“But we thought you’d like to see what the attic and cellar look like,” said Billie.  “We had the afternoon all planned.”

“Let’s do that to-morrow,” Ferd begged boyishly.  “This is too nice a day to spend indoors.”

So it was decided to go outside and as soon as the dinner dishes were cleared away—­at which the boys assisted without so much as a grumble—­the young folks started out on their tour of discovery.

The girls had spent much of their time in the old house since their arrival, for they had found an almost inexhaustible supply of strange corners and unexpected rooms and peculiar ornaments that had fascinated them.

But to-day, as they felt the warm sunshine on their heads, as the wind caressed their faces and the scents of the woodland bathed them in perfume, they were glad they had let the boys have their way and had decided to spend the glorious afternoon in the open.

“Did you win the tennis singles?” Billie asked of Teddy, as she stopped to smell a bunch of strange flowers.  “I was rooting for you.”

“Were you?” asked Teddy eagerly.

“For you—­and Chet,” she added demurely, and laughed to see his face fall.

“But did you?” she asked.

“What?”

“Win the tennis singles, silly?  Can’t you remember a thing two seconds?”

“Why, yes, we did,” he answered absently, his gray eyes on Billie’s lovely mischievous face.  “In fact, we just ran rings around them.  I guess—­”

He stopped short as they came upon the other young people.  A couple of bearded men had come out of the woods and confronted the crowd.  Each man carried a heavy club.  They were the fellows who had once passed the girls without speaking.

“You can’t go any further this way,” one of them said in a rather gruff tone.  “We’re growing a new variety of corn and want to keep the seed to ourselves.”

“What’s that?” demanded Chet in astonishment

“You heard what I said.  You can’t stay here, and you can’t go that way.”

“You want to get out of here,” growled the second man.  “Come, move on.”

“You can’t steal any of our corn-growing secrets.  Move on,” and the first man shook his club suggestively.

The strange men looked ugly, and the boys and girls, after a pause, turned off in another direction.

“Humph!” grunted Ted, with a curious glance at the place where the men had been.  “They made a mistake.  That wasn’t a corn story.  It was a fish story!”

“Maybe,” returned Billie.  “But what does it mean?”

CHAPTER XIX

IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT

There was so much of interest about the house, and outside of it, that a week passed almost before the young folks knew it.

The boys were for exploring the cellar, and did so one fine day, taking the girls along.

They had a flashlight, a lantern, and some candles, and all these combined gave them quite an illumination.  But the girls kept close to the boys, for the cellar was certainly a creepy place, with its many nooks and corners and dark closets.