Then there came another crash of thunder, and at the same instant a
noise as of an overturned table, and the rattle of pans and pots upon
the floor. But the eyes, they were gone-no, they were close upon the
floor, and coming toward them. Tom could not deny that he felt a
creeping feeling, and poor Jackie, always observant of the goings on,
was simply overcome with fright, and buried his head in Tom's side to
shut out the dreaded sight.

"Come, Jackie, let's get out of here," encouraged Tom, and having
observed a window in the room to the left, he once more took up his
charge and made for it.

Halfway to his objective point, however, he was startled for a moment
to see revealed by a lantern the whiskered face of a man on the other
side of the window. Tom stopped short an instant, but not so Jackie,
who struggled from his protector's embrace calling out, "There's
papa!"

In a brief interval Jackie was in his parent's arms, and as they lived
next door to the deserted mansion, Tom was soon being thanked time and
again for the rescue of the little runaway.

"And is the house really haunted?" asked Tom, and then without waiting
for a reply he answered his own question "but of course I know it is
not."

"No," was the laughing response, "but it has been unoccupied except by
cats, and in some way has gotten that name."

"And then the eyes we saw-?"