Of course Freckles admitted it would.
"With some kids one couldn't dare," he said. "Such a thing happening to Mathers, for instance, would certainly make him go dotty for ever; but this kid doesn't know what fear is. It would be a lark to see what he'd do."
"You'd better be pretty careful, or he'll stab you," said Gideon. "He's jolly quick, and you'd look rather a fool if a new kid went and ran you through with your own bowie-knife."
"So I should," admitted Freckles; "but I'm not afraid. You forget my great power of seeing in the dark. I'm jolly near as good as a cat at it."
Then I suddenly had the most awfully fine idea, apart from machinery, that ever I did have. Little did I know what would happen, but still, looking back, it is only fair to me to admit the awful fineness of the idea. I said—
"The Doctor being out, couldn't we get the tiger-rug and stuff it with pillows, and stick it up on four cricket-stumps just round the corner of the rhodo. bed? Then, where we are all hidden behind the pavilion, we see the fun, and after it's over and the kid has bolted, we can take the skin back."
Freckles whistled, and Steggles asked—
"Did you think of that all by yourself, Macmullen?"
And I said, "Certainly I did."
But Gideon thought it wouldn't do.