“Anyway, we’re leaving it just as we found it,” Brad said. “Dan, you’re sure you didn’t slip that bolt in an absent-minded moment?”
“So am I.” Brad frowned thoughtfully. “It must have been done while we were in the cellar. But who did it?”
“And what became of the person who locked us in?” Dan demanded in a hushed voice. “Do you suppose—?”
“He, she or IT is still in there?” Brad finished the sentence.
“It’s disturbing all right,” Brad agreed. “Maybe we were locked in by accident. But if so, someone had to be in that church. And that someone must be still there.”
The Cubs gazed reflectively at the old building. Despite their suspicion that it might have an occupant, nothing could have induced them to return for an inspection.
“Maybe it was Terry,” Brad said doubtfully. “He could have heard us inside, and played a joke.”
Dan shook his head. “It wasn’t Terry, I’m sure, Brad. If he had caught us there, he would have raised cain.”
Dan indicated the little red wagon which had been used to haul the freezers. He pointed out that anyone approaching the old church certainly would have seen it and know of their presence inside the building.
“Someone did it to scare us away, Brad,” he declared. “I didn’t tell you, but I was sure I heard footsteps on the stairway leading to the belfry.”
“You think someone may have been hiding there, Dan?”
“This old church is awfully close to the river and the railroad tracks,” Dan remarked. “Someone could be using the place without the trustees knowing. I suspect Old Terry isn’t as careful about keeping windows and doors locked as he’s supposed to be.”
“Not now, anyway,” Dan said quickly. “We’re in enough hot water as it is.”
Brad agreed with the denner that it would be unwise to investigate further that day. He proposed, however, that they inform Mr. Hatfield of their findings, and also Terry Treuhaft.
The very next day, Dan ran into the old caretaker on a downtown street. Drawing him into conversation, he told of finding the unlocked door.
“How’d it get unlocked?” Terry demanded. “I never left it that way.”
The caretaker was not as angry about the Cubs returning the ice cream freezers as Dan had expected him to be. Encouraged, he even dared reveal that the lid to one of the containers was missing.