Another silence; then both Ruth and Helen jumped. "I declare! Is that a bird or a beast?" Helen demanded.
"What is it?" cried Ann, starting up.
"Somebody rapping on that window," Ruth declared.
"This far up from the ground? Nonsense!" exclaimed the bold Ann, and marched to the casement and ran up the shade.
They could see nothing. There was no light in the roadway before the house. Ann opened the window and leaned out.
"Nobody down there throwing up gravel, that's sure," she declared, drawing in her head again, and shutting the window.
Just as they returned to their books the scratching, squeaking noise broke out again. This time Ruth ran to see.
"Nothing!" she confessed.
"What do you suppose it can be?" asked Helen nervously. "I declare, I can't study any more. That gets on my nerves."
Mrs. Smith put in her head at that moment. "Of course you haven't seen that boy, any of you?" she asked sharply.