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.
'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
