"We won't forget it in a hurry," said Jack. "I can't recall when I've heard the wind make such a noise."
To add to their alarm, as the fury of the wind increased, the old barn visibly quavered. It seemed to rock back and forth on its foundations. The noise of the wind grew so loud that conversation was presently impossible.
Suddenly there came a fiercer blast than any that had gone before. There was a ripping and rending sound.
"Great Scott! Boys, run for your lives, the old shack is tumbling down," cried Jack.
He had scarcely spoken when what he had anticipated happened. Beams, boards and shingles flew in every direction. There was no time even to think. Acting instinctively, each boy threw himself flat upon the pile of moldy hay.
Noddy, in his terror, burrowed deep into it. The noise that accompanied the dissolution of the old barn was terrific. Each boy felt as if at any moment a huge beam might fall on him and crush his life out. Above it all the wind howled with a note of triumph at its work of destruction.
The boys felt as if the end of the world had come.