"But where are you going, Daddy?" asked Alice, as he turned back.
"They may need help," he replied.
"Oh, I wish we could go!" pleaded Alice. "At least let us stay here and watch!"
"Well, not too near," conceded her father.
But it seemed that the search for the cause of the mysterious noise was to be fruitless. Neither Mr. Pertell nor Sandy could find any person or creature, though they looked thoroughly. There were many nooks and crannies in the old structure, for in its day it had been the main barn on the farm. But it had fallen into decay and others had been built.
There were harness rooms, oat and feed bins, a small room where the former owner had done his "tinkering and odd jobs," and many other places where someone might have hidden. But no one could be found. No farm animal had made the noise, that was evident, for Sandy could account for all the larger stock on the place, and it must have been a body of considerable size the fall of which had startled them.
"Could it have been bats flying about?" asked Mr. DeVere.
"No bat was heavy enough to make that racket," said Sandy, "though there are bats in here. I don't know what it could have been."
