They walked all about, and at last reached the place where the cupola arose. It was built over the main part of the Academy, from which wings extended on either side. This main part was taken up with the Academy hall, which, however, did not rise so high as the floor of the attic, and the consequence was, that there yawned here a dark abyss some fifteen feet in depth, and sixty or eighty feet square. Above rose the stout timbers, crossing one another in all directions, through the midst of? which ladders ascended into the cupola. Some loose planks laid across this abyss, from beam to beam, formed a rather dangerous pathway. This the boys traversed, and crossing to the opposite side, they wandered about the long, dark loft, gazing curiously in all directions. There was no flooring on this side, but only beams, with the laths and plaster of the lower rooms between them. Their search took them over this, but nothing whatever came of it. They searched the whole attic most thoroughly, but could find nothing. “Well, boys,” said Bart, “we can’t do anything more. For my part I’m fagged out, and I’m going to bed.” This proposal met with the approbation of all the others. They were all very tired, very sleepy, and very much disgusted at their failure. So they went down the steps, and the Rawdons went into their room, and the others turned to go down. But just at that moment the yells and the hoots sounded out again in a deafening volley--then all was still. “O, yell away!” cried Bart, angrily; “we’ll find you out some day. Depend upon it, boys, Pat’s at the bottom of it. If he is, let him look out; that’s all. I’ll teach him a lesson that he won’t forget in a hurry. Come, Phil. Come, Tom. Good by, Bruce and Arthur. If you feel inclined for another hunt to-night, you may make it yourselves. I’m going to bed, and I’ll sleep till nine tomorrow in spite of all the noises that can be scared up.” With these words Bart retired along with Tom and Phil; and he kept his word, for he slept as sound as a top, and did not make his appearance on the next day till long after the other boys were up. After getting his breakfast from Solomon, he wandered out into the grounds in front of the Academy, where he found nearly all the school gathered, and in a great excitement. The noises had been heard all through the night by most cf them, and had excited every varying shade of superstitious terror. Bogud had told them about the attempt of the “B. O. W. C.” to find out the mystery, and Tom had been forced to acknowledge their failure. All this, of course, made an immense sensation.