Finally Dick halted again, his chums crowding on his heels.  They looked out into a clearing beyond.  There, amid trees, stood a small three-room house, looking still quite new in its trim paint, though the building had stood there idle for some five years.  At one time the city had planned a new reservoir site on a hill just above, and this little cottage had been intended for the reservoir tender.  Then a better site for the reservoir had been found, and, to date, the cottage had not been removed.

“Ripley and his crew went around that cottage to the door side,” Dick whispered.

“Are they in the cottage?” Dave demanded.

“I don’t know.  They went around to the other side.  Let’s wait and see if we can guess what’s up.”

So, forgetful of their suppers for the time being, Dick & Co. waited, screened by the bushes.

“There’s smoke coming up out of the chimney,” whispered Tom Reade.

“Yes,” nodded Dick.  “I had just noticed that.  I’m wondering what it can mean.  No one has any right to break into the cottage.”

“Fred Ripley and Bert Dodge, because they have a lawyer and a bank officer for fathers, don’t feel that they need any rights when they want to do a thing,” muttered Darrin resent fully.

It was impossible to see what might be going on inside the cottage, for the simple reason that all of the windows were shuttered tightly.

“Let’s go ahead,” begged Dave, after a few more moments spent in idle watching.  “I want to know why that crowd has broken into the cottage.”

Truth to tell, even the leader of Dick & Co., usually very discreet, felt himself a victim of curiosity.

“Shall we try to find out the secret, fellows?” Prescott inquired.

“That’s just what we ought to do,” responded Greg.  “Especially as Ripley and Dodge have always been so mean to us.”

Dick went forward, with his best imitation of the way he imagined an Indian scout would approach a strange house.  Greg and Dan were at his heels, while Dave and Harry went around the other side of the cottage, Tom remaining well to the rear to watch.

Some low, vague sounds came from within the cottage.  These were not such noises as scurrying rats would make, so the boys were quick to conclude that human beings were moving inside.

But what could possibly be going on?  The noises that the Grammar School boys heard were hard to classify.

At last Dick and Dave met before the door of the little cottage.  Nor were they much surprised at finding that the door of the cottage stood perhaps a half an inch ajar.

This, however, did not furnish light enough to give a glimpse of what was happening inside.

“Two or three of us may as well slip inside, eh?” whispered Dave to Dick.

“Wait!  Listen!” counseled Prescott.  “We don’t want to please that crowd by stepping right into a trap.  And I’ve an idea that by this time they must know that we’re around here.”