Breaking into a run, the two headed directly for the church. As they approached from the front they could see no one on the grounds. A nearly full moon, rising through the bare branches of a scraggly tree, cast a soft, weird glow over the earth.
“I can’t see anyone—” Brad began, only to break off.
The two listeners had heard a door slam. They were certain the sound had come from the rear of the old building.
Noiselessly, Brad and Dan moved around the hedge to approach the church from the river side.
“Look!” Dan directed the other’s attention.
A group of five or six boys clustered at the rear of the building, near an open coal chute. The sound which the Cubs had taken for the slamming of a door, had, in reality been the banging of the chute cover.
“It’s Pat and his bunch!” Dan recognized them.
“Bent on trouble too! They’re going into that building, and we’ll get the blame.”
As the pair crept cautiously nearer, they could hear Pat giving orders to his followers.
“I’ll go first,” he told them. “Then the rest of you follow. All but Pete, who’s to stay here and keep watch. We’ll get that bell from the belfry and dump it on main street!”