Slowly he hauled Paul to the top of the well; and, with an inexpressible feeling of thankfulness, Paul stepped from the bucket.
"Have they gone?" he asked eagerly.
"Yes. A near thing, you said; what happened?"
"You just stopped me within about a foot of the water, and the sudden jerk nearly pitched me out of the bucket. The scoundrels have gone, you say?"
"Yes," smiled Wyndham; "they've gone in hot pursuit of you. They little dreamt you were down that well! You couldn't have had a better hiding-place."
"Better! Well, perhaps you're right; but it was a bit musty and uncomfortable! I'm much obliged to you, all the same. You seem a decent fellow, though you are a Beetle!"
Beetle was the nickname given by the Garside boys to the boys of St. Bede's.
Wyndham laughed. Paul glanced round the melancholy, deserted ruin. He could see no sign of human habitation.
"And you seem a decent fellow, though you are a Gargoyle." (Gargoyle was the nickname given by the St. Bede boys to the boys of Garside School.) "What's your name?"
"Paul Percival. I have often seen you amongst the other Beetles; but you don't live about here, do you?"