The Grammar School Boys in Summer Athletics | Page 5

"Co." trailed on in Indian file behind their leader.
Finally Dick halted again, his chums crowding on his heels. They looked out into a clearing beyond. There, amid trees, stood a small three-room house, looking still quite new in its trim paint, though the building had stood there idle for some five years. At one time the city had planned a new reservoir site on a hill just above, and this little cottage had been intended for the reservoir tender. Then a better site for the reservoir had been found, and, to date, the cottage had not been removed.
"Ripley and his crew went around that cottage to the door side," Dick whispered.
"Are they in the cottage?" Dave demanded.
"I don't know. They went around to the other side. Let's wait and see if we can guess what's up."
So, forgetful of their suppers for the time being, Dick & Co. waited, screened by the bushes.
"There's smoke coming up out of the chimney," whispered Tom Reade.
"Yes," nodded Dick. "I had just noticed that. I'm wondering what it can mean. No one has any right to break into the cottage."
"Fred Ripley and Bert Dodge, because they have a lawyer and a bank officer for fathers, don't feel that they need any rights when they want to do a thing," muttered Darrin resent fully.
It was impossible to see what might be going on inside the cottage, for the simple reason that all of the windows were shuttered tightly.
"Let's go ahead," begged Dave, after a few more moments spent in idle watching. "I want to know why that crowd has broken into the cottage."
Truth to tell, even the leader of Dick & Co., usually very discreet, felt himself a victim of curiosity.
"Shall we try to find out the secret, fellows?" Prescott inquired.
"That's just what we ought to do," responded Greg. "Especially as Ripley and Dodge have always been so mean to us."
Dick went forward, with his best imitation of the way he imagined an Indian scout would approach a strange house. Greg and Dan were at his heels, while Dave and Harry went around the other side of the cottage, Tom remaining well to the rear to watch.
Some low, vague sounds came from within the cottage. These were not such noises as scurrying rats would make, so the boys were quick to conclude that human beings were moving inside.
But what could possibly be going on? The noises that the Grammar School boys heard were hard to classify.
At last Dick and Dave met before the door of the little cottage. Nor were they much surprised at finding that the door of the cottage stood perhaps a half an inch ajar.
This, however, did not furnish light enough to give a glimpse of what was happening inside.
"Two or three of us may as well slip inside, eh?" whispered Dave to Dick.
"Wait! Listen!" counseled Prescott. "We don't want to please that crowd by stepping right into a trap. And I've an idea that by this time they must know that we're around here."
"If they knew, they'd be out here making faces at us," retorted Darrin wisely.
"And ordering us to get off the earth," supplemented Greg, in a whisper.
"Listen," whispered Dick. "Perhaps we can guess what they're doing."
"I can guess what they're doing," murmured Reade, who had now moved around to the front with his chums. "I've been watching the smoke of that fire come up through the chimney. Humph! I don't believe Rip and Dodge are doing anything worse than a little camping. There must be a stove in there, and they're cooking some supper---playing at camping out."
"I don't smell anything cooking in there," rejoined Dick with a shake of his head. "We can't hear anything sizzling over the fire, either."
"Then what-----" began Harry curiously.
Bang! interrupted a crashing explosion inside the building. Boom! Then the door flew wide open, followed by a single great belching of white smoke.
Through the center of this cloud was hurled a human figure. A man struck the ground and lay there, senseless or lifeless, a pool of blood quickly forming on the ground beside him.

Chapter II
THE VANISHING MAN
For the first few seconds the Grammar School boys stood as if chained to the ground, their eyes staring with alarm and horror.
They stared at the man, apparently of middle age, who lay there, and they beheld the blood.
What on earth could have happened?
Boom! It was a lesser explosion that now sounded inside, yet it was enough to galvanize the boys into action.
"Come on!" cried Tom Reade, setting off in the lead. "We don't know nor care what's in there!"
"The house may blow up next," added Greg, following him.
All the members of Dick & Co. were now in full retreat. They were courageous lads, but, with the immediate landscape in seeming danger of blowing up, getting away was the