“Well, I suppose it’s all right,” assented Agnes, as she took up another bunch of flowers. “But I wonder—”
She never finished that sentence. From somewhere, inside or outside the house, a resounding crash sounded. It shook the walls and floors.
“Oh, my! what’s that?” cried Ruth, dropping the blossoms from her hands and hastening to the hall.
[CHAPTER II—NEALE HAS NEWS]
Deep, and perhaps portentous, silence had succeeded the crash. But both Ruth and Agnes knew enough of the goings and comings in the Corner House not to take this silence for serenity. It meant something, as the crash had.
“What was it?” murmured Ruth again, and she fairly ran out into the hall, followed by her sister.
Then came a series of bumps, as if something of no small size was rolling down the porch steps. By this time it was evident that the racket came from without and not from within. Then a voice cried:
“Hold it! Hold it! Don’t let it roll down!”
“That’s Dot!” declared Ruth.
And then a despairing voice cried: