Dan Carter and the Cub Honor Part 29

With Brad at his elbow, Dan negotiated the last few feet. Stunned by what he saw, he gripped the iron railing with both hands.

The great bell hung in the turret, its dark clapper motionless. Beyond the hollow metallic vessel, almost at the edge of its flaring mouth, was a bed of blankets!

As Dan's gaze fixed upon the bedding, he beheld the figure of a drowsing man. The fellow stirred sleepily, yawned and sat up.

It was then that both Cubs saw his face clearly. The occupant of the belfry was none other than the poorly dressed stranger who had paid such marked attention to Chub at the basketball game!

CHAPTER 17 A WITNESS

The gaunt looking man in the belfry seemed unaware of the Cubs' presence on the iron stairway.

Wrapped in heavy blankets, he sat with his back to the rim of the big bell. His feet rested comfortably on a stone ledge of the tower. He gazed lazily into s.p.a.ce, absorbed by his own reverie.

As Dan and Brad huddled together, watching, the man presently shifted his position. His shoulder brushed against the bell, causing the clapper to swing.

"Drat it!" the man exclaimed impatiently. He seized the striker to prevent it from sounding. Having steadied the bell, he again settled down into his blankets.

The mystery surrounding the old church now had been partially solved. Dan and Brad could not guess the stranger's ident.i.ty, but they were fairly certain he had been living in the belfry for days, perhaps weeks.

No imagination was required to explain the previous strange tapping of the bell and Pat's terror on Halloween night. The Bay Sh.o.r.e boys likely had seen this man in the belfry and had mistaken him for a ghost!

Dan's lips cracked into a grin at recollection of how Pat and his cronies had fled from the building. It really had been funny!

A bat came whirring down the well of the stairway, swooping close to the boys. Dan nearly lost his grasp on the spiral railing.

Involuntarily, he uttered a choked cry as he cringed back. Slight as was the sound, it reached the ears of the man in the belfry above.

Throwing off his blankets, he leaped to his feet.

"Who's there?" he demanded, peering down.

The daylight above seemed to have blinded him, for he did not immediately see the two boys crouching in the semi-darkness. But they could not escape detection.

"Come up out of there!" he ordered, as he made out their shadowy forms.

"A couple of kids, eh?"

Brad and Dan were nervous as they faced the stranger. The wind had blown his dark hair and he was unshaven. His eyes, however, had a friendly twinkle which slightly rea.s.sured them. They were relieved too, to note that he did not appear to be armed.

"Well, well! A couple of curious Cubs," the man said cheerfully. "So you've finally caught me?"

Already Dan and Brad had lost their fear of the stranger. He was a man of early middle age, well-built and deeply tanned from having lived an outdoor life. Why, they wondered, had he chosen the church belfry for his home?

"You've been living here a long while, haven't you?" Dan asked.

"I've been sleeping here off and on about three weeks," the stranger shrugged. "This place, I'm telling you, isn't very cozy now that the nights are so cold."

"Couldn't you have slept in the church, instead of in this bird roost?"

Brad asked.

"Oh, some nights I do." The stranger had gathered up his army blankets and was folding them neatly. "I stay up here because I like the cool, clean air. I can sleep anywhere. Learned it in the army. Up here I don't have to keep an eye out all the time for that pest, Terry the Terrible."

"The church caretaker?" Dan asked, smiling at the nickname.

"Sure, he's always checking up, but never did tumble to the fact that he had a non-paying renter in his building."

"Who are you anyhow?" Dan asked bluntly. "Didn't we see you the other night at the basketball game?"

"I was there, son."

"You didn't tell us your name," Dan reminded him.

"Didn't I?" The man smiled as he ran a hand over his stubbly two-day-old beard. "Would you take me for a tramp?"

"Not exactly." Dan scarcely knew how to cla.s.sify the stranger. He spoke excellent English and had certain refinements that one usually did not a.s.sociate with a tramp. Yet obviously, the fellow was without funds or he wouldn't be living in the belfry.

"You must excuse my appearance," the man said. "I haven't had a chance to get to my barber yet today."

Picking up a knapsack from the stone floor, he began to take out toilet articles-a razor, a mirror and shaving cream.

"You know you have no right to be living here," Brad burst out. "How did you get in, anyhow? Through the coal chute?"

"I did the first time. After that, I used the door."

"But this church was supposed to be locked. Terry checks on the place, or at least he's supposed to."

"The caretaker's a nice old codger, but not very alert. If he had been, he'd never have left a key lying around."

"You found it?" Brad questioned.

"It may not have been his," the stranger admitted. "I came upon it the day I holed in here. Found it lying on a window sill, and discovered it unlocked one of the doors. So I've used it ever since. Convenient."

"Terry probably was afraid to admit to the trustees that he had lost one of his keys!" Dan exclaimed. "Say, he could have cleared up a lot of things for our Den, if he'd acted right!"

No longer uneasy in the stranger's presence, the two boys now plied him with eager questions. Did he live in the belfry because he had no money?

How long had he been in Webster City?

"Don't fire 'em at me so fast," the man chuckled. "I haven't been out of the army very long. I have a little money, but I'm trying to make it last until I get a certain job I'm after. Besides, I have another little matter here in Webster City-"

"Mr. Hatfield probably could help you find work," Brad offered. "He's our Cub leader."

"I'll find work all right, son. Fact is, I don't plan on staying in this town very long. Not unless-"

"Unless what?" Brad caught him up.