Gunpowder Plot, answered absent-mindedly, "The Philistines!"

"Look here, you two," said Diggory one evening, as he scrambled into
bed, "we three must think of some way of paying those fellows out for
knocking down our snow man. It would be splendid if we could say that
the Triple Alliance had done it, and without telling any one
beforehand."

"So we will," answered Jack Vance; "that is if you'll think of the plan.
I'm not able to make one, and I'm jolly sure Mugford can't."

The speaker turned over and went to sleep; but after what seemed half
the night had passed, he was suddenly aroused by several violent tugs at
his bed-clothes. Thinking it nothing less than a midnight raid, Jack
sprang up and grasped his pillow.

"No, no, it's not that," said Diggory, "but I wanted to help you;
I've got an idea."

"W--what about?" asked the other, in a sleepy voice.

"Why, how we can pay out the Philistines!"

"Oh, bother the Philistines!" grumbled Jack, and promptly returned to
the land of dreams.

"I wonder where those fellows Vance and Trevanock are?" said Acton the
following afternoon, as the boys were picking up for a game at
prisoner's base. "And there's that dummy of a Mugford--where's he
sneaked off to? he never will play games if he can possibly help it."