vegetable laths. As they made their way along this, both caught
the sound of a window sliding up.

"Hark! Did you hear that?" whispered Dick excitedly.

"I did. It came from the back of the house."

"Somebody must be trying to get into the kitchen window!"

Dick broke into a run, with Tom at his heels. Entering the garden
by a rear gate, they soon reached the vicinity of the kitchen. A
window stood wide open, and through this they beheld somebody
inside the apartment with a blazing match in his hand trying to
light a candle.

"Hi, there, who are you?" cried Tom, before Dick could stop him.

At the sound of the call the man in the kitchen jumped as though
stung by a bee. Then he wheeled around, with the lighted candle in
his hand, and both boys saw that it was Josiah Crabtree.





CHAPTER V

A STRUGGLE IN THE DARK