She grabbed the handle of the door. All was silent behind the panels at that moment. A big headlight lantern had been brought along, and this stood upon the old chimney mantel, lighting the whole room. The blazing ray of it was aimed right at the stairway door.
Everybody stopped eating to look at Sally. That is, everybody but Henrietta. The freckle-faced girl was so absorbed in the good things Jessie and Amy had heaped on her wooden plate that she gave small attention to anything else.
“Here goes!” cried Sally Moon.
She jerked open the door. The blaze of lamplight revealed all the stairway landing. There was a black-and-white striped, bushy-tailed creature and several small replicas of the larger one on the stairs. The lamplight evidently dazzled them. They blinked and made no sound.
“For the land’s sake!” shouted Belle Ringold, and started up in haste.
“Why, it’s a cat and a bunch of kittens,” said Sally.
But most of the older members of the crowd, as well as all the Dogtown children, made hastily for the exit of the kitchen.
“Mephitis mephitica!” Darry sang out. “Beat it, folks!”
“What does he mean?” gasped Sally Moon, falling back from the door.
The general although unexplained desire of everybody to get away from the vicinity of the stairway amazed Sally, but it startled her too. The group of little animals on the loft stairs seemed the most harmless things in the world.