He found the right door, and softly opening it made his way into the big room in which the others were sleeping.  While fastening the door again Hugh could hear the regular breathing of Billy, and possibly of the others.

As he incidentally flashed his light on them before turning in he was surprised to see Alec Sands sitting bolt upright and watching him curiously.  Hugh held up a warning finger.  He did not want Alec to talk out loud and needlessly awaken all of the other fellows.  At the same time he know full well he must give some sort of explanation for his strange absence.

“I heard it, too, Hugh,” whispered Alec, with a half grin.  “Woke up and found you gone when I put out my hand to feel your blanket.  Then I caught those awful ghoulish sounds somewhere.  Wanted to creep after you, but say, I own up I didn’t have the nerve to try it.  So here I’ve been sitting, hugging my knees, and listening till I’m shivering as if I had the ague.  Now tell me what it is, Hugh, for I just know you’ve found out.”

Hugh chuckled and said: 

“Oh! just a family that has squatted down on these premises, and hates to be evicted in case your rich aunt, or anybody else, buys the same!”

“Come off, Hugh; don’t try to muddle me all up like that, when I’m dying to know what could make such awful sounds.  What kind of a family is it?”

“Owls, with a few big bats thrown in for good measure,” explained Hugh.  “They’ve taken up their quarters in one of the turret chambers where slits in the walls allow them to go and come as they please.”

“You woke up and heard that gibberish, didn’t you, Hugh?  And you made up your mind on the spot that you just had to find out what it meant?  It’s like you to do such a thing!  But, Hugh, why didn’t you let me in on it?  I’d have been glad to keep you company, sure I would.”

“I knew that, Alec,” apologized the other, yawning as he began to creep under his blanket again, “but all of you seemed to be sound asleep, and I hated to wake anybody up.  Besides—–­well, I just felt like going it alone, you see.”

“Of all the nerve, you’ve got it to beat the band,” commented Alec.  “I thought I could stand for a good deal, but let me tell you I draw the line at creeping upstairs in this spooky old castle, and investigating such a fierce noise as that.  Listen, will you, they’re at it again, Hugh?  Why, if Billy woke up and heard that he’d throw a fit.”

“Then we want to quit talking and not wake him,” cautioned the scout master, as he gathered the folds of his covering about him, much as a soldier of olden times might wrap his martial cloak around his body while settling down calmly to sleep on the battlefield.

Alec was chuckling as though something amused him.