The boys stayed in the playground till the dinner-bell rang, which was a few minutes after they had entered the playground; but these few minutes sufficed for Louis, in his present humor, to get himself in a scrape, the consequences of which, at the time, he certainly did not contemplate. He had been complaining to Casson, in the beginning of their walk, that he could not get “Rollin's History,” and, as Casson persisted that it was in the study, Louis took him there to show him his error, when they returned home.
“Ha, ha! Mr. Louis Mortimer, who's right?” cried Casson, holding up the book.
“That can't be; I wonder how it got there,” said Louis, approaching the table in a mystified manner. “These must be Trevannion's things, I suppose; only Hamilton was writing here; and here is his dictionary,—I wonder what he wanted with it—he never said he had it—he let me suppose Trevannion had it—kind of him—I suppose he wanted to prevent my getting it; but I'll have it now—he's got one of his own.”
“I'd be even with him,” said Casson; “what a heap of things! See, here's an exercise of his; or a letter, I suppose—it's too neat for an exercise. A good thick letter—sealed, too. I'll tell you what, Louis—”
Accordingly, what Casson did tell Louis was, what a “capital dodge” it would be to abstract Hamilton's sealed packet, and to leave another folded like it in its place.
“We often used to trick the boys at old Stennett's with their exercises,” continued he; “they never wrote in books there—we used to tear the leaves out of the exercise-books, and write on them. It was such jolly fun to see them open the paper and find nothing in it, or only some rubbish.”
“How did you do it?” asked Louis.
“Oh, we doubled up a bit of an old exercise-book, and exchanged, that's all!” replied Casson; “see, why here's half a sheet of paper, that'll do for the cover; and now then, Louis, more paper—he'll never miss it—that's it—fold it up just the size; how beautifully you have done it!”
“But there's no seal,” said Louis.
“He'll forget he sealed it,” replied Casson; “oh, how jolly!—here's a piece of sealing-wax—it is sealed with the top of a pencil-case.”