refused to budge an
inch.

Bridge saw in the gradually lighting sky the near approach of full
daylight; so he contented himself with making the girl and the youth
walk briskly to and fro in the hope that stimulated circulation might at
least partially overcome the menace of the damp clothing and the chill
air, and thus they occupied the remaining hour of the night.

From below came no repetition of the inexplicable noises of that night
of terror and at last, with every object plainly discernible in the
light of the new day, Bridge would delay no longer; but voiced his final
determination to descend and make a fire in the old kitchen stove. Both
the boy and the girl insisted upon accompanying him. For the first time
each had an opportunity to study the features of his companions of
the night. Bridge found in the girl and the youth two dark eyed,
good-looking young people. In the girl's face was, perhaps, just a trace
of weakness; but it was not the face of one who consorts habitually with
criminals. The man appraised her as a pretty, small-town girl who had
been led into a temporary escapade by the monotony of village life, and
he would have staked his soul that she was not a bad girl.

The boy, too, looked anything other than the role he had been playing.
Bridge smiled as he looked at the clear eyes, the oval face, and the
fine, sensitive mouth and thought of the youth's claim to the crime
battered sobriquet of The Oskaloosa Kid. The man wondered if the mystery
of the clanking chain would prove as harmlessly infantile as these two
whom some accident of hilarious fate had cast in the roles of debauchery
and crime.

Aloud, he said: "I'll go first, and if the spook materializes you two
can beat it back into the room." And to the two tramps: "Come on, boes,
we'll all take a look at the lower floor together, and then we'll get a
good fire going in the kitchen and warm up a bit."

Down the hall they went, Bridge leading with the boy and girl close
at his heels while the two yeggs brought up the rear. Their footsteps
echoed through the deserted house; but brought forth no answering
clanking from the cellar. The stairs creaked beneath the unaccustomed
weight of so many bodies as they descended toward the lower floor.
Near the bottom Bridge came to a questioning halt. The front room lay
entirely within his range of vision, and as his eyes swept it he gave
voice to a short exclamation of surprise.

The youth and the girl,