The Go Ahead Boys and the Mysterious Old House

by Ross Kay

  CHAPTER XXI--AN EXPLANATION IN PART

  It was the middle of the afternoon when the Go Ahead boys returned toGeorge's home. Apparently they had not been cast down by their failureto obtain information concerning the missing car. Indeed, as one of theboys laughingly remarked, George was the only one deeply and personallyconcerned in the loss and if he did not feel discouraged there certainlywas no reason why his friends should be despondent.

  On the broad piazza of the old farmhouse the boys sat for a half-hourtalking over the experiences of the day. Different suggestions were madeas to possible plans that might be adopted in the search for the stolenautomobile.

  "I'm not thinking so much about the car as I am about what we saw to-dayat Morristown," said Grant thoughtfully. "I feel almost as if I hadstepped right back into the eighteenth century."

  "My friend," said Fred soberly, "that is where you belong. I have oftenbeen puzzled to know how to account for some of the strange traits ofyour peculiar personality. You have hit the nail now squarely on thehead. You have been born one hundred and forty years too late. You are arare old antique."

  The boys laughed as Grant arose from his seat and lifting his diminutivefriend bodily from the chair in which he was seated, he dropped him overthe rail.

  "When you grow up," he called, "and learn to behave you may come backhere."

  "I'm not coming back," called Fred glibly.

  "We'll try to live through our disappointment," said Grant.

  "You'll be disappointed all right the next time you see me," calledFred. Then turning to John he eagerly beckoned to him to follow him.

  With a groan John slowly arose from the chair in which he was seated andfollowed Fred as he led the way around the corner of the house.

  "What I want of you," said Fred when he and his companion could not beseen by the other boys, "is to go with me over to the Meeker House. Ithink I have found something."

  "Is it the same thing you found last night?" inquired John.

  "Not at all. I don't mind telling you that I have fixed a trap overthere."

  "What do you mean, a steel trap?"

  "No, no," said Fred. "I sprinkled some bran last night all around thefloor. I filled my pockets with it before we started and while we werein the old house I scattered it on the floors. Now, I want to go overthere to find out if--"

  "If what?" interrupted John. "Are you trying to feed those spooks onbran?"

  "As usual, my friend," retorted Fred, "you begin at the wrong end. I amnot trying to get an impression of their heads, but of their feet. Only,spooks don't make a deep impression when they step on the floor, and I'mmore than suspicious that I'll find some tracks."

  "I'll go with you," said John eagerly. "Wait until I tell the otherfellows that we are going away for a while. Are you going to walk,Fred?"

  "Yes, I am. I have been riding all day and I want to stretch mymuscles."

  Both George and Grant laughed when John told them that he and Fred weregoing for a walk.

  "You'll walk in one direction," called George, "but you'll be runningwhen you come back. I think I'll take the car and in a half an hour I'llcome over after you. You'll want to see some of your friends by thattime and you will want to see them bad."

  "I don't want to see them 'bad,'" retorted John as he turned away. "Theyare 'bad' enough as it is. I want to see them badly."

  Together the two boys walked through the woods and across the lots andby a shorter route than the highway arrived within a half-hour in theyard of the house they were seeking.

  "Come around to the kitchen," said Fred. Almost unconsciously he hadlowered his voice and although it was still daylight he was glancingnervously about him when he and John softly opened the rear door andstepped within the kitchen.

  The boards of the floor were twisted and uneven. The floor was of pineand George had explained that his father had said that he believed thefloor was as old as any part of the house. There were marks of theplaces where the women of another generation had scrubbed the floor.Doubtless it had been their pride to keep the pine boards clean, just asit is a source of pride to many of their sisters of a later day to beadorned with feathers of various gaudy colors.

  Noiselessly the boys advanced and without a word having been spokenbegan to examine the floor where Fred had scattered the bran thepreceding evening. No footprints were found, however, and it wasspeedily plain that if any one had entered the building since the boyshad departed they had not done so by the kitchen door.

  Convinced that they were alone in the house, the courage of both boyssomewhat revived. Indeed there was something in the sunshine of thesummer afternoon and in the not unmusical sounds of the wingedgrasshoppers in the adjacent orchard that was soothing to the excitedboys.

  They were about to pass out of the room when John abruptly stopped andwhispered, "Look here, Fred. What's that?" As he spoke he pointed to asmall tube which plainly had been fastened recently to the wall. Thetube was of tin, about an inch in diameter and extended almost to theceiling. Through the wall a hole had been made and the boys peeredeagerly at the wall in the adjacent room to see whether or not the tubewas there also.

  "That's just how it is! That's good, String!" exclaimed Fred excitedly."That explains the sound of the voices we heard the other night."

  "I don't see how it explains it," said John, somewhat puzzled by theexcitement of his companion.

  "Why, it's a speaking tube. You go back to the kitchen and I'll stayhere and we'll try it."

  The suggestion was quickly adopted and in a brief time both boys wereaware that Fred's conjecture was correct. The strange sounds and thewhispers of their names which had been heard frequently whenever theyhad visited the house after darkness had fallen, now were explained.

  "That's the reason," said John eagerly, "why George always wants to comearound to the kitchen door. Don't you remember he hasn't once come in bythe front door?"

  "That's right," responded Fred. "He knows more about what is going on inthis old house than he has let on, and all the time he has beenpretending that he was puzzled as much as we are by what we have seenand heard. We must think up something so that we can pay him back in hisown coin."

  "That's what we'll do," said John eagerly. "What shall it be?"

  "Time enough to think about that later," responded Fred. "What's that?"he added abruptly.

  From within the chimney could be heard the sound as of a man swinging anoisy rattle. There were also sharp noises that sometimes were quiteloud and at others were low and soft and yet they were continuouslysounding.

  "I tell you there's something in that chimney," said John.

  "I begin to think you're right," whispered Fred. "Get down on your kneesand look up through the fireplace."

  John obediently stretched his long form upon the floor and peered upthrough the flue of the open fireplace. As he did so the clatter in thechimney suddenly increased in volume and for a moment John was on thepoint of hastily withdrawing from the spot.

  As he prepared to do so, however, suddenly a little, young bird fell,striking the floor close to John's head. At the same time there was arenewal of the clatter in the chimney and John hastily withdrew.

  To his amazement he found when he arose that Fred was laughing.

  "What's there so funny about it?" demanded John as he tried to brush theaccumulated dust from his person.

  For a moment Fred was almost unable to control himself, but at last hesaid, "Oh, Jack, what fools we have been. There we were so scared by thesound of the wings that we heard in this room and the strange noisesthat came from the chimney that we couldn't get out of the place fastenough. And now it's all as plain as daylight."

  "I don't see it," said John blankly.

  "Well, have a little patience, and in time you'll see it, Johnny."

  "Why don't you talk? Why don't you explain yourself? What are youlaughing at?" demanded John, irritated by the manner of his companion.

  "Why those sounds we heard were made by chimney-swal
lows."

  "What is a chimney-swallow?"

  "Do you mean to tell me that you have lived to be seventeen years oldand don't know what a chimney-swallow is?"

  "They don't have them in the city where I live."

  "Well," said Fred, pretending to be discouraged, "I cannot understandhow any fellow can live as you have and yet not know that there are somebirds called chimney-swallows that live in the chimneys of old ordeserted houses. If you should look up there now you could see somenests fastened right to the sides of the chimney. I have never seen thebirds, but I'm sure that's what they are. Whenever we have come into thehouse we have probably frightened them and they have been flying aroundthe room. They were the spooks that scared us so."

  "Do you suppose George knew about it?" demanded John ruefully.

  "Of course he knew it. He has been saving it all up to add to his storyof the speaking tube."

  "Well, it's a comfort to know the old house isn't haunted anyway."

  "Of course it isn't haunted. There isn't anything haunted because thereisn't anything like ghosts or spooks."

  "I'm glad to hear you talk so nicely, Freddie," said John, who now hadrecovered from his chagrin. "If I'm not mistaken I've heard you talk ina different tone once or twice before when we have been here."

  "That's all right," said Fred glibly. "Now we have found out what thespooks are and we'll show George that we're not afraid of anything inthe old Meeker House."

  The boys were still conversing in whispers, and as Fred made his bolddeclaration he abruptly stopped and looked anxiously toward thestairway. A sound mysterious and unexpected had been heard in the roomdirectly above them. Both boys were convinced that either others were inthe house, or that they had not yet found an explanation for all themysteries of the old Meeker House.