"Vat in tonder ish dat?" exclaimed Officer Schneider, coming to a sudden halt, and looking up into the air.
Again the strange sound broke upon the stillness of the night a little ahead of them through the thick mass of falling snow.
Both Frank and the policeman had now checked their steps close to the church-yard wall.
At the recurrence of the sound, forgetting for the instant that he had a prisoner on his hands, Officer Schneider moved a few steps in advance of the boy, and raising his head, tried to peer in among the clustered vines, all laden with snow, which overhung the iron fence upon the top of the wall, leaving the boy standing behind.
"I can't see notings," he muttered, "but dere's something crooked going on up dere. Dis is not de first time nor de second I hear dot sound. Who goes up mit dem valls on top, I'd schust like to know?"
Now this was a little private mystery of the officer's own, this self-same bat-like sound.
Several times previous to the present occasion had he heard it, and——
Hello!
And what ails Officer Schneider now?
Enough to make him stare as he does, and shower all the German imprecations known to his vocabulary upon the air around.