One night, when Larry was coming from evening school, he took a short cut. It was through a broad field on which had stood a large warehouse, but which had been burned, leaving a sort of hole in the ground, filled with rubbish. As Larry was picking his way through this, for it was a dark and rainy night, he thought he saw, off to the left, a moving light. “I wonder what that can be,” he thought. He looked at the tiny flame, and saw that it had now ceased its motion. “Guess I’d better take a look,” he said. “You never can tell what’s going to happen.” He walked cautiously toward the glow. As he drew nearer Larry saw that there were several men grouped about a lantern that stood on the ground. “About here’ll do,” one man said in a low tone. “Anywhere so’s we can find it again,” joined in another voice. Then Larry could hear the sound of picks and shovels striking the ground. “I wonder what’s up?” he asked himself. CHAPTER XXVII LARRY IS REWARDED Walking softly Larry approached closer to where the men were at work. He could not see what they were doing, except that they were making a hole in the ground. One man stood a little distance back from the others and held what seemed to be a small box in his arms. “Maybe there’s been a murder committed and they’re burying the corpse,” thought Larry. Then he laughed at his thought. The box the man had would hardly hold a dead cat. The men were working fast now, and seemed anxious to get through. “That’s deep enough,” said one. “Get a flat stone to put on top.” In his curiosity Larry forgot the caution he had hitherto used. His foot touched a piece of wood, dislodged it, and rattled it against a stone. It made quite a noise. “What’s that?” exclaimed the man with the box. “Someone’s coming,” replied the one with the pick. “I’ll see what it is,” the third man said, as he started toward Larry. But the boy did not wait to note what would happen when the man got to him. He sped off softly through the darkness, and when he saw a part of a wall just ahead of him he dropped down behind it. The man passed him on the run, but did not think of looking behind the masonry. After looking about him, as well as he could in the darkness, the man returned. “What was it?” asked his companions. “A cat or a dog, I guess,” was the reply. “Nobody after us, anyhow. Go ahead and bury the stuff or, first thing we know, someone will spot us, and that would never do.” “They evidently don’t want whatever they are doing known,” thought Larry in his hiding place. The men worked a little while longer, and then the boy could hear them throwing back the dirt and packing it down. Soon they finished and then, blowing out the light, they departed. Waiting a few minutes to be sure they were out of the way Larry crept cautiously over to where he judged the men had been digging.