“There’d be no getting in to act the midnight ghost,” said Allen.
“No,” said Jock; “but one could hide in the big rhododendron in the wolf-skin rug, and jump out on him in his chair.”
In Allen’s railway rug, Jock rehearsed the scene, and was imitated if not surpassed by both cousins; but Allen and Bobus declared that it could not be carried out in the daylight.
“I could do it still better,” said Jock, “if I blacked myself all over, not only my face, but all the rest, and put on nothing but my red flannel drawers and a turban. They’d take me for the ghost of the little nigger he flogged to death, and Allen could write something pathetic and stunning.”
“You might cut human ears out of rabbit-skins and hang them round your neck,” added Bobus.
“You’d be awfully cold,” said Allen.
“You could mix in a little iodine,” suggested Bobus. “That stings like fun, and a coppery tinge would be more natural.”
There was great acclamation, but the difficulty was that the only time for effecting an entrance into the garden was between four and five in the morning, and it would be needful to lurk there in this light costume till Mr. Barnes went out. No one would be at liberty from school but Allen, and he declined the oil and lamp-black even though warmed up with iodine.
“Could it not be done by deputy?” said Bobus; “we might blacken the little fat boy riding on a swan, the statue, I mean.”
“What, and gild the swan, to show how far his golden goose can carry him?” said Jock.