The spot had been carefully chosen by Sir Waverly Compass. Since the Major had been taken off the digging party the sides of the pit hadn’t collapsed and buried anyone at all. Sergeant Custer was on guard, making as much noise as he could to make sure the SPUD agents would realise there was something “going on”. He marched up and down, shouting, “Who goes there?” and “Can’t tell you, it’s a secret but it’s absolutely nothing at all whatsoever to do with any special satellites that might have crashed in this area recently, oh dear me no.” Which was completely true. To make the illusion as complete as possible, the Chaplain was organising a PE lesson with Class 11F on one side of the pit—a fairly routine session with skipping ropes, hoops, footballs and a savage Siberian tiger. On the other side of the pit, Miss Fortune was teaching what was left of 10A. There had been nine children in her group when she started but they were now down to only three, who all looked rather nervous.
