“Like what?” John groped for a thought. “Oh, college? Sure. It was a grand life. It’s not so much what you learn in classrooms that counts. It’s rubbing minds with bright men. Some of the professors are smart, some of your fellow students are too. You talk and argue and discuss and that way you learn to think. You——
“That is a car!” He sprang to his feet. “Coming right up the circular driveway. Thundering queer, I’d say, this time of night! Come on!”
Gripping a flashlight he let himself out noiselessly into the moonless night. Jimmie followed closely at his heels.
“We’ll just keep to the shadows,” John whispered. “Probably nothing unusual. But you never can tell. May be one of the owners of the old place coming out to pick up some antique. Lord knows the place is full of ’em.
“Look out,” his whisper rose. “There’s a rather deep rut right here. Now we’ll get up to that big lilac bush.
“It’s not like the Starks to come out here at this time of night,” he went on in that low whisper. “Not like ’em to come at all, for that matter. When I’ve talked to them about the place they’ve always sort of acted as if it were haunted. Still, probably there’s nothing to this. Have a look all the same, and those people in the car’ll be none the wiser unless——”
“Look out now,” he warned. “Don’t go that way. I’ve noticed that lights from cars flash across here. Let’s scoot along these bushes.”
So, with his breath coming short and quick Jimmie followed across the grass-grown, bush-entangled estate.
“Now,” John breathed at last, “we’ll slip up to that big elm and have a look——”
“They’re inside,” Jimmie whispered. “See that faint gleam of light in the big, old library.”