the roof with
it. Through this opening the birds flitted.

"I don't believe a soul is around," observed Tom, as they halted in
front of the building.

"Nothing like ringing the bell!" cried Sam, and mounting the dilapidated
piazza he raised the ancient knocker of the door and used it vigorously.
Then came a crash and the youngest Rover felt the piazza bottom give
way.

"Look out, a post is coming down!" cried Dick, warningly, and Sam had
just time enough to leap away when the corner post of the piazza fell,
allowing the roof above to sag several inches.

"Looks to me as if the whole building was on the verge of collapse," was
Songbird's comment.

"Yes, and I don't know whether I want to go in or not," added Larry.

"It certainly does look shaky," admitted Dick. "I don't think anybody
would risk staying in it long."

Leaving the front, they walked around the old house and gazed through
several of the broken-out windows. Inside all was dirt and cobwebs, with
a few pieces of broken-down furniture scattered about. As he looked in
one window Tom saw a big rat scurry across the floor.

"I guess rats are the only tenants," he said dryly. "And they don't pay
rent."

"With a few birds on the top floor, front," added Sam. "Well, do we go
in or not?"

"I am going in," declared Dick, and pushed open the old kitchen door. It
was damp and mouldy in the apartment, for the rain had soaked loose much
of the plaster and caused it to fall.

The big open fireplace looked grimy and forbidding with its iron bars
and chains. An iron kettle stood on the chimney-piece, a crack across
the bottom.

"Somebody has had a fire here not so very long ago!" said Dick, and
picked up a bit of half-burnt newspaper. He turned it over. "Here is a
date. This newspaper is only four days old!"

"Then whoever made a fire here visited this house within the past four
days," said Larry in a tragic whisper.

"Whoop! just listen to what a detective Larry is becoming!" cried Tom.
"Regular Bowery Bob, the Newsboy Sleuth!"

"Perhaps it was only some curiosity seeker who came here," suggested
Fred.

With caution, for the floors were very rotten, the cadets moved from one
room of the old house to another.

"Anything in there?" asked Tom of Sam, as the latter peered into a room
that was extra dark.

"I can't make out," was the answer, and Sam took a step forward. Then of
a sudden there was a strange whirring, and something hit the youngest
Rover b