'Shut up your infernal cackle! The boys hadn't any notion we was here.
They had some lark on. They couldn't have seen us--we're all right.'

'If they saw us together it'd be enough.'

'But they couldn't, I tell you. Here, clear out, the boy's comin' round.
Go the front way, an' make for the paddocks. I'll go up the gully. Look
slippy!'

A few seconds after the men had left the house Dick scrambled to his
feet, and stood for a moment in a confused condition of mind, rubbing his
injured head. Then he took up his hat and lantern, and stumbled from the
room. As yet he had only a vague idea of what had happened, and his head
felt very large and full of fly-wheels, as he expressed it later; but a
few moments in the open air served to revive him. Along by the big quarry
he met his mates returning. After talking the matter over they had come
to the conclusion that the schoolmaster had got a hint of their
intention, and had lain in wait. They gathered about Dick, whose forehead
was most picturesquely bedabbled with blood.

'Crikey! Dick,' cried the wondering Jacker, 'did he hammer you much?'

'Feel,' said Dick, guiding one hand after another to a lump on his head
that increased his height by quite an inch.

'Great Gosh!' murmured Peterson; 'ain't he a one-er? The beggar must 'a'
tried to murder you.'

Dick nodded.