"Who is it?" he whispered.
"I can't see. Can you?"
"No, I can't," answered Darbishire. "Do you think it's a burglar?"
"I think it is. Who climbs through the window at this time of night?"
"What shall we do then?"
"We'll go and tell Old Wilkie. All the teachers are having supper now. So I'm sure they didn't hear anything."
From this conversation the other boys of Dormitory 4 understood that something important was happening. They jumped out of their beds and ran to the window. When they were near the window they saw only a pair of feet disappearing over the window-ledge of Classroom 2.
The boys were surprised. They forgot about the home-made telephone at once, because here was an adventure which doesn't often happen in a boarding school.
Jennings spoke the first. "Darbi and I will go and give the alarm. You, other boys, stay here and watch the school yard," he said.
"Yes, but if..." began Darbishire.
"Oh, come on, Darbi! Don't stand there! We'll go straight down to the dining hall and tell one of the teachers."
"Yes, but - wait a minute, I... I've dropped my spectacles."
"You don't need your spectacles. Follow me and do as I say."
Jennings took Darbishire by the hand and they ran to the dining hall.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mr Wilkins looks for... Mr Wilkins
Jennings and Darbishire hurried downstairs. Near the library they stopped. In front of them was the hall which they had to cross to walk to the dining hall at the far end of the building. Suddenly they heard footsteps. Somebody walked in the hall.
"Can you see anybody?" Darbishire whispered.
"I can," answered Jennings. He could see Mr Carter and Mr Wilkins going from the hall into the corridor on their way to the dining hall.
"Sir! ... Sir!" he called in a whisper. But
neither of the teachers heard his whisper. Jennings took Darbishire by the hand again and the boys crossed the hall and hurried along the corridor after the teachers. But when they turned the last corner they could only see Mr Carter and Mr Wilkins disappearing through the dining hall door.
"After them, quick!" said Jennings.
"Yes, but what if...?"
"Don't argue, Darbi! Do as I say."
When Jennings spoke, the dining hall door opened again and Mr Pemberton came out into the corridor after his supper. He looked at the boys in surprise.
"What are you boys doing out of bed?" he asked.
"Oh, sir! Sir! There's a burglar in the school, sir!" said Jennings.
The news didn't surprise the Headmaster. "Nonsense," he answered.
"But there is a burglar, sir,- really!"
"Yes, that's quite right. We've seen him!" said Darbishire. "Only his back, of course, but I'm sure he was a burglar, because he climbed in through the window. All the other boys in the dormitory saw him too, sir."
"And he is walking about the school somewhere at this moment. So we thought we must come and tell somebody, sir," said Jennings.
The Headmaster did not know how Mr Wilkins has come into the building and believed the boys.
"And where exactly is this man?" he asked.
"We don't know where he is now, sir. It was some minutes ago that we saw him," answered Jennings. "But we didn't meet him when we were coming down here. So maybe he is still on the ground floor somewhere, sir."
"All right; I'll see to it. And you, please, go back to your dormitory," said the Headmaster.
"It's most unfair," Jennings said to Darbishire when they walked back to their dormitory; "We told him about the burglar and he sent us to bed."
On their way back to their dormitory they came to each dormitory and told the boys the news of the burglar. By the time they reached their own dormitory the whole school woke up.
The Headmaster hurried back to the dining hall where Mr Carter and Mr Wilkins were beginning their supper. Mr Hind and one or two other teachers who had already finished their supper were going to leave the table. They looked up at the Headmaster when he came into the room.
"I think that there may be a stranger in the building," said Mr Pemberton.
The teacher stood up from the table.
"There may be nothing in it, of course," continued the Headmaster, "but I think we have to organize small search-parties which will go and look for the stranger. You will come with me. Hind, and we'll go around the ground floor. And maybe you will go in pairs to the other parts of the building."
And with these words the Headmaster and Mr Hind went out of the dining hall.
Mr Carter and Mr Wilkins left their supper and went out of the dining hall too.
"You see. Carter, I was right after all. Now you've heard what the Headmaster said, and maybe you'll believe me."
Mr Carter did not answer. "I want to know who told the Headmaster about a stranger," he thought. "I'll ask him about it when I see him."
They looked for a stranger for half an hour - in classrooms, common room, library, kitchens and gymnasium. But they could not find anybody, of course.
* * *
It was after ten o'clock when the teachers gathered in the staff room. Mr Hind was already there when Mr Carter and Mr Wilkins came in, but the Headmaster was still in the school yard.
"Tell me. Hind," asked Mr Carter. "Did the Headmaster say how he had found out about a stranger?"
"Oh, yes, Two of the boys told him," Mr Hind answered. "One of them was Jennings,
I think."
"Jennings, as usual! Let's go to Dormitory 4, Wilkins, and find out everything ourselves,"
said Mr Carter.
"I don't see how they can help us. They've already told the Headmaster all they know," answered Mr Wilkins. "If you ask me the burglar is miles away now."
"I don't think he is so far," said Mr Carter and went out of the staff room. Mr Wilkins followed him. In Dormitory 4 when Mr Carter turned on the light the boys began to ask
the teachers questions.
"Sir, have you caught him, sir?" asked
Atkinson.
"If you haven't caught him, he must still be somewhere in the building. But where can he be?" asked Temple.
"We all saw him, really, sir," said Bromwich.
"Yes, but I was the first to see him," said Jennings. "Don't forget."
"Well, Jennings," said Mr Carter. "Exactly when and where did you see him?"
"Some minutes after the teacher on duty turned off the light in Dormitory 6, sir. I looked down at the school yard and there was a man climbing in through the window
of Classroom 2, sir."
"What!" exclaimed Mr Wilkins. "Classroom 2!... Classroom 2 window! But, you silly little boy, Jennings, that wasn't a burglar. I was climbing in because I hadn't got a key!"
Jennings caught his breath. • "I'm sorry, I'm very sorry, sir!" he said. "Sorry!" exclaimed Mr Wilkins. "Sorry! Do you understand what you made me do? For half an hour I walked round the building looking for myself!" Suddenly he turned to Mr Carter and said, "Yes, Carter, but if I am Jennings' burglar, who did I hear when I was in Dormitory 6 - the man who tapped on the window?"
Mr Carter quickly went to the window. Near the window he saw two tobacco tins with a long piece of string between them "I think maybe this will explain everything," said Mr Carter. "Isn't it so, Jennings?"
For some moments Jennings did not speak.
Then he said, "Well, yes, that was me, sir. You see, I was lowering my telephone to Dormitory 6, but at that moment Mr Wilkins:' looked out."
"That's funny!" exclaimed Mr Carter. "It means, Wilkins, that your burglar was Jennings; and his burglar was you."
Mr Wilkins did not like the explanation. "Yes, yes, yes. But why did the silly little boy drop telephone out of the windows after lights out?"
"Well, sir, we pretended we were going into space. We were on Mars, you see, and we wanted to send a message..."
"Mars!... Space!... Nonsense!" exclaimed Mr Wilkins.
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"And what was the message that you were going to send?" asked Mr Carter.
"Well, sir, we were going to tell them that we were doing all these things in the name of peace," answered Jennings.
"You were doing all these things in the name of peace?" exclaimed Mr Wilkins again. "You certainly must be crazy, Jennings!"
It was too late, decided Mr Carter, to ask any more questions. So he turned off the light in Dormitory 4, and together with Mr Wilkins he went back to his cold supper.
Chapter Thirty
Morning music
The next morning Jennings was standing in front of the Headmaster. To his surprise the Headmaster said very little about the false alarm, because before that Mr Carter had had a conversation with the Headmaster during which he pointed out to Mr Pemberton that the boys had acted with the best of intentions.
But all the boys who had anything to do with the telephone line between Dormitory 4 and Dormitory 6 were punished and all the home-made telephones were confiscated
"We must watch the dormitories better. If we do it such things will never happen again," the Headmaster said to the teachers the next morning. "I think the boys will behave better if they know there is a teacher not far from their dormitory after they have gone to bed. So I want to ask you, Wilkins, to change your bedroom and move nearer to the dormitories."
"Very well," said Mr Wilkins. "I think you want me to move into the room which is near the music room?"
Yes, you are right. Thank you, Witkins, I'm sure you will like the room."
And Mr Wilkins really liked the room. It was larger and lighter than his old room. But there was one thing which did not like: there was only a thin wall between his nice room and the music room. And all the evenings and early mornings he had to listen to the boys playing the piano in the music room.
On the first morning the bell woke him up at a quarter past seven. Some minutes later he suddenly heard a sound that told him that somebody had dropped a book on the keyboard. Then somebody began to play Beethoven's Minuet in but with so many mistakes that it was very difficult to say whether it was Beethoven's Minuet in G or something else. Then somebody began to play with one finger. That was too much for
Mr Wilkins.
He got up from his bed, crossed the room and knocked on the wall. The music stopped. But some moments later somebody began to play again - with one finger.
Mr Wilkins quickly dressed, left his room and went into the music room. The somebody was Jennings.
"Jennings, as usual!" said Mr Wilkins. "What's going on here?"
"Nothing, sir," answered Jennings. "I'm learning my piano lesson, sir."
"And who taught you to play with one finger?"
"I was playing by ear, sir."
"Were you?"
"You see, there is a place which Mr Hind hasn't shown me, so..."
"Now listen to me, Jennings," interrupted Mr Wilkins. "If your time to play the piano in the music room is from half past seven till the breakfast bell rings, I want to hear; - you playing all the time without stopping."
"You want to hear me playing without stopping! You mean you like my playing, sir? Is this why you knocked on the wall?"
"That certainly wasn't applause," said Mr Wilkins. "You know that now I live in the next room. So I can hear everything that goes on - and everything that doesn't go on, too."
"Yes, sir."
"So if you hear my knock on the wall it means that you must learn your music lesson and not to sit and look out of the window or play with one finger."
"Well, sir, I have to stop sometimes, sir, to turn over a page, or when I'm not quite, sure what the next note is."
"I think I can understand that. But if I, have to knock on the wall more than once, I'll - I'll..." Mr Wilkins did not finish the sentence and left the room.
When the door shut behind Mr Wilkins, Jennings turned to the piano. He liked to learn his music lessons before breakfast. He thought that was the best time for it, because it meant that the rest of the day was free for other more interesting things. But now with Mr Wilkins in the next room...
Not that Jennings didn't like to learn music. He was even interested in music lessons. which he had with Mr Hind twice a week. But with Mr Wilkins in the next room... For the next two weeks Jennings tried to play the piano without stopping. At the end of this time during his Thursday morning piano lesson with Mr Hind Jennings was playing again and again Beethoven's Minuet in G.
"No, no, no, Jennings!" Mr Hind put his hand on his pupil's arm. "You always make the same mistake when you come to this place."
"Yes, I know, sir," said Jennings. "Shall 1 play it again?"
"No, please, don't. I think, Jennings, you don't practise properly."
"Oh, but I do, sir, really, sir," said Jennings. "You have to practise properly when Mr Wilkins is in the next room. He always knocks on the wall if I stop to blow my nose."
"I'm very happy to hear it," said Mr Hind. "All right, Jennings, try this again."
This time he played the piece without any wrong notes.
"Well, sir! I played it without a mistake this time. Soon I'll play it really well, won't I, sir?"
"Hm!" Mr Hind thought for a moment. "Do you want to hear the Minuet in G played properly?"
"But I played it properly last time, sir," Jennings said in surprise.
"That's what you think!" Mr Hind got up from his chair and went to the record-player which was standing in one corner of the room. "I've got a record of that minuet; a very famous pianist plays it on this record. Do you want to hear it?"
"Yes, of course, sir."
Jennings jumped from the piano stool and hurried to help Mr Hind. He switched on the record-player and opened the lid while Mr Hind was looking for the record. Then they sat down and listened to the music.
"He is playing well," Jennings thought when he was listening to the record. "Of course some music sounds better on a good record-player than on the old music room piano. And I think that pianist had more time to practise it. But really he is playing it very well."
"He hasn't made any mistakes!" exclaimed Jennings when the record stopped. "I wish I could play the piano like that, sir!"
"Yes, certainly," Mr Hind answered when he closed the lid of the record-player. . "And I only hope that it was very useful for you • to listen to this record."
"Oh, yes, sir, it was," It was only later that Jennings understood how really useful this record was to him.
Chapter Thirty-One
Jennings skates on roller-skates
When Mr Carter went out of Form 5 classroom at the beginning of morning break he saw Jennings who was running along the corridor.
"Jennings, as usual!" Mr Carter said and asked him to stop. "How many times have I told you not to run in the corridor?"
"I'm sorry, sir," said Jennings. "You see, I'm in a hurry. Venables has given me his roller-skates for the whole break."
"I see."
"May I go, sir?"
"Yes, you may. But, please, don't run."
"Thank you, sir," said Jennings and hurried to the school yard. In the school yard he saw Venables waiting for him with a roller-skate in each hand.
"I'll screw them up for you, and then I'll leave you," said Venables and took the key from his pocket. "You see, Temple has just got a parcel and I want to be there when he opens it. Maybe there are some sweets in it."
Venables quickly screwed up the skates, put the key into his pocket and ran to help Temple to open the parcel.
A moment later Darbishire came into the school yard and saw his friend's wobbling legs.
"Well, it's only the second time that I've tried these skates," said Jennings. '"Walk with me a little, and I'll be all right."
"I knew you were not a good skater, Jen," said Darbishire.
"But these skates are different from the skates that I learned on."
"All right, Jen. Take me by the arm."
Jennings took Darbishire by the arm and they made two laps rou
nd the school yard, after which Jennings began to skate without his friend's help.
He was finishing his twentieth lap when the bell rang for the end of break. At once all the boys ran to school, and when Jennings ran up to Darbishire, who was waiting for him, there was nobody else in the school yard.
"Take the skates off, Jen, quick!" said Darbishire. "Old Wilkie is taking us for Geography next lesson, and you know. what there will be if we are late."
, "All right, I'll be ready in a minute. But I can't take them off without the key."
"Well, use the key, be quick!"
"But I haven't got the key. Venables has got it. He screwed the skates for me." Jennings looked round the empty yard. "Where has he gone, I wonder!"
"Who, Venables? He's gone into class, I'm sure. I don't think he is going to be late for Old Wilkie's lesson."
"Yes, but... but how does he think I'm going to take off these skates if I haven't I got the key!"
"You'll have to take them off without the "'key," said Darbishire.
Jennings tried to do it, but nothing came out of it.
"I shall never take them off without the key," said Jennings. "Darbi, run to school and see if you can find Venables."
"But there isn't time!" exclaimed Darbishire. "The bell rang hours ago. Old Wilkie may be on his way to the classroom now."
The lesson usually began five minutes after the bell, but a teacher very often came to his classroom early and expected to find his form ready for the lesson.
Jennings looked at his feet again. The only thing he could do was to take off his shoes and skates at the same time. He took off one shoe. There was a large hole in his sock.
"Look at it, Darbi," said Jennings and pointed to the hole. "I'm sure there wasn't a hole this morning."
"Never mind! Take off the other shoe, quick!"
"Yes, of course."
Jennings quickly pulled the lace in the other shoe, but this time he tied it into a tight knot.
"Now look what's happened," Jennings said. "That's what comes when you do something in a hurry: you pull the wrong lace or the wrong end of the right lace."
"Don't talk, Jen. Do something," said Darbishire.
Jennings and His Friends Page 11
