"Yes, some other time. Them fellers have been in the room below for full five minutes. If we are a-goin' to ketch onto their racket, we'd better be about it, I should say." And as he spoke Jerry Buck, creeping behind the stove, threw himself flat on his stomach upon the uncarpeted floor, close by the mouth of a small round hole, through which in some former time, when the house had been occupied by the old Quaker families once resident in this part of New York, a stove-pipe had passed, conveying heat to this upper chamber from the room beneath. A thin sheet of paper covered the opening upon the ceiling in the room below them, through which a light could be seen shining dimly and the sounds of men's voices distinctly heard. The woman now seated herself likewise upon the floor, and, in common with the boy, bent over the hole. Had they been in the chamber beneath them, they could not have heard the words of its occupants more plainly. Sound rises, as is well known to every one. Through the round opening every syllable uttered fell with startling distinctness upon their ears. "I tell you the job's an immense one, Rube, whether Sam Cutts can see it or not." "That's old Callister," murmured Jerry in a low whisper. "Hush!" replied the woman, speaking in tones equally low, at the same time holding up her hand. "I know his wicked voice only too well, I'm not likely to forget the voice of one who has brought the ruin he has done upon me and mine." "Well, I'm not kicking," came a man's voice up the tube. "The plan looks all right, and Lije talks all right. It's a big scheme on paper, but the question is, won't it prove another Webster bank affair? Providin' it works, will there be enough shug in the vault to pay us for our trouble? That's what I want to know in advance." "Why, it's the Clearing House for all the other banks, man," replied Callister's voice, impatiently. "There's always money, thousands upon thousands, in the vaults of the Lispenard bank, I'm a director in it myself, and I guess I ought to know." "And these plans----" "Are drawn from personal knowledge of the interior of the bank and its vault. Let me tell you, Sam Cutts, this is the biggest thing of the kind I ever put you on to. Billy here knows that I'm giving it to you straight." "Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!" Both Jerry Buck and the woman were upon their feet in an instant. The rapping was upon the door of the room in which the listeners were. "Who can it be!" whispered the woman, turning pale. "Give it up. Better throw suthin over the hole while I open the door an' see. It's some of the neighbors have come to borry suthin', most like, or a peddler mebbe." "Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!" The boy hastily crossed the room, and turning the key, cautiously opened the door upon the crack. Instantly a man sprang into the room, and seizing Jerry by the shoulders with a vise-like grip, clapped one hand over his mouth. CHAPTER XXI. FRANK VISITS COTTAGE PLACE.