“Do you think a fellow could ring the bell without coming up into the cupola, by some very simple process? Do you think a string tied to the tongue could do it?”
“What!” cried all, in great excitement; and all of them sprang forward to feel for themselves.
But Bruce warded off their hands.
“Wait,” said he. “The string’s here. Stand back. I want to see where it goes to.”
The boys fell back now in greater excitement than ever. The string was a common piece of twine. Bruce followed it, and found that it went across to the side of the cupola, facing their end of the building, and then it was passed through a crevice close to the floor, and passed outside.
But where?
Bruce pulled the string. The other end was fastened; but by the resistance he could tell that it ran for a long distance.
“There’s only one place that it goes to, of course,” said Bart, “and that is Pat’s room. But why in the world he should get up this, passes my comprehension. We’ll have to teach him a lesson, boys.”