“I’ll hurry as fast as I can.”
Dan started to creep away. He had taken less than three steps when a sudden commotion inside the church brought him up sharply.
From the interior of the building, issued an eerie scream.
Then utter confusion! He could hear Pat and the other Bay Shore boys gasping and yelling as they evidently pushed and shoved one another down the iron stairway which led from the belfry.
Dan couldn’t guess what had happened. Had one of the boys fallen on the stairs? But surely that wouldn’t have been enough to have caused such panic.
As he hesitated, wondering whether to wait or hasten on to find a telephone, the intruders began to pour out of the building.
Pat was the first to crawl through the narrow opening.
“What happened?” Pete demanded. “Where’s the bell?”
“Bell?” Pat laughed hysterically. “That bell can stay up there forever! The church is haunted!”
The other Bay Shore boys came out of the coal chute as fast as they could squeeze through. Without even waiting for their buddies, they started on a run away from the building.