ere was a hasty
consultation.

"Can't we stop up the holes?"

"Nothing to do it with!" said Harry Eveleth mournfully. "And I've been
sitting in a puddle for the last two minutes!"

Ramon jumped. A waterspout had shot down the back of his neck. "We mus'
go out of zis! We soon shall be wetter; we can run to ze horse's house!"

"Good for you, Havana! your head's solid!" sang out Charlie Brown
heartily. "Now for it! Put your blankets over your heads, woman-fashion,
and travel like a blue streak; and--Jupiter Pluvius! how cold this rain
is!" His words ended in an involuntary chatter.

There was a momentary hesitation; then with a sigh they ducked under the
blankets and dashed out into the darkness and the rain which fell
hissing through the tossing limbs of the trees, and, stumbling over the
fence with a crash of breaking rails, they ran violently down a steep
place without the least idea of the direction, till they all brought up
in a heap in the bottom of a ditch, with some six inches of water for
company! However, within a few rods was the "horse's house." They
scrambled out and ran for it, their once white blankets streaming with
muddy water, chilled through and through with the cutting wind. They
reached it, crowded in, felt blindly around in the dark, and then came a
cry of dismay:

"The horse is gone!"

They looked at each other in silence. It was too dark in there to
distinguish a single feature, so they did not get much comfort from
that. For a full minute not a word was spoken. Then Frank Hapgood drew a
long breath and then ejaculated:

"Well, I'm blessed!"

"So ze horse is stole by ze ladrones," remarked Ramon philosophically.
"How we shall pay!"

"Pay! no; the beast untied the knot and walked home, which is what we
shall have to do--and it's raining brickbats!" snapped Harry, as a gust
of hail crashed upon the roof. "He did that once before."

Somehow their spirits rose a little at that; the indefiniteness of the
animal's fate had alarmed some of them, and pocket money was scanty.
They even cracked a feeble joke or two, in a half-hearted way, but the
steady splash and spatter of the rain chilled the fun all out of it, and
wet as they were, they huddled together among a lot of straw and
blankets until they were quite comfortably warm. They were even dozing
when Charlie Brown suddenly pointed to the doorway with a husky hurrah.
It was the gray light of a cold November dawn.

* * *