Freeing themselves with some little difficulty from the general entanglement, they rose to their feet, and after surveying each other for a moment in silence, gave vent to a simultaneous ejaculation of "The ghost!"
"What were you fellows doing up there?" asked Kennedy.
"Why, we came up to have a joke with you," answered Vance; "but just when we got up to the landing, it—it made that noise!"
There was the sound of the key turning in the lock of Mr. Blake's door.
"Cave!" whispered Mugford.
"Tell him about it," added Vance; and giving Diggory a push, they all three darted into their room just as the master emerged from his, arrayed in dressing-gown and slippers.
"Now, then," exclaimed the latter, holding his candle above his head, and peering down the passage, "what's the meaning of this disturbance? I thought the whole house was falling down.—Come here, you two, and explain yourselves!"
"Please, sir," answered Kennedy and Jacobs in one breath, "it's the ghost!"
"The ghost! What ghost? What d'you mean?"
The two "Main-top" men began a hasty account of the cause of their sudden fright, taking care, however, to make no mention of the three hostile visitors who had shared in the surprise.