“Let him try,” replied Bob indifferently. “That’s the least of my worries. What’s bothering me a good deal more now is why Jimmy and Herb haven’t turned up to help us out on this job.”
“Guess they’ve got stalled somewhere,” hazarded Joe. “But even if they don’t turn up we’ll be done in half an hour or so. Then it’s me for a cold bath and some dry clothes! I’m drenched to the skin.”
A half hour later there was no sign of the truants, but the job was done, and Bob and Joe ran their eyes over it with keen satisfaction.
“Some little mechanics, old scout!” chuckled Bob, slapping his friend on the shoulder. “Now for that cold bath you were——”
He stopped suddenly and gave vent to an exclamation of surprise.
“What’s the matter?” queried Joe, who was adjusting his belt.
“The ladder!” exclaimed Bob. “It’s gone!”
Joe looked toward the edge of the roof, and saw that the top of the ladder by which they had mounted was no longer in sight.
“It must have fallen down,” he said; “but it’s queer we didn’t hear it.”
“Fallen nothing!” snorted Bob, as he crawled to the edge of the roof and looked over. “It was resting solidly against the roof when we left it, for I shook it with my hand to make sure. Somebody has taken it down. There it is lying on the ground, twenty feet away from the barn.”