"The blame thing's locked," he announced. "Isn't that the worstluck! It's a rule of the building that all hall windows be left openunless there's a storm. Well, I suppose we might as well go back.There's no window on the first floor."

"We could climb in there," suggested Morgan, pointing to anotherwindow, half-opened. "See, Bob, I can reach it easily."

She drew herself up before Bob could stop her, and, raising thewindow as high as it would go, scrambled over the sill.

"It's fine--come on in," she laughed back at the others. "Cunningoffice and no one in it. I suppose the owner has gone out to look at usrescued."

Bob lifted up Libbie, who was the shortest, and, one after theother, the childs climbed in, Bob following last.

It was a finely furnished office and one Bob had never been in,though he had a speaking acquaintance with many of the twelveants in thebuilding. A pair of tiny scales and a little heap of yellow dust layon the highly polished mahogany desk.