"What is it Nero?" Nancy coaxed patting the dog in a most friendly way. He was evidently winning her affection as well as Ted's. But Ted knew best how to follow the animal's lead. He was down on his knees in front of the mossy stones and had his ear cocked to the small iron door. [Illustration: Ted had his ear cocked to the small iron door.] "Yep," he sort of gasped. "It's there! It's kinda-tickin'." "Let me listen," Nancy asked, dropping down beside him. For some time brother, sister and the big dog were all crouched there, attentive, eager and somewhat excited. "Just a little sound--like an egg-beater," Nancy suggested. "And look, Ted, those broken weeds! Mr. Sanders must have been in here just now." "Sure, it's his," said Ted, in a manner as matter of fact as if an egg-beater "whistling" in the old fireplace was the most ordinary thing in the world to expect being put there by Mr. Sanders. CHAPTER XX THE MIDNIGHT ALARM It was a very exciting story, indeed, that Ted and Nancy poured into their mother's ears that evening. Had she any possible objections to adopting Nero as the fourth member of the family, they must have been quickly dispelled with the graphic account of that animal's uncanny intelligence. "He seemed to know just where to find the outlet to the chimney," Nancy said, "for he ran directly to the little furnace place, and we didn't really know it was there ourselves." "Of course, he knew," said Ted importantly. "Dogs know lots of things that we don't. And he's going to sleep in the store, isn't he, Mother?" "Oh, not in the store, Ted," objected Nancy. "Do you think that would be just right, Manny?" "Well, a big dog like that," demurred Miss Manners, who, now being a real resident of the Brandon home, shared their table with them. "But he's had a swim and he's as clean as--as anything," floundered the boy, quite unable to summon an appropriate comparison for his great friend. "And Mother, he can watch the whole house for us. How do we know someone wouldn't try to steal--the secret of the chimney place?" "It isn't our secret," retorted Nancy, "and for my part I can't see what right Mr. Sanders has around our place at all." "You can depend, dear," said Mrs. Brandon gently, "that whatever he has put in the chimney, if anything, it is something that could in no way bother us. Mr. Sanders is a professor, and the old-fashioned stone oven may have some special interest for him." "But couldn't he ask us about it, if he wanted to--to plant a bomb there?" Nancy remarked, superciliously. "He's no gabber," said Ted, with more wisdom than elegance. "And anyway, maybe he didn't. But Mother, may I have the old steamer rug to make a bed for Nero? He's so big he needs a big bed." It was finally agreed that Nero should be allowed to sleep in the store before the fireboard, and after much work making the rug into a bed for him, Ted eventually got him to try it.