Part 20 (2/2)

The bells are ringing.”

”So that's it,” muttered Osgood, hastening to a window. ”There's a fire in the village. They sound the bells to give the alarm.”

Looking from the window, he failed to observe any glow of light against the sky to indicate where the fire might be. Through a momentary lull of the bells, he fancied he heard some one shouting far away in town.

Surely some terrible thing had happened or was taking place.

Lighting a lamp, he rapidly finished dressing, and pulling on his turtle-neck sweater he grabbed up his cap.

As he bounded down the stairs, Mrs. Chester called to him from a partly opened door at the end of the hall:

”Where is it, Ned? Where's the fire?”

”I don't know,” he answered. ”I looked out, but I couldn't see any fire.

Don't be alarmed; it must be a long distance away, in another part of the village.”

A man was running down the middle of the street as Osgood dashed from the house, slamming the door behind him. He called to the man, but received no answer. Then he took to the street and followed.

The bell in the Methodist steeple hammered and banged as he raced past the church. Lights were s.h.i.+ning everywhere from the windows of houses.

Men and boys came running from side streets, questioning one another excitedly without getting satisfactory answers.

There was a crowd in the village square, and, contrasted with the agitated people who came running to join it from every direction, it was strangely calm.

Ned grabbed some one by the arm, as he demanded:

”What is it? What's the matter? Why are they ringing the bells?”

He recognized Jack Nelson, as the person he had questioned turned to answer.

”It's Hooker!”

”Hooker!” choked Osgood, aghast.

A fearsome thought smote him. Hooker was dead! But why should they ring the bells in the middle of the night and bring all the people out?

”Yes,” Nelson was saying, ”Roy has disappeared. He was left, apparently asleep, and later, when some one looked into his room, he was gone.”

”Great Scott!” breathed Ned. ”I thought perhaps he was dead.”

”Oh, no. In that case, it wouldn't be necessary to turn the whole village out. He's wandering around somewhere, half dressed and probably crazy. They're getting the people out to search for him.”

”Is it necessary to turn out the whole town this way?”

”Perhaps so. They've tried to find him, but can't. Now they're asking everybody to join in the search. You see, there's no telling what the result may be if he's not found soon. In his dotty condition he may do himself harm; and, anyhow, with only a few clothes on, he's liable to get pneumonia.”

Some of the men who had early learned the cause of the disturbance were now seen bringing lanterns, and in the midst of the gathering in the square, William Pickle, the deputy sheriff, was suggesting a plan of search, by which four parties should spread out in different directions.

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