making a row,' said Hogson, 'because no one'll hear you; and if you
do, summons or no summons we'll come down and give you a licking.'
After that they left me, and went back to the house; and as soon as
they'd gone, I began to try to find some way of escape, but it was so
dark inside the shed I couldn't see anything. Presently I heard a
knocking on the boards. There was a wide crack between them in one
place, and looking through it I could just make out that there was some
boy standing there with what looked like a dirty apron over his
trousers. I said, 'Hullo!' and he said, 'Hullo! what's up? who are you?
and what have they been a-sticking of you in there for?'

"I told him, and asked him who he was, and it turned out his name was
Joe Crump, and he's the boy who cleans the knives at Philips's.
He happened to be knocking about when they took me prisoner, and he
couldn't see who it was in the dark, and thought it might be his younger
brother who comes on errands from the grocer's; the Philistines are
always playing tricks on him.

"I said, 'Look here, Joe Crump, you let me out, there's a good chap.'
But he wouldn't; he was afraid of what young Noaks would do to him.
At last I gave him a shilling through the crack of the boards, and vowed
I wouldn't say who'd done it, and then he undid the door. I fastened
the padlock again, and threw the key into the hedge, for Noaks had left
it in the keyhole; so now he won't be able to get his lock again unless
he either breaks it or the staple, and they're both pretty tough.
After that I got round through two other fields into the lane, and here
I am."

The conclusion of Diggory's story was hailed with shouts of triumph.
To imagine the disappointment of the Philistines when they discovered