Down-stairs, Aunt Tabby and Uncle Joshua had heard the shot. Joshua was now wide awake. He seized his old shotgun and ran out into the livingroom. Followed by Aunt Tabby, he hurried to Elaine.
"Wh-what was it?" he asked, puffing at the exertion of running up-stairs.
"I saw—a face—at the window—with some kind of thing over it!" gasped
Elaine. "It was like one I saw once before."
Uncle Joshua did not wait to hear any more. With the gun pointed ahead of him, ready for instant action, he ran out of the room and into the garden, beneath Elaine's window.
He looked about for signs of an intruder. There was not a sound. No one was about, here.
"I don't see any one," he called up to Elaine and Aunt Tabby in the window.
He happened to look down at the ground. Before him was a small box. He picked it up.
"Here's something, though," he said.
Joshua went back into the house.
"What is it?" asked Elaine as he rejoined the women.