"No one could have got out of that room without our knowing it!"
Merriwell whispered. Hodge had reached his side, and both were staring
into the room.
"Of course not. The thing is impossible."
"And yet those footsteps sounded right here."
"Let's go in and take another look into the corridor."
For answer Merry drew Bart back into the shadows by the window.
"Keep still right here a little while. Perhaps the--the thing will
return. If some one is playing us a trick, we may capture him."
"I should like to lay my hands on the villain!" Bart hissed. Though they
stood there in utter silence for five minutes, the sounds did not come
again.
"Of course, there is some rational explanation of this," Merriwell
declared, as they again approached the window. "There must be! It is the
wildest nonsense to think otherwise."
"Well, I wish that rational explanation would hurry this way. I'm ready
for it, old man! This thing is shaking my nerves all to pieces."
"I didn't know you were troubled with nerves! Nerves are for hysterical
girls and old women!"
"Well, I've got 'em now! as the drunken man said when he began to see
snakes. I haven't any doubt about it."
Hodge so seldom indulged in a joke, that Merry looked surprised. They
had reentered the room, and he glanced at his friend in wonder.
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