"Be with you in just a minute," Tom said, shutting off the motor and putting on the emergency brake. He was glad to note that the ground seemed firm beneath the wheels.
As he and Ned were alighting, thinking to have a look around the outside of the deserted house before getting something to eat, Ned uttered a low exclamation which Tom heard above the noise of the rain that was coming down more gently now.
"What is it?" whispered the young inventor.
"Did you hear a noise in there?" asked Ned in cautious tones.
CHAPTER XIV
A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE
Like game dogs, Tom Swift and Ned Newton froze in their tracks and stood in the rain near the deserted house, waiting for they knew not what. It was a lonesome, dreary place, dense woods being all around them, and ahead, though some miles distant, the sinister summit of Dismal Mountain with its suggestion of mystery. Only the fact that the warm, comfortable and cozily lighted House on Wheels was near by heartened the young men. They were rather tired from their trip, with fighting the elements, and digging the heavy auto out of bog holes.
For several seconds they stood there, Tom seeking to tune his ears to what Ned had said he had heard—a noise in the deserted house. But as no sounds came to him, the young inventor began to believe that his chum was mistaken.
"Guess it was only the storm," he said, still pitching his voice low.
"Maybe," agreed Ned. "Yet at first I was sure the sound came from the house."