the inhabitants of the house separating and going to their homes with the young ones capering round them. One or two of the elders--Wag's father in particular--looked up at me, paused in their walk, and bowed gravely, which courtesy I returned. I went on gazing until the lawn was a blank once more, and then, closing and fastening the sitting-room window, I betook myself to the bedroom. VII THE BAT-BALL It had certainly been an eventful day and evening, and I felt that my adventures could not be quite at an end yet, for I had still to find out what new power or sense the Fourth Jar had brought me. I stood and thought, and tried quite vainly to detect some difference in myself. And then I went to the window and drew the curtain aside and looked out on the road, and within a few minutes I began to understand.