it
had, through age and dampness, rotted and fallen away. There happened to
be no glass window-frame behind it.

"Here's where Goliath disappeared," whispered Joyce, "and he's probably
in there now!" Cynthia surveyed the hole unconcernedly.

"That's so," she agreed. "He will probably come out after a while. Now
that you've discovered his 'bunk,' I hope you're coming back to the
veranda. We might have a game of tennis, too, before it rains." Joyce
sat back on her heels, and looked her companion straight in the eye.

"Cynthia," she said, in a tense whisper, "did it ever occur to you that
there's something _strange_ about the Boarded-up House?"

"No," declared Cynthia, honestly, "it never did. I never thought about
it."

"Well, I have--sometimes, at least--and once in a long while, do you
know, I've even dreamed I was exploring it. Look here, Cynthia, wouldn't
you _like_ to explore it? I'm just crazy to!" Cynthia stared and
shrugged her shoulders.

"Mercy, no! It would be dark and musty and dirty. Besides, we've no
business in there. We'd be trespassers. What ever made you think of it?
There's probably nothing to see, anyway. It's an empty house."

"That's just where you're mistaken!" retorted Joyce. "I heard Father say
once that it was furnished throughout, and left exactly as it was,--so
some one told him, some old lady, I think he said. It's a Colonial
mansion, too, and stood here before the Revolution. There wasn't any
town of Rockridge, you know, till just recently,--only the turnpike road
off there where Warrington Avenue is now. This house was the only one
around, for a long distance."

"Well, that sounds interesting, but, even still, I don't see why you
want to get inside, anyhow. I'm perfectly satisfied with the outside.
And, more than that, we couldn't get in if we tried. So there!" If
Cynthia imagined she had ended the argument with Joyce by any such
reasoning, she was doomed to disappointment. Joyce shrugged her
shoulders with a disgusted movement.

"I never saw any one like you, Cynthia Sprague! You've absolutely _no_
imagination! Don't you see how Goliath got in? Well, I could get in the
same way, and so could you!" She gave the boards a sharp pull, and
succeeded in dislodging another. "Five minutes' work will clear this
window, and then--"

"But good gracious, Joy, you wouldn't break in a window of a strange
house and climb in the cellar like a burglar!" cried Cynthia, genuinely
shocked.

"I