e before it."

"No reason that I can see why it shouldn't," spoke up Arthur Cameron.
"We've run across the lonely castle your aunt is negotiating for, and
it seems to fill the bill to a dot."

"Yes," remarked Monkey Stallings, anxious to have a hand in the
discussion, "and your pictures, you tell us, are turning out dandies
at that. You ought to be as happy as a clam at high tide, as they
say, though I never asked one of the bivalves just why he felt that
way."

"Oh, I am!" declared Alec; "and I reckon the chances are three to one
Aunt Susan is going to enjoy this delightful quiet up here, where not
even the squawk of a crow, or the, crow of a squawking rooster can be
heard the livelong day. Still, somehow I seem to feel a queer sense
of oppression bearing down on me. I hope now it isn't a bad omen of
coming trouble, and that, after all, my rich aunt is doomed to lose
out in the deal for Castle Randall."

The others laughed at the idea.

"Why, it's a cinch for your side, Alec," said Hugh.

"The owner of this ancient and half-ruined pile of stone and make-believe
rocks," Arthur told the doubter, "couldn't find a purchaser in a coon's
age. Who would ever want to come away up here to bury themselves from
civilization, and in such a silly old rookery as this? Well, it was one
chance in a thousand that a nervous wreck like your aunt heard of it."

"Don't worry, Alec, you've got a snap, believe me," chuckled Stallings;
and then unable to longer resist a certain alluring limb which he had
been eying longingly for some little time, he bolted up the trunk of
the overspreading tree, to hang by his toes, and swing daringly to and
fro as some of them had seen a yellow-headed, green-bodied poll-parrot
do from his perch.

Alec continued his work, and from time to time announced that every
roll was indeed turning out superbly. No one had ever seen him quite
so happy. The possession of a lens that did better work than anything
he had ever known in all his experience was enough in itself to make
his boyish heart thrill with joy. And then the singular character of
the film subjects added to the sense of satisfaction, for they were
sure to enhance the attractiveness of his collection, as well as
please Aunt Susan immensely.

It must have been about one o'clock when the boys received their first
rude shock. Hugh had just been thinking of giving orders for another
walk in the direction of the deserted building about a qu