"Or else maybe they're away at the far end."
"I'm not going there!" exclaimed Ted.
"No, I guess we won't go," agreed Hal. "We'll go and tell your
grandfather and have him come with a big lantern."
"Hark! What's that?" suddenly called Jan, taking a tighter hold of her
brother's hand.
From the back part of the cave came a noise. It was as though a rock
had fallen--probably it had--from the roof of the cavern.
"Someone's throwing stones at us!" cried Ted.
"Who? Who? Who?" a voice seemed to ask.
"Oh, dear! We don't know who it was!" cried Janet. "Come on out of
here! I'm afraid!"
"That was only an owl," said Hal with a laugh. "Owls live in dark
caves in the daytime and when it's dark they hoot and call 'who!' I've
heard 'em lots of times around the Home."
"There isn't any cave at the Home," objected Ted, who was as
frightened as Janet was.
"No, but there were owls in the trees. I heard 'em lots of times. But
we'll go out. I guess maybe that was a loose stone that fell down and
made the first noise. But we don't want any to fall on our heads. Come
on!" called Hal.
Together he and Ted led Janet back to the mouth of the cave, where
they could see the sunshine. And even Hal, who was not so frightened
as the Curlytops had been, was glad to get out.
"It's too bad we couldn't find the blue gold-stones," he said.
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