How does Dill explain Jem's missing pants?

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Dill explains Jem’s missing pants by claiming that he won them from Jem in a game of strip poker.

The lie comes right after Jem, Scout, and Dill sneak onto the Radley property to look in a window. Nathan Radley sees movement, thinks they are thieves, and fires a shotgun. As the children flee, Jem’s pants get caught in the Radley fence, so he leaves them behind and escapes without them. When the children join the gathered neighbors at the Radley gate, Miss Stephanie notices Jem has no pants, and Dill quickly invents the strip-poker story to cover what really happened.

The excuse shocks and frustrates the adults, especially Miss Rachel, because it makes the children seem guilty of gambling rather than trespassing. Atticus asks whether they were playing cards, and Jem changes the story by saying they were playing with matches, which still sounds bad but seems less serious than cards. The scene shows Dill’s quick imagination and the children’s childish misunderstanding of adult behavior, since they barely understand the scandalous excuse they have created.