“What is it?” whispered Andy, as soon as the hand was removed from his mouth.
“Keep still! There are some persons outside. They tried the door, and I believe they’ll soon find the open window.”
Frank said this so close to Andy’s ear that any one five feet away could never have caught a sound.
“Oh!” gasped the other, as he began to get up. “Whatever will we do, Frank?”
“Sh! don’t speak again. Listen to me. We must try and hide behind something, or under the work bench. Come, there’s no time to lose, and be careful not to stumble.”
Frank drew his cousin on. Still, Andy had sense enough to stoop over and lift the big monkey wrench from the place where he had carefully deposited it before taking to his cot.
They crawled across the shed to the work bench, avoiding the extended wings of the aeroplane.
Just as they gained the shelter of the bench, and were pushing under it, there came a crackling noise from the further end of the rough building. Frank instantly knew what it meant. As the shed had only been intended as a cover from the elements, in the building no great pains had been taken, so that there were many cracks, each fully an inch in diameter.
Some one had taken pains to insert an iron rod, possibly, through one of those apertures, and was now engaged in prying off a board. Once that was accomplished it would be easy to gain an entrance.
Frank wondered what the intruders might think when they found evidences to the effect that some one had been sleeping there? And the bar across the wide double doors must also tell them the same fact. Would they look around to find the hidden lads, and injure them in some way; or might their desire for a hurried departure cause them to ignore the facts?