“He’s somewhere around here,” whispered Grant in reply.
“But I don’t see him or hear him,” declared Fred. “We ought to find out what has happened.”
“Oh, he’s all right,” said John confidently. “Come on, let’s go ahead.”
“We haven’t any light,” suggested Fred.
“We’ll have one pretty soon. That’s probably what George has gone for,” whispered John. “He’ll be back in a minute.”
“I don’t believe we had better try to go any farther. A good many of these old houses have steps from one room to another. I don’t want Fred to fall and break his neck.”
“Don’t you worry about my——” began Fred, but he stopped abruptly when suddenly the shutters in the room directly over their head banged noisily against the side of the house. At the same time the sound of the flying creatures in the room was heard again and as if to make matters worse a sound very like a groan came from the stairway. The weird interruption was followed by a wild laugh that came from the same stairway and a moment later the confusion was increased by a sound more unexpected than any which as yet had been heard by the Go Ahead boys in the old Meeker House.