The next day is a half-holiday, and William decides to set up his "own" excavation, fully expecting he can find his own Roman villa nearby.

He comes home, and finds the little old man he shot earlier is at his house, staying with his father!

The story ends comically with the old man's and William's "finds" being mixed up, where the old man describes things such as William's soap dish as being "a most rare item of great value" to a hall full of people.

The story starts with Ginger describing a book he got after being to the dentists, called "The Jungle Explorers", where the natives roam in the jungle doing all sorts of things the Outlaws are never allowed to do, such as never going to the dentist or brushing their hair.

She asks him to sit down while the class of girls draw him, as the model she had arranged for hadn't turned up.

William plays the part very badly- tripping over everything in front of a hall full of people from the village (his family is also in the crowd).

As he trips up, his headgear falls off: he is instantly recognised by his mother and father and half the village.

William, for a dare, steals a small "Chinese god" figure from his headteacher's house.

He gets it back and hides it again, in his neighbours house, Mr. Marks finds it again, but thinks that it is just one similar to his own.

Joan, William's only friend who is a girl, is coming back after a long time away from them.

On the evening before the actual show for Joan, they bring all the animals for the circus – an annoyed cat, called Rameses, a clockwork monkey, Jumble and Douglas' Aunt's Parrot.

They tiptoe past the caretaker, but then all the animals start making noises, so they have to hurry up.

She asks if anybody else has heard something in the night- and they all have (they have heard the animals the Outlaws hid in the school), and they believe that the house is full of ghosts who are unfriendly to them, so they leave, allowing the Outlaws to do their "circus" for Joan with no trouble- and she loves it, and it's a success.

The only people who refuse to play it are Hubert Lane and his gang (they are the Outlaws enemies).

Then William says that if you dunk Bertie Franks and Hubert Lane in the rain tub 3 times, you will get a penknife and a magnifying glass- but they mustn't look first.

He has "discovered" poetry and reads it aloud to himself all the time, believing it is the best thing in the world.

He is given refreshments before he leaves, and he takes the cup secretly away from them and puts it in Roberts room.

When he goes home, the Vicar is there – and recognises him as the boy who played the piano, so he decides to stay and listen to William.

They don't want to, but when they find out that some of the areas they are going to go singing are near people who have given them bad presents, they decide to take over the show and start to sing songs to them (for example, Uncle George had given Ginger a book called 'Kings and Queens of England', and to pay back for it he went to his house with the other 16 or so boys and sung bad songs at the top of his voice).

William has an idea, and pretends that the color green scares away wolves- so he finds his green tie (which Aunt Jane gave him for a present), and throws it outside pretending it scares them away.

They tie the sardine to the tree and pretend it's Ginger- and Ginger hides behind a bush doing the voice of himself.

He finds the man who he thinks she is being forced to marry, and takes him to a hill and says "Ethel's dead".