"But I heard someone!" declared Mr. Pertell. "Hark! There is the sound again!" he cried, and they all heard a noise as of a heavy body falling. CHAPTER IX THE RESCUE "Over this way!" cried Mr. Pertell, making a leap toward a distant corner of the barn, which was in deep shadow. "The noise was over there." "I think it was there," exclaimed Sandy, pointing toward the opposite corner. "Come, girls, I think you had better go out," suggested Mr. DeVere to his daughters. "There may be trouble." "I'd like to see it," said Alice, with a laugh. "Oh, how can you?" exclaimed Ruth. "Come away, dear!" "Well, I suppose I've got to," and Alice actually sighed. Her "bump of curiosity" was very well developed. Following each his own belief as to where the noise had come from, Mr. Pertell went to one corner, and Sandy to the other. Mr. DeVere took his daughters outside, and bade them go on toward the house. "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." "A tramp, perhaps," suggested Mr. Pertell. "It might have been," admitted the young farmer, as he thought of the smashed lock on the bull's enclosure. "We sometimes have them fellers to bother us; but not so much in summer. They're afraid of bein' put to work." The three men made a more thorough search of the barn, but could find nothing that looked suspicious. "Whoever it was must either be here yet, in hiding, or else they got away while we were looking around," said Mr. Pertell. "Unless you believe in ghosts, Sandy." "Nope. Not a ghost do I believe in. And I hope this won't spoil the barn for you folks to get your pictures from." "Oh, no, it takes more than a noise to scare a theatrical troupe," laughed the manager. "Well, we'll have to give it up, I suppose." There seemed to be nothing else to do, and the party returned to the house, the girls joining them on the way back.