Tommy took a step towards the piazza and paused, listening. There was no sound in the house. “Let’s go up,” he whispered. “No one will ever know. Come on.”
The two children stole noiselessly up the steps and crept over the piazza to the sheltered nook where the toys were safe from the dew. Mary sank down on her knees beside Alice. “Oh, oh!” she breathed. “I never saw anything so beautiful!”
Tommy was looking eagerly at the rocking-horse. “Oh, how I wish ’t I dared ride on him, just once!” he thought. He reached out his hand to stroke the mane of the beautiful creature, the like of which he had never before seen. And at the same moment Mary stretched a trembling hand towards Alice’s golden curls. Think of having a doll like that for your very own, to kiss and play with, and carry around wherever you went! If only she might have it in her arms just once, Mary felt that she should be happy all the rest of her days.
But just at that moment there came a terrible sound, “Pr-r-r-jingle-jangle! P-r-r-r-r! Jang-jang!” In the stillness it seemed to sound louder than the loudest thunder. Tommy started as if he had been shot. Poor Mary drew back her hand as if Alice’s yellow curls had burned them. “Pr-r-r-jang-jang!” The dreadful noise continued, and it came from inside the house.
With one frightened leap Tommy and Mary were down the piazza steps. Casting one wild look behind to see if they were being followed by the terrible creature that was growling to warn and punish them for daring to touch those precious treasures, they fled away like foxes across the garden and into the woods at the back of the house. Poor little frightened things! They thought that their early-morning secret had been discovered, and never again would they dare to venture near that piazza which was the only fairyland that they knew.
Meanwhile what was going on inside the house? “Pr-r-r-jang-jang!” The alarm clock still buzzed away fiercely. Kenneth had wound it up as far as it would go, and for several minutes the bell rang, until every one in the house, except Kenneth himself, was wide awake.
Papa and Mamma woke up instantly. Mrs. Thornton’s first thought was about the new baby. “Oh, John!” she cried, “has anything happened to the baby? Do call Eliza.”
Mr. Thornton was already out of bed. “It can’t be burglars,” he said, “for we haven’t any burglars down here on the island, nor any burglar alarm, either. Don’t be frightened. I will go and look through the house.”
In the hall he met Aunt Claire and the servants, shivering in their wrappers. “Oh, John,” cried Aunt Claire, “is the house afire? I certainly heard a fire-alarm.”
“Nonsense!” said Mr. Thornton. “It must be some one pulling the door-bell.” But when he went down to open the door, with the servants following in a frightened, huddled group, there was no one waiting outside. The piazza was empty. Only Alice swung peacefully in her hammock, seeming not the least frightened.