"How about Mumps?" asked Larry.
"Oh, he reformed after that chase on the ocean, and I've heard he is now out West," said Sam. "There's another rascal, though—Mr. Arnold Baxter. But he is in jail in Albany—he and that tool of his, Buddy Girk."
"Well, certainly somebody is responsible," said Frank. "Supposing we go back and try to find some clew?"
"And find the danger sign and put it up again," said Joel Darwell.
A dozen of the boys went back, and with them Tom and Sam, leaving
Dick with the Stanhopes. As soon as the crowd had left, Dora
Stanhope motioned the elder Rover to one side.
"Oh, Dick, it makes me shiver to hear Josiah Crabtree spoken of," she said in a whisper.
"Why, Dora, you don't mean to say that he has turned up again?" he questioned quickly.
"No—but—but—last night I heard a strange noise on our side porch, as if somebody was trying the side window. I went to the door and asked to know who was there. At once I heard somebody or some animal leave the porch and climb over the side fence of the garden. I am almost certain it was some person trying to get into the house."
"Did you tell your mother?"
"No, she had one of her nervous headaches, and I thought it would do no good. But I couldn't sleep all night, and I laid with a big stick in one hand and papa's old revolver in the other. The revolver wasn't loaded, but I thought I might scare somebody with it."