"That sounds interesting. I think I should like to find the way into them."
"So should I," added Stacy Brown.
"Look out that you don"t fall in," cautioned Ned. "Remember that"s your failing."
"Not much chance of that," laughed Margaret. "These stone floors are too thick for anyone to fall through."
"Does anyone ever come here?" asked Tad.
"Not that I know of," answered Miss Brayton.
"But I saw a path when I came in. Somebody has been hitching a pony out there in the bushes, too," said the boy.
"Perhaps some of the cowmen may come in here out of the heat, now and then," replied the young woman carelessly.
"Why Ruth, you could not induce one of papa"s men to enter the door of the old place. You know they are half scared to death of it," said Margaret.
Chunky"s eyes were growing large.
"Wow!" he said. "Let"s go out doors and eat."
"The lunch has not yet arrived. It will be here soon," Miss Brayton informed him. "We will spread it in the main room here, if you have no objections. It will be cool and pleasant; and, besides, there are no flies in here."
"For goodness" sake, forget your appet.i.te," growled Ned in Stacy"s ear.
"Can"t a fellow talk about his appet.i.te without being found fault with?"
Chunky sulkily retorted.
"Not the kind of an appet.i.te you have. It"s a positive disgrace to the outfit."
"Huh!" grunted Chunky, walking away.
The lad wandered off by himself, and the rest forgot all about him in their investigation of the old church. Miss Brayton told them as much of its history as she knew.
"Some of the former priests are said to have been buried somewhere in the edifice," she said.
"I don"t see any signs of it," said Tad.
"No. No one ever has in our time. And it has even been hinted that treasure has been buried here, too, or secreted in some of the mysterious recesses of the church."
"Where are they" asked Walter. "I am beginning to get curious."
"I am sure I do not know," laughed the young woman. "There is a sort of garret, if you can get to it, above the gallery there. Maybe you might find something there. I have an idea that it is inhabited by bats."
"I guess we will leave them undisturbed," decided Tad. "I don"t like bats."
"There come the servants," announced Miss Brayton. "Now your friend will be able to satisfy his appet.i.te."
At her direction the servants brought in the baskets of food. A cloth was spread over a stone table that they found at the far end of the church in the balcony. What its use had been, in those other days, they did not know, but it served their purpose very well now.
"I am afraid we shall have to eat standing," said Miss Sadie. "We have no chairs."
"That will suit Chunky," replied Ned Rector. "He always likes to eat standing."
"Why?" asked Margaret, glancing up at him inquiringly.
"For some reasons of his own," answered Ned mischievously.
As the good things were spread before them the eyes of the lads lighted appreciatively, and all helped themselves gratefully.
It was a jolly party, untouched by the air of mystery that was supposed to surround the place.
"Why, where is Master Stacy?" asked Ruth Brayton in surprise, after they had been eating a few moments.
"Chunky? That"s so, where is he?" demanded Walter, glancing over the railing into the auditorium below.
No one seemed to know.
"He"s prowling around the place somewhere," said Ned. "But what surprises me is that he doesn"t scent the food and come running. It"s not like him to hang back when there is anything good to eat."
"Call him," suggested Margaret.
"I will. O-h-h Chunky!"
There was no reply.
"I will go after him," said Walter, running lightly to the other end of the balcony and down the stone steps.
The lad returned in a few moments, a perplexed frown on his face.
"Find him?" asked Ned.
"No."
"Maybe he"s gone back to camp. He"s a queer chap."
"I think not. I saw his pony there with the others."
"Oh, well, never mind. He"ll get so hungry that he will have to come out, wherever he is," decided Tad. "I imagine he is hiding somewhere to make us think he has gone away. Hark! What was that?"
A far away call for help echoed faintly through the church.
They looked at each other with growing uneasiness on their faces.
"It"s Chunky," breathed Walter.
"Wh--where is he?" stammered Margaret.