e of twelve the Presbyterian church-bell set
up such a pealing and clanging as it had never before been heard to
utter.

In the nave of the church Hank Morley awoke with a start. He leaped to
his feet and rushed to a small closet near the foot of the single
stairway leading to the gallery, and, opening the door, caught up a
lighted lantern. As he went clumping up the gallery stairs, the tumult
in the steeple suddenly ceased. Two dark figures slunk from the vicinity
of the bellrope and took refuge beneath the pews.

"Hands up!" ordered Hank, taking his stand at the head of the stairs and
leveling a shining object at the marauders.

Two pairs of dirty hands went up instantly.

"Come out of there or I'll shoot!" cried Hank.

Butch and Dick rose up and stood cowering before him. Hank raised his
lantern and scrutinized their guilty faces with his one good eye.

"I know ye both!" he announced at length. "Now march down that pair o'
stairs and wait for me at the bottom. No boltin', or I'll shoot!"

On reaching the foot of the stairs Hank stepped over to the front door,
and lowering his shining weapon, stuck it into the keyhole and unlocked
the door.

"Breakin' into a place what's locked, is _burglary_!" he told them
crabbedly. "Did ye know that?"

The boys' answer, if indeed they made any, was swallowed up by the
tumultuous booming of the church bell, which began at that moment with
the unexpectedness of a thunderclap.

"What! Didn't I get all of ye?" cried Hank, starting for the stairs.

But there was no answer, for before Hank had taken two steps Butch and
Dick were gone.

The same stroke of the bell that had brought Henry Morley out of his
slumbers, had startled the two boys in the bell chamber almost out of
their wits. For some moments they clung to each other in terror, not
comprehending where they were or what was happening. That they were on
the brink of destruction, neither one doubted. In such close quarters
the vibration and reverberation were terrific. The sound was much more
like the roar of a cannon than the joyful pealing of a church bell.

Gradually the situation dawned on them, but they dared not move for fear
of being struck by the swinging bell. However, the moment the clamor
ceased--which it soon did--Sube scrambled to his feet, and giving
Gizzard a healthy prod with his foot, he cried:

"It was a fake! An ever-glorious fake, what you read in the paper!"

"I guess it was, all right," mutter