“Wow, I wish we could have it,” Red declared. “If we could just get down into the basement—say, maybe we can find an unlocked window!”
“Nothing doing,” Dan said with firmness. “Even if we found one, we couldn’t go into the building after Old Terry told us to wait. Cub honor.”
“Oh, I was only talking,” Red answered with a shrug. “I didn’t really intend to go inside.”
Dan’s window offered a fairly clear view of the church basement, so the other boys crowded about to peer down into the pillared room.
“The place has a lot of boxes,” Midge observed. “Some of ’em look as if they’ve been smashed open. I see some tools too. A coal shovel—”
His voice broke on the last named object and an eerie silence came upon all the Cubs. Was it imagination, or had they heard a strange sound—the faint tap-tap-tap of the overhead church bell?
“What was that?” Midge demanded.
“G-ghosts,” mumbled Chub, his voice choked with fright. In a hushed whisper he added the plea: “Come on, f-fellows, let’s get away from here q-quick!”
CHAPTER 3
A TAPPING BELL
Chub’s squeal of fright unnerved the other Cubs for an instant. But they did not give way to panic. Chips grasped the younger boy’s arm, holding him as he would have fled from the church grounds.