CHAPTER I.

NEXT DOOR.

"HARK! What's that, Ned?"

"Nothing!"

"It isn't nothing! Do hush, Ned; there is something wrong outside!"

It was a still night at the end of September, unusually mild for the time of year, and the boys were just in bed, having left their window thrown wide-open, so that every noise in the road came up distinctly.

Conway, having just laid his head on his pillow, heard some one say in a clear, abrupt undertone—

"I've got you!" followed by a scuffle, in which, now that Ned was quiet, holding his breath too, there were words exchanged of angry expostulation.

The boys were out of bed in a trice, and were leaning out of the window breathlessly.

"Let go, I say," said the second voice angrily.

"Not I! I've got you, now! I've been watching you for this half-hour."

"Let go, I say! What do you want with me? I'm in my own garden, I tell you."

"A likely story," answered the gruffer voice, which the boys took to be a policeman's. "And if you stir till I can get help, you'll feel my truncheon."

"I say," said Conway, "don't you think we ought to go down, Ned?"

He was getting into his garments in breathless haste, followed by Ned. And just as they rushed down-stairs, two or three heads were put out at various doors, and their mother asked—

"Whatever is the matter?"

The boys did not wait to explain much, but called out, "There's something going on in the next garden; tell father to come," and rushed off.

"What is it, mother?" asked Mollie, peeping from her room.

Mrs. Shaddock shivered, her teeth chattering with nervousness. "I don't know," she answered, "only I heard a noise in the road."

"Why have the boys gone down?" asked Mollie. "And oh, here's father going too!"

Meanwhile the boys had reached the garden, and had sprung over the hedge which separated them from their neighbour's grass-plot, and were already standing by the policeman, who was grimly holding on to a crouching figure under the front hedge.

As the policeman's lantern was turned on the boys' faces, the imprisoned man looked up and exclaimed—

"Speak for me, young sirs; you know me, don't you? These young gentlemen live next door to me, and they know I live here!"

"I don't believe you," said the policeman; "you're here for no good, that I do know. Get up and come along with me."

"I'm not going to," said the man stoutly. "I live here. And if I like to be in my garden at this time of night, I shall please myself."

"We'll go and rouse the house and see if you belong there. Who else lives here?" asked the constable suspiciously.

"No one else," said the man, springing to his feet, and releasing himself, though he did not attempt to move away. "I live alone, and it's no business of any one's if I do. What sort of a policeman can you be not to know me who has lived here for this past year, and worked in my garden day and night?"

"Yes, it 'is' our neighbour," broke in Conway, while Mr. Shaddock, who had now come out, assured the officer of the law that this was the case.

"Well, I'm new on this beat," said the man, letting go unwillingly. "But when I see a feller poking along by a hedge, and hiding down beneath it when he hears a footstep, I sez to myself, 'He ain't up to no good.' And no more he isn't, be he neighbour or no neighbour to respectable folks!"

He stood aside angrily, while the man, with curt thanks to his releasers, strode up the garden path and let himself into the house with a latch-key.

"Rum," remarked the policeman; "for when I first took hold of him, I could swear I saw a light in the bottom room. And how should it go out and all be black and dark now, I should like to know?"

He moved off, shaking his head, while Mr. Shaddock and his sons made their way back to their home.

On the doorstep stood Mrs. Shaddock and her eldest daughter, Mollie, who had been looking on in great excitement, fearing, or perhaps hoping, that a veritable thief had been caught.

The disturbed household gathered in the deserted dining-room, a motley group in their quickly-donned costumes.

Ned could not help laughing as he pulled Mollie's long hair, and asked her if she were sure her head was not chopped off?

"After that tug, I 'am,'" she answered. "But, father, what did he say? We could not hear."

"Yes," said Mrs. Shaddock, "do tell us."

"I've nothing to tell," answered her husband. "Our strange neighbour, it seems, was meandering about outside, and a new policeman took him up in mistake for a thief; that's all!"

"All!" echoed Mrs. Shaddock. "Suppose you had been taken up when you were smoking a cigar."

"Well, he wasn't smoking," said Conway; "he was hiding apparently. Besides, he says there is no one living in the house with him, and yet the 'Bobby' saw a light put out."

Mrs. Shaddock turned white. "'I' saw a light put out," she said, "just after your father went out. We were standing on the doorstep when a light was slowly moved a few yards, and then it went out."

"That can't be, my dear, if nobody besides lives there," said Mr. Shaddock.

"It is very queer though," she said, turning to Mollie, "for we both thought it was strange the person did not come to the door."

"What a good thing it is we had been up so late!" said Ned, yawning. "If we had not been at that concert, this would not have happened!"

Conway laughed. "Or we should have slept through it," he said.

"I feel scared," remarked Mollie. "I wonder if Daisy is awake?"

"There is nothing to be scared at," said Ned, "and father is next door to you. Anyway, I love excitements. We will watch the Strange House, Conway, and see what comes of this."

"Yes," assented his brother, "if it is worth while. That feller next door has told a lie, anyway!"

"Oh, that's nothing," said Ned carelessly. "It's more than that, I think. I shall keep my eyes open."

"And I shall shut mine," said Conway, "if they aren't shut already!"

[Illustration]

[Illustration]