of it when we pulled that bucket of
water up!"

Saying this Hanky Panky leaned far over the edge of the well curb, and
attempted to see into the murky depths. Rod cast a quick look in the
direction of Josh, who gave him a sly wink, but kept a straight face.

"I can't see anything, for a fact," complained Hanky Panky in great
distress; "but it was a groan, I'm sure--there it goes again, and worse
than before. Oh! Rod, do you believe some poor chap tried to hide in the
well when he saw all those awful Germans coming, and hasn't been strong
enough to climb up again since?"

"Why, that might be possible, of course," replied Rod, "though just how
he could stay down there this long is more than I can understand."

"What do you say, Josh?" demanded the sympathetic one.

"Oh! me?" remarked Josh, with a shrug of his shoulders, and not even
offering to change his position; "if you asked me straight off the
handle now I'd say that it might be only the wind sighing through the
trees, or something like that. Don't stand to reason that anybody could
be down there in that well."

When Hanky Panky met with opposition he always became more positive;
possibly the sly Josh knew this full well, and allowed the fact to
govern his actions.

"But we all heard the groans, didn't we?" demanded Hanky Panky; "and I
guess I know one when it hits my ears. There certainly is some one down
there. Listen to that, will you; isn't it just fierce the way he keeps
going on, though?"

Indeed, the sounds had once more commenced to well up from the dark
depths, and in a most agonizing fashion too. Even Rod felt a thrill,
although he could give a pretty good guess concerning the nature of the
poor unfortunate who was the contributing cause for those dismal groans.

"No use talking, fellows!" declared Hanky Panky presently, after they
had listened again to the suggestive sounds that seemed to spell human
misery; "I just can't stand this any longer. Something's got to be done,
that's what. I've a good notion to slip down the rope myself, and find
out what it means."

"But that'd be going a whole lot, just to satisfy your curiosity,
wouldn't it?" asked Josh, cunningly, for he knew that he was taking just
the course to further aggravate the other's intention to act.

"Well, you don't seem to care much what happens to a poor chap who's
made a fool of himself, and got caught down in a well; but I do,"
asserted Hanky Panky, proudly. "I don't think I co