Jem, in shimmying under the fence to get away from the Radley place after they saw the shadow on the porch, gets his pants caught. He ends up just leaving them. So later on that night, he decides to go back and get them. Scout is terrified, worried that he'll get his "head shot off" by Mr. Radley, or Boo, for their earlier trespassing. Jem, however, knows that if Mr. Radley discovers the pants he'll tell Atticus, and Atticus will give him a beating. Jem says, "Atticus ain't ever whipped me since I can remember. I wanta keep it that way". So, to avoid shaming himself in front of Atticus for doing something Jem says "we shouldn'a done", Jem goes to fetch them.
The surprise that he finds is that his pants are uncaught, and "folded across the fence", AND the tear had been stitched up. That means that someone saw them retreating, went out to investigate, and instead of going to Atticus with what they had done, fixed and put Jem's pants there for him to retrieve. An ally? Jem feels a combination of gratitude and alarm that someone would know him so well to know that he would come back for them.
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