"Why, there he is again, and nearer than before!" cried one of the lads who had been trying to find him, and both peered eagerly over the railing; but to their evident astonishment, could see no one.
"Dear me, where in the world is he?" exclaimed again the boy who had first spoken. "His voice sounded even nearer than before and yet he's nowhere to be seen."
"Oh, let's look under the veranda," suggested the other. "Perhaps he may have crept in there."
"Oh, yes, if Mrs. Travilla is willing," returned his companion.
"I have no objection," she said pleasantly, and they proceeded to look, but soon announced that there was no one to be found there.
"And it certainly isn't worth your while to take such trouble to find so good for naught a scamp," returned Mr. Lilburn in his natural voice. "I wadna try it any more, lads."
"Ha, ha, ha. I knew you couldn't find me!" laughed the invisible speaker, the voice this time apparently coming from the roof of the veranda.
"Well," cried Ned, "how in the world did he get up there? What a famous climber he must be!"
At that the mystified stranger boys hurried down the veranda steps again and some little distance down the path leading across the grounds from the front of the dwelling, turned there and stood looking up at the veranda's roof.
"Why, there's nothing and nobody there!" they exclaimed breathlessly as they hurried back again.