Involuntarily, he uttered a choked cry as he cringed back. Slight as was the sound, it reached the ears of the man in the belfry above.
Throwing off his blankets, he leaped to his feet.
“Who’s there?” he demanded, peering down.
The daylight above seemed to have blinded him, for he did not immediately see the two boys crouching in the semi-darkness. But they could not escape detection.
“Come up out of there!” he ordered, as he made out their shadowy forms. “A couple of kids, eh?”
Brad and Dan were nervous as they faced the stranger. The wind had blown his dark hair and he was unshaven. His eyes, however, had a friendly twinkle which slightly reassured them. They were relieved too, to note that he did not appear to be armed.
“Well, well! A couple of curious Cubs,” the man said cheerfully. “So you’ve finally caught me?”
Already Dan and Brad had lost their fear of the stranger. He was a man of early middle age, well-built and deeply tanned from having lived an outdoor life. Why, they wondered, had he chosen the church belfry for his home?
“You’ve been living here a long while, haven’t you?” Dan asked.
“I’ve been sleeping here off and on about three weeks,” the stranger shrugged. “This place, I’m telling you, isn’t very cozy now that the nights are so cold.”