tle of the rain on the roof
they heard a sound, the sound which two or three members had heard the
previous night, the sound of snoring.

"I should have gone in before," whispered John, "but they wanted me to
wait for you. Come on, Captain."

They opened the door of the larger room and entered on tiptoe. The
snoring was plainly heard now and it seemed, as they expected, to come
from the little room adjoining. Into that room the party proceeded, the
men in the lead. There was no one there save themselves and nothing out
of the ordinary to be seen. But the snoring kept on, plainer than ever.

John looked behind the furniture and under the bed.

"It's no use doin' that," whispered Thankful. "I've done that myself
fifty times."

Captain Obed was walking about the room, his ear close to the wall,
listening. At a point in the center of the rear wall, that at the back
of the house, he stopped and listened more intently than ever.

"John," he whispered eagerly, "come here."

John came.

"Listen," whispered the captain. "It's plainer here than anywhere else,
ain't it?"

"Yes. Yes, I think it is. But where does it come from?"

"Somewhere overhead, seems to me. Give me that chair."

Cautiously and silently he placed the chair close to the wall, stood
upon it, and, with his ear against the wallpaper, moved his head
backward and forward and up and down. Then he stopped moving and
reaching up felt along the wall with his hands.

"I've got it," he whispered. "Here's the place."

His fingers described a circle on the wall. He tapped gently in the
middle of the circle.

"Hark!" he said. "All solid out here, but here--hollow as a drum.
It's--it's a stovepipe hole, that's what 'tis. There was a stove here
one time or 'nother and the pipe hole was papered over."

"But--but what of it?" whispered Thankful. "I don't care about stovepipe
holes. It's that dreadful noise I want to locate. I hear it now, just as
plain as ever."

"Where could a stovepipe go to from here?" mused the captain. "Not into
the kitchen; the kitchen chimney's way over t'other side. Maybe there
was a chimney here afore the house was moved."

"But the snoring?" faltered Emily. "Don't you hear it?"

Captain Obed put his ear against the covered stovepipe hole. He listened
and as he listened his face took on a new expression, an expression of
sudden suspicion, then of growing certainty, and, a moment later, of
huge amusement.

He stepped down from the