for about two hundred yards, and finding he was not followed, he pulled
up, waited and listened, and then began cautiously to retrace his steps.
There was no sign either of his companion or the enemy; and though he
ventured back as far as the double doors, which were now closed, not a
soul was to be seen. He knew in a moment that his class-mate had been
captured, but all hope of attempting anything in the shape of a rescue
was out of the question. It was impossible for him single-handed to
storm the fortress, and so, after lingering about for some minutes in
the hope that his friend would reappear, he ran home as fast as he
could, and bursting into the schoolroom, where most of his schoolfellows
sat reading round the fire, threw them into a great state of
consternation and dismay by proclaiming in a loud voice the alarming
intelligence that Diggory had been taken prisoner, and was at that
moment in the hands of the Philistines!



CHAPTER VI.


GUNPOWDER PLOT.

The news caused a profound sensation, the like of which had probably
never been witnessed at The Birches before--no, not even on that
memorable occasion when the intelligence arrived that Scourer, one of
the past seniors, had ridden his bicycle through the plate-glass window
of Brown's big crockery-shop, and was being brought home on a shutter.

All the boys threw down their books, and started to their feet.
Acton and Vance banished from their minds all thought of the