told the hired men to keep out, for I thought maybe
they might disturb something, and spoil it for you."

"And no animals are in here; are they?" asked Mr. DeVere.

"No, not a one," replied Sandy.

"But I heard someone!" declared Mr. Pertell. "Hark! There is the
sound again!" he cried, and they all heard a noise as of a heavy body
falling.

CHAPTER IX

THE RESCUE

"Over this way!" cried Mr. Pertell, making a leap toward a distant
corner of the barn, which was in deep shadow. "The noise was over
there."

"I think it was there," exclaimed Sandy, pointing toward the opposite
corner.

"Come, girls, I think you had better go out," suggested Mr. DeVere to
his daughters. "There may be trouble."

"I'd like to see it," said Alice, with a laugh.

"Oh, how can you?" exclaimed Ruth. "Come away, dear!"

"Well, I suppose I've got to," and Alice actually sighed. Her "bump
of curiosity" was very well developed.

Following each his own belief as to where the noise had come from,
Mr. Pertell went to one corner, and Sandy to the other. Mr. DeVere
took his daughters outside, and bade them go on toward the house.

"But where are you going, Daddy?" asked Alice, as he turned back.

"They may need help," he replied.

"Oh, I wish we could go!" pleaded Alice. "At least let us stay here
and watch!"

"Well, not too near," conceded her father.

But it seemed that the search for the cause of the mysterious noise
was to be fruitless. Neither Mr. Pertell nor Sandy could find any
person or creature, though they looked thoroughly. There were many
nooks and crannies in the old structure, for in its day it had been
the main barn on the farm. But it had fallen into decay and others
had been built.

There were harness rooms, oat and feed bins, a small room where the
former owner had done his "tinkering and odd jobs," and many other
places where someone might have hidden. But no one could be found. No
farm animal had made the noise, that was evident, for Sandy could
account for all the larger stock on the place, and it must have been
a body of considerable size the fall of which had startled them.

"Could it have been bats flying about?" asked Mr. DeVere.

"No bat was heavy enough to make that racket," said Sandy, "though
there are bats in here. I don't know what it could have been."

"A tramp, perhaps," suggested Mr. Pertell.

"It might have been," admitted the young farmer, as he thought of the
smashed lock on the bul