“They are, eh!” spoke the janitor. “I don’t like that, but I s’pose they’ve got a right to go in and out when they please, even if they haven’t any furniture. Maybe they’re looking the rooms over. It looks suspicious. I guess they’ll bear watching.”
“I think so myself,” replied Larry, as he went back upstairs.
CHAPTER XXI
LARRY ON THE WATCH
As he passed the door of the room which he had seen the stranger enter Larry paused. He saw a light under the portal where there was a crack between the sill and the edge of the door. He also heard voices in low conversation.
“I’d like to know what you’re up to,” thought the boy. “I’ll bet it’s no good, from the looks of that one chap.”
Larry noticed that the room occupied by the men was directly under his own bedroom.
“Maybe I can hear something from my room,” Larry thought.
He returned to his mother’s apartments to tell her what the janitor had said. He did not mention his own suspicions, for he did not want to cause any unnecessary alarm. When the others had retired that night Larry got out of bed, lay down on the floor of his room, and pressed his ear to the boards. At first he could distinguish nothing.
Then he heard a low, curious humming sound, like the roar of a railroad train going through a tunnel, only much fainter. Now and then he could hear blows struck as though the men were pounding a hammer on a block of wood. Occasionally he could distinguish the sound of voices, though the words were a mere jumble.