“Oh, that’s easy enough,” he whispered. “There’s going to be a bit of a match to-night.”
“But suppose they want us to field?”
“Then they’ll want, for they will not be able to find us. You leave it to me.”
That was a long, dreary afternoon, and tea-time seemed as if it would never arrive. When it did come round, though, with the cool air of evening my headache began to go off, and as I grew better, the excitement of the coming expedition, and the thoughts of how we were going to elude the notice of the other boys, completed the cure.
We had half an hour’s walk before us, to reach the High Pines by seven, so that, as it grew near the time I began to be anxious.
We were in the schoolroom, deep in private study, and as Mercer studied, he kept on turning his eyes to gaze round the room, repeating his lessons all the while, so that he would not have looked particular if any one had been watching us, but no one was visible. Every now and then the voices of the boys in the play-field floated toward us, and we sat in momentary expectation of being seen by one of the bigger fellows, and ordered off into the field by our tyrants; but the moments still glided by, and at last Mercer thrust his book into his desk.
“Now, then,” he said in a low voice, “we must make a run for it, or old Magg will think we are not coming.”
“Which way are you going?” I asked.
“Right out through the garden, and by the back of the lodge. You follow me, and, whatever you do, don’t look back, as if you were afraid of being seen.”
It was risky work, I knew, but there was nothing to be gained by hesitating, and it seemed to me that the very boldness of our attempt helped us to a successful issue, for we went on, hearing voices from the field, and once that of the Doctor, as he was walking up and down the lawn with one of the ladies, whose light dress was seen for a few moments through the trees. Then we were out in the road, walking fast towards the General’s woods, and soon after we passed into a field, reached a copse, and Mercer uttered a faint “Hurrah!”