Without a word having been spoken, Fred and John instantly departed from the old house. They did not even glance at each other as they did so, but moved by a common impulse both were apparently ready to seek a place of safety with all haste.

Fred’s bold declaration that now he had found an explanation for the strange occurrences in the Meeker House apparently had not held good. He was maintaining his place by the side of his tall friend when both were fleeing from the house.

The sun already had disappeared from sight and the shadows of the evening were lengthening.

Perhaps the hour increased their feeling of uncertainty. At all events the confidence they had possessed, when in broad daylight they had boldly entered the kitchen, manifestly now was gone. Each boy frequently glanced behind him in his flight, but neither spoke to the other until fifty yards intervened between them and the dwelling.

“What are we doing out here?” demanded Fred blankly.

“I don’t think you need very much of an explanation,” retorted John.

“That’s the way it seems to me, too,” responded Fred, striving to laugh lightly as he spoke.

“At all events we are making pretty good time.”

Indeed the smaller boy was able to maintain the pace at which his friend with the longer legs was moving over the field. Half the distance between the house and the road had been covered when John stopped and said, “Look ahead there, Fred. Isn’t that George and Grant waiting over yonder in the road?”

In response to the suggestion of his friend, Fred glanced quickly at the huge spreading oak tree that grew close to the fence. It was a magnificent tree, the pride of the country around about and the delight of many visitors. Beneath it an automobile was seen and then Fred exclaimed quickly, “You’re right, String, that’s George and Grant. Let’s slow up a little. We don’t want them to think we are in too much of a hurry.”

Accordingly the speed at which they were moving decreased and as they glanced behind them and saw that the conditions about the old Meeker House apparently were unchanged the boys ceased to run and began to walk.

“Don’t let them think we have been scared out,” again suggested Fred. “We’ll never hear the last of it if we don’t.”

Without replying John nodded his head and more slowly the boys walked across the intervening field and then climbed the fence and leaped lightly into the roadside when they drew near the place where the two boys were awaiting their coming.

“What’s your hurry?” demanded George, laughing as he spoke.

“We’re in no hurry,” responded Fred glibly.

“We’re hungry, that’s all,” said John. “We were afraid you would be keeping dinner for us.”

“That’s a mighty good excuse,” laughed Grant. “You didn’t act when we first saw you as if you were thinking of your dinner. I didn’t believe that either one of you could make such good time.”

“That’s all right,” said Fred sharply. “That’s all right, but it’s just exactly as I said.”

“What is?” inquired George.

“Why the tricks you have been trying to play on us in the old Meeker House.”

“Tricks? What tricks have I been trying to play?” replied George.

“Did you ever hear of chimney-swallows?” inquired Fred.

“Indeed I have,” said George, “and I have seen them lots of times.”

“Ever see any in the old Meeker House?”

“Yes,” replied George, laughing again as he spoke.

“Well, why didn’t you tell us that they were there? You let us go on and I think you helped us too to believe that the room was full of flying spooks.”

“I didn’t know that I was to blame,” laughed George, “if you didn’t know the difference between a spook and chimney-swallow.”

“You must have put in a lot of work in that old house, George,” broke in John.

“Work?” inquired George, staring blankly at his friend. “What do you mean? I never worked there in my life.”

“Who put in that speaking tube that runs from the kitchen to the front room?” demanded John.

“I didn’t,” George said quietly.

“You mean you didn’t do the work. I guess you knew it was put in and I guess too that you know who put it in.”

George laughed, but did not directly reply to the implied question.

“We have found out about your old speaking tube,” continued John. “That was a great trick for you to play on your old friends.”

Grant, who was listening intently to the conversation, in which up to this time he had taken no part, now said, “Then you two fellows think you have found out all about the strange things in the old Meeker House, do you?”

“We didn’t say that,” replied Fred. “All we say is that we have found out about the wings that we heard and the chattering in the chimney and the speaking tube that ran from the kitchen into the front room. My, but I was scared when I heard my name called there,” he added.

George laughed loudly as he said, “You don’t need to tell me that, Pyg. I wouldn’t have believed that any living creature could have made its legs fly as fast as yours did that night.”

“I was trying to keep up with the rest of the fellows,” retorted Fred. “I had to go some to do that.”

“Now that you have found out all these things you’re not afraid to go back there any time, are you?” inquired George.

“Yes, sir, I am,” said Fred.

“What?”

“Because we haven’t found out everything. There’s something strange about that place that I don’t understand yet.”

“Why, what happened?” inquired George quickly.

“We heard voices upstairs.”

“Was that the reason why you were moving so fast across the yard?” laughed George.

“Laugh all you want to,” said Fred, “but that’s what we heard.”

“Probably your tramp was talking to himself,” suggested Grant.

“No, sir,” spoke up John promptly. “That wasn’t it at all. Besides there was more than one voice.”

“You didn’t hear the automobile-horn, did you?” inquired George.

“No, we didn’t. We heard all I wanted to without hearing that. It just made my flesh creep to hear those voices upstairs and coming down the stairway.”

“Was there anything strange about the voices?” asked George.

“Yes, sir, there was.”

“Well, I tell you what I’ll do,” said Grant promptly. “I’ll dare both of you to come back here to the old Meeker House after dinner to-night.”

“I’ll do it,” said Fred promptly.

“I’ll give you another dare better than that,” said John. “I’ll dare you and George to go back there right now.”

“Will you come too?” demanded George.

“We have just come from there,” said John. “We know what there is there and you don’t. Now we dare you both to go back right now.”

George glanced a moment questioningly at Grant and then without a word being spoken promptly turned the car and started back toward the mysterious old house.

Apparently all thoughts of dinner had been forgotten or ignored. Fred and John looked at each other and laughed derisively, but neither spoke until at last the car was halted under the old oak tree.

Quickly George and Grant leaped out and started across the intervening field.

Fred and John left to themselves waited until their friends had gone to the rear of the building and then the former said quickly, “Let’s take the car and go back home. It will serve those fellows just right to leave them there.”

John laughed as he agreed to the suggestion.

Avoiding all possible noise they turned the car about and started down the road. They had gone only a short distance, however, before Fred suddenly clutched the arm of his companion who was driving and said, “Listen, String! Wasn’t that a call or a shout?”

As he spoke, Fred in great excitement looked behind him in the direction of the mysterious old dwelling house. Without a word, John turned the car about and started swiftly on his way back to the old tree.