that the high fence went all the way around a great big flat field.
There was a kind of a wide road around near the fence. The tracks ran
right up under that building that we had seen ahead of us, into a kind
of a tunnel. We saw it was an ice-house, and I guess ice was loaded onto
cars there.

The two white things that we had seen were tents and there was a light
in one of them, but we didn't go in. There were little buildings around,
but they were closed up. There was a kind of a big platform with a
railing around it. In another place there was a long shed full of cows.
There were kind of things like mess boards all around, only some of them
were too high for mess boards.

"I give it up," I said

"It's a cross between a barn-yard and a picnic ground," Connie said.

Westy said, "I think it's an aviation field."

"Sure," I told him; "how stupid of me. And the cows are aviators."

"What do you say we follow the fence around?" Westy said.

"What do you say we don't?" I said. "Come on, let's go back and I'll
cook some fritters and then we'll get our suits off and have a good
sleep, and to-morrow we'll see what we see."

We were all pretty sleepy, so we decided to do that. If we had taken a
little hike all the way around near the fence, the terrible thing that I
am going to tell you about now, would never have happened. You had
better get ready for it, because it's one of the most terrible things
that I ever told. When you hear about it, you'll turn cold and your hair
will stand up. Even now whenever I think about it, I just shake. That's
the word--_shake_.

Yah, hah! You thought I was going to tell it in this chapter, didn't
you?

CHAPTER XXXIII

OUR YOUNG HERO

Now it was so dark that we had some trouble finding our car, and before
we got to it, we passed a funny kind of a little shack with a high porch
in front. It didn't look exactly like a place to live in--gee, I
couldn't tell you exactly what it did look like. But anyway, it was all
closed up. As we passed it, we heard voices inside, but we were too
sleepy and hungry to pay any attention.

All of a sudden our young hero paused and, _you_ know, stood riveted to
the spot where he stood. Anyway, if he wasn't riveted he was nailed
down.

"_Listen! Hark!_" he said.

"We're harking," I said; "what is it?"

"Shh-h," he whispered and held his hand to his ear.

"What's the matter; have you got an earache?" Connie asked him.

"Break it to us gent