o what went on within the
shack. Then, before it was over, they crept away and down the alley
toward their own home. This was directly across the alley from the
Schofields' stable, and they were horrified at the sounds that issued
from the interior of the stable store-room. It was the St. Bartholomew's
Eve of that neighbourhood.

"Man, man!" said Herman, shaking his head. "Glad I ain' no white boy!"

Verman seemed gloomily to assent.

CHAPTER VII. WHITEY

Penrod and Sam made a gloomy discovery one morning in mid-October. All
the week had seen amiable breezes and fair skies until Saturday, when,
about breakfast-time, the dome of heaven filled solidly with gray vapour
and began to drip. The boys' discovery was that there is no justice
about the weather.

They sat in the carriage-house of the Schofields' empty stable; the
doors upon the alley were open, and Sam and Penrod stared torpidly at
the thin but implacable drizzle that was the more irritating because
there was barely enough of it to interfere with a number of things they
had planned to do.

"Yes; this is NICE!" Sam said, in a tone of plaintive sarcasm. "This is
a PERTY way to do!" (He was alluding to the personal spitefulness of
the elements.) "I'd like to know what's the sense of it--ole sun pourin'
down every day in the week when nobody needs it, then cloud up and rain
all Saturday! My father said it's goin' to be a three days' rain."

"Well, nobody with any sense cares if it rains Sunday and Monday,"
Penrod said. "I wouldn't care if it rained every Sunday as long I lived;
but I just like to know what's the reason it had to go and rain to-day.
Got all the days o' the week to choose from and goes and picks on
Saturday. That's a fine biz'nuss!"

"Well, in vacation--" Sam began; but at a sound from a source invisible
to him he paused. "What's that?" he said, somewhat startled.

It was a curious sound, loud and hollow and unhuman, yet it seemed to be
a cough. Both boys rose, and Penrod asked uneasily: "Where'd that noise
come from?"

"It's in the alley," said Sam.

Perhaps if the day had been bright, both of them would have stepped
immediately to the alley doors to investigate; but their actual
procedure was to move a little distance in the opposite direction. The
strange cough sounded again.

"SAY!" Penrod quavered. "What IS that?"

Then both boys uttered smothered exclamations and jumped, for the long,
gaunt head that appeared in the doorway wa