He went down into the area, where it was dark; the three, trembling by this time, peered forward to watch him. They saw him try the window and to their horror saw it go softly up. The next moment the man deliberately sat down and removed his shoes. The plebes could see them in his hands as he arose again and with the stealthiness of a cat slid quickly in.
The three hesitated not a moment, but rose up and crept silently and swiftly across the street. Mark stole down into the area, his heart beating high. He peered in and a moment later beckoned the others. They came; they saw the burglar in the act of striking a light and creeping up the basement stairs. In an instant more he was gone.
“What shall we do?” whispered the three. “What?”
Mark answered by an act. There was only one thing he could do; he stooped and crept in at the window. The three followed him immediately and their forms were lost in the darkness of that imperiled house.
CHAPTER XXII.
BURGLAR HUNTING.
It was an uncanny business wandering about a dark house at night; it is especially so if it be a strange house and if one knows for certain that there is a desperate burglar creeping about somewhere in it. Many a man has shrunk from that task; but the three had been bemoaning a lack of excitement, and now here it was. So they had no right to complain.
Mark waited a moment for the others to join him and then side by side they stood and peered into the darkness. From what they had seen of the room when the man struck a light it was a dining-room with a flight of stairs running up from it. Up those stairs the man had gone; and a few moments later the three cadets were standing hesitatingly at the foot of them.
“He may have a gun,” whispered Chauncey.
Texas reached around to his hip pocket instinctively at that; he groaned when he realized his defenseless condition.