After a whispered consultation, they proceeded to Foundation House, where they secured the necessary rope from the clothes-line, it being deemed eminently fitting to secure the coöperation of the best society. Memorial Hall entered, they soon found themselves, by the aid of the smelly lantern, in front of the closet that held the skeleton which twice a week served as demonstration to the class in anatomy, and twice a year was dragged forth to decorate the flag-pole or some such exalted and inaccessible station. In a short time the door yielded to the prying of the hatchet Macnooder had thoughtfully brought along, and the white, chalky outlines of the melancholy skeleton appeared. The three stood gazing, awed. It was black and still, and the hour of the night when dogs howl and bats go hunting. "Who's going to take him?" said Legs in a whisper. "Take it yourself," said Macnooder, unhooking the wriggling form. "Hickey's got to crawl through the air hole, and I've got to work the lantern. You're not superstitious, are you?" "Sure, I'm not," retorted Legs, who received the skeleton in his arms with a shiver that raised the goose-flesh from his crown to his heels. "Come on," said Hickey in a whisper; "softly now." "What's that?" exclaimed Legs, drawing in his breath. "That's nothing," said Macnooder loftily; "all buildings creak at night." "I swear I heard a step. There again. Listen." "Legs is right," said Hickey in a whisper. "It's outside." "Rats! it's nothing but Jimmy," said Macnooder with enforced calm. "Keep quiet until he passes on." They stood breathless until the sounds of the watchman on his nightly rounds died away. Then they started on tiptoes up the first flight for the chapel, Macnooder leading with the lantern, Legs next with the skeleton gingerly carried in his arms, Hickey bringing up the rear with the coil of rope. "Here we are," said Macnooder at length. "Legs, you wait here,--see, that's where we're going to hoist him." He flashed the bull's-eye upward to the perforated circle directly above the rostrum, and added: "I'll get Hickey started and then I'll be right back." "Are you going to take the lantern?" said Legs, whose courage began to fail him. "Sure," said Hickey, indignantly. "Legs, you're getting scared." "No, I'm not," protested Legs, faintly, "but I don't like to be left all alone with this thing in my arms!" "Say, do you want my job?" said Hickey, scornfully, "crawling down thirty feet of air hole, with bugs, and spiders and mice? Do you? 'Cause if you do just say so." "No-o-o," said Legs with a sigh, "no, I'll stay here." "You don't believe in ghosts and that sort of thing, do you?" said Macnooder solicitously. "Course, I don't!" "All right then, 'cause if you do we won't leave you." "You chaps go on," said Legs bravely, "only be quick about it." "All right?" "All right." Hickey and Macnooder stole away; then suddenly Hickey, returning, whispered: "Say, Legs!" "What?"