"What was it?" she instinctively asked.

Again. It--was--a low--moan!

Pausing only long enough to make sure her nerves were not fooling her, Nora heard again, distinctly, a sound, a human or inhuman moan! Then she rushed down the stairs, kept on rushing until she reached the street door, and realizing no person was upon the premises, ran down the road, straight for Chickadee Camp.

No thought of her appearance concerned her; she must get the girls to come back and find out what was in the attic!

Only once she stopped, just to make sure the cap was not going to fall off her yellow head.

Voices and laughter came to meet her. That was Thistle and Wyn----

Gulping back a choking, nervous gasp, she rushed on. The next minute she dashed into Chickadee Camp and stood before an amazed group of Scouts.

"The prince!" went up a shout.

"My prince!" corrected Alma.

"Why, it's Nora----"

"Girls!" gasped the intruder. "Listen, please, I am no prince----"

"You are indeed. Just look at the dandy outfit. Alma, we most humbly apologize----"

"Wyn," shouted Thistle, "please listen! Can't you see there is something the matter?"

"Oh, there is really, girls," panted Nora. "Come quick! There is someone--dying in our--attic!"

"Dying?"

"I was up there--getting these things, and I--heard the awfulest moans----"

"Maybe it was Cap," suggested Treble. Her eyes had not wandered from the surprising spectacle.

"Oh, no, he was outside," said Nora, "and no one is home, not even Vita.

Oh, please do come! I know someone is in agony," and her voice trailed off into agony of her own.

"I'll lead," volunteered Thistle. "Come along, every one. Alma, you can take care of your--prince," she could not resist injecting.

"Oh Alma," sighed Nora. "I was planning to come to explain to you----"

"You don't need to," and a most affectionate and all encompa.s.sing look went from Alma to Nora. "I know all--about it now, and you are my prince, just the same."

"Come along, you two lovers," ordered Thistle the leader. "You had a 'crush' on Nora from the first, Alma. Now we all know why. Fall in there, Betta. No need to wait for guns----"

"I am not going without some weapon of defense," declared Betta. "Nora knows her own attic, and she knows when someone is moaning. It may be a lunatic. There is always an asylum in a pretty place like this."

"Oh, is there?" cried Nora. "I would be afraid to face a--lunatic in that big, dark, attic----"

"I should think you would, lunatic or just plain, human being," agreed Laddie. "You look delectable enough for anyone to just eat you up----"

"Can't you girls realize this is an emergency, not a debate?" snapped Thistle. "We don't suppose Nora is dying of fright just for fun. Betta, run over and tell Becky."

"Oh, don't let's have her along," interrupted Treble, bent on making the most of the adventure. "You know she would have to do something we wouldn't."

"Right," agreed Wyn. "Come along Scouts! 'Jeuty' calls us."

They had been "coming along" all the time. These expressions merely gave vent to pent up energy.

Nora, although thoroughly frightened, was thankful that the dark helped hide her dismay. Alma had her arm, and Alma was thinking in terms of "prince," even the pretender was conscious of that.

The girls giggled and talked, as they always did, and as Betta took time to remark, "they would be apt to do it at their own funerals." There was no suppressing Wyn, and Treble fell but a peg below in volubility.

"Look out there!" called Thistle.

Everyone halted.

"What?" demanded Wyn.

"A puddle," replied the heartless leader. "And I'm responsible for the shine on your shoes, lunatic or no lunatic," she declared loudly.

"When my turn comes to lead for a week I'll have that wretched girl up every day at dawn," threatened Betta. "She has the cruelest way of raising one's hopes."

"Had you hopes for the lunatic in the mud puddle?" demanded Laddie.

"You had better get your sense valve working," suggested Doro. "We are almost there."

"Right," added Treble. "I can see the gate light now."

"How ever will we go up there in the dark?" Nora asked Alma. "I will be afraid to go into the house."

"Don't you worry, dear," Alma was still under the influence. "We will all go in together, and Thistle isn't afraid of man or beast."

Arrived at the Nest Nora was confronted with a light at the back of the house.

"Someone home?" suggested Thistle.

"There shouldn't be," declared Nora. "Everyone is out for the evening."

"Where is Vita?" asked the same leader. They had stopped at the natural hedge, and now stood under the picturesque, homemade arc light--Jerry's lantern with the red globe.

"Vita went out somewhere. She often does, and you see I was going over to camp, so there was, really, no one at home."

"Your dying princess has come down stairs to die," suggested the irrepressible Wyn.

"Princess?" scoffed Nora.

"Or was it merely a maid in waiting--excuse me, your _man_ in waiting."

"Wyn," shouted Laddie, "can't you see you are making yourself ridiculous at a time like this?"