The next minute he was back at the bed-side.
“Dick,” he whispered, shaking him; “Dick!”
“What is it?”
“There’s something wrong with the horses.”
“Nonsense!”
“There is, I tell you. Sit up and listen.”
“Oh, I say, what a nuisance you are! I was having such a dream!”
Dick sat up and listened, and certainly a sound came from the yard.
He jumped out of bed and went with Tom to the open window, but all was perfectly still round the house, and he was about to return to bed when a dim shadowy-looking creature flew silently across the yard.
Dick uttered a peculiar squeak which was so exactly like that of a mouse that the bird curved round in its flight, came rapidly up toward the window, and hovered there with extended claws, and its great eyes staring from its full round face.