“Okay,” Brad agreed after a slight hesitation.
Unfastening the window latch, the boys climbed through.
As he straightened up, Dan sniffed the air suspiciously.
“Say, I smell something!” he announced.
Brad also had noticed the odor. “Smoke!” he agreed. “Something’s burning! It’s inside the castle too!”
Thoroughly alarmed, the boys darted from room to room. Running through a butler’s pantry they came to a huge kitchen with row upon row of shelves.
At one end of the room was a fireplace. To the amazement of the boys, a fire had been built there. A few of the larger sticks still smoldered.
“Someone has been in here since we came!” Brad exclaimed.
“Do you suppose one of the Cubs could have built the fire, Brad?”
“The fellows all have been working,” Brad replied, deeply puzzled. “Besides, everyone heard Mr. Kain warn about starting fires.”