He was glad neither Dell nor Morgan, whose studies probably kept them in their study, were at tea.

They were such fellows for worrying him, and just now he wanted to be in peace.
The meal was over at last, and the boys rushed off to enjoy their short liberty before the hour of preparation.

Bilk, who had taken the precaution to put both a sixpence and a cricket-cap in his pocket, silently and unobserved slid out into the deserted playground, and in another minute stood beyond the precincts of Holmhurst.
Deadman's Lane was scarcely three minutes distant, and thither, with nervous steps, he wended his way, fumbling the sixpence in his pocket, and straining his eyes in the darkness for any sign of the gipsies.
Alas! it seemed to be a vain quest.

The lane was deserted, and the cross roads he knew were too far distant to get there and back in half an hour.

He was just thinking of giving it up and turning back, when a sound behind one of the hedges close to him startled him and sent his heart to his mouth.