Page:The Secret of the Old Mill.pdf/67

Rh rushed up to the front door they found no one in sight.

"I'm going inside," declared Frank. "We'll have to get a rope or they'll be swept off that rock in no time."

The door was closed, but he pushed it open and entered the dim interior of the mill. But hardly had he stepped inside, with Chet at his heels, than he ran into the arms of one of the men whom he had seen outside the doorway some time previously.

"Hi, what do you want?" demanded the man angrily. He seized Frank by the shoulders and tried to push him back, out of the building. At the same time the other man came running out of a near-by door.

"What's going on here?" he shouted wrathfully. "What's all this about? Get out of here, you boys!"

The sound of voices evidently attracted the attention of a third man, for he, too, came running out of the shadows, carrying a heavy club, which he brandished threateningly.

"What do you want here?" he shouted excitedly. He was short and broad-shouldered, with a dirty kerchief knotted about his neck.

"We want a rope," Frank explained, taken aback by this hostile demonstration. "Your boy is drowning in the mill race!"

The three men became immediately con-