The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1906-06-29

in case we heard any one come to the
bulkhead door.
BY this time it was nearly 10 o'clock,
but there was a light still showing in
the sitting room of the new house; and
we waited there by the corner of the
old house for ten or fifteen minutes for
that to go out. Apparently the family
had now gone to bed. Everything was
very quiet, not a sound anywhere
save the distant roar of the brook over
the mill-dam. The coast seemed clear
and all the omens propitious.
None the less, there were Philistines
abroad that night, and l now wonder
that we had not been more sharply
on the lookout for other boys. there on
the same errand as ourselves. Beauty
is likely to have more than one adj
mirer
But after waiting little longer, we
crept up in the lee of the garden fence
to the house yard. Policy then shook
out the pink and white streamers of
his basket went on tiptoe across the
yard to the front door, and attaching
his gift to the door-knob, gave three
tremendous knocks and ran.
Almost instantly a window was
raised upstairs, and we heard a girls
laugh; the dog in the stable began
barking savagely. But we scudded
away in cover of the garden fence, and
soon were back at the old house and
IhO hill II c,4.l in N Ia
cellar. No one seemed to have issued
forth. Scoge was still barking inside
the stable.
That's all right!' Policy chuckled.
"They won't find us"
But there was a slight noise of the
floor creaking in the old house over
head. "Shw 1 whispered. Some
body's up there"
81 guess not" said Policy. We lis
tened, There certainly was some one
up there, and if we had been wise we
would have slipped out of that cellar
and taken to our heels. We were so
mystifed, however, that we stood lis
tening.
The next moment the bulkhead door
closed with a bang, and eXultant voices
yelled: "We've got ye! We've got ye!
Ye can't get outr' Then we heard
stones and bits of timber piled on the
door,
"Who is it?'' Policy whispered, in
vast dismay. Sounds like Bill Mosh-
er's voice-and he's mad with us!'
There appeared to be three Of them.
"Hangin' May-baskets to Sci East
man, ahaw Knocked another voice.
you'll catch it! We're goin' to raise
a crew, and We'll ride We on a rail up
to the house,"
That's Luke Robbins. He hates us.
too" whispered Policy. "What shall
we do?"
What, indeed! Those young wretches
who had entrapped us had no doubt
come there to hang May baskets them
selves, and were lurking in the old
house all the while And they had
gone to raise a crowd! For years
there had been no love lost between the
boys of our school district and these
fellows. And now they had US in
their power! There was no knowing
what miserable piece of vengeance
they might wreak on us.
"What shall we do? Oh, what can
we do? Policy kept saying to me.
eyes, what shall we do?" said I.
ga pretty scrape you've got US into
with your May-basket"'
We struck a match and went up the
fight of stairs which led to the cellar
door inside the house, but found it
fast; apparently it was nailed up.
That bulkhead door was the only way
out of the cellar; and those rogues had
piled half a ton Of stones on it. The
one little high cellar window was
banked over with earth outside, the
usual winter banking to keep out frost.
We were trapped. Really there was
nothing we could debut wait the re-
turn of our enemies. There we stood
in the dark, listening.
Suddenly there was little noise out
side at the bulkhead door-not at all
like the racket and rush we expected
when the boys came. I thought at
first it was a rat
Then there was a scraping noise, as
if a stone was being slowly and pain
fully dragged off the bulkhead door.
There's somebody there" Policy wills
pered. 'Who can it be-"
Then another stone was dragged off,
then another, and slowly a larger one,
as it seemed.
We stood spellbound, for surely this
was not Bill Mosher and his crew!
One by one the stones were dragged
and rolled off, each evidently with
a great effort; and then the door was
lifted up a crack.
We were on the point of dashing at
it up the stairs. when a little low voice