For Hubert had just come to say that they had asked Mrs. Busson to have tea half an hour earlier than usual.
“For particular reasons,” Hubert had explained.
Diana’s guess was wrong, however.
What was actually planned was never let out by the conspirators, nor indeed what actually took place, for Phoena was called upon to make no entry in her book that evening. Only mere fragments of information leaked out from Hubert. They were told in strict confidence to Marygold, and, being pieced together by her elders, furnished the following story, which was practically the true one.
By way of beginning their new career, the boys had determined to turn their attention to the trespassers, who vexed Busson’s soul so sorely and so persistently by straying from the footpaths through his grass fields, and making short cuts instead.
“We’ll give them such a lesson in trespassing,” the boys agreed, “that old Busson will bless us for ever after.”
With this laudable result in view, it would appear that they had arranged to lie in wait, “armed to the teef” as Hubert expressed it, i.e., provided with stout sticks, and concealed behind hay-stacks and hedges, in order to fall upon the first evil-doer who should stray from the right path. Their dream was to capture as many of these malefactors as possible, and to drag them to the farm bound in chains.
The chains were to be represented by some strong whipcord, upon the purchase of which the knights expended a considerable amount of their week’s pocket money. They made their plans with much care. They had learnt the “lay of the land” by heart, they had reconnoitred their positions again and again, and had rehearsed their manœuvres at least a dozen times during the day. Hubert had been well drilled in his part, with a good allowance of “toko,” which he had taken in excellent part as belonging of right to the fortunes of war; yet, despite all these preparations, when the moment for action came the result was a failure, and rather an ignominious one too.
They were to wait till well after dusk before beginning operations, twilight being the time when the trespassers were always abroad. Each of the boys was to occupy a separate position, and to be ready to spring upon the foe or foes the instant that there was a deviation from the lawful path, and by judicious out-flanking no culprit was to be suffered to escape. Hubert was concealed in a deep ditch which ran so close to the foot-path that he could not fail to note the passers-by, but he was specially charged not to blow his whistle unless the individual did actually transgress and forsake the beaten way.
“They must be caught red-handed,” the boys had decreed.