Tom Swift and His House on Wheels by Victor Appleton

Like game dogs, Tom Swift and Ned Newton froze in their tracks and stood in the rain near the deserted house, waiting for they knew not what. It was a lonesome, dreary place, dense woods being all around them, and ahead, though some miles distant, the sinister summit of Dismal Mountain with its suggestion of mystery. Only the fact that the warm, comfortable and cozily lighted House on Wheels was near by heartened the young men. They were rather tired from their trip, with fighting the elements, and digging the heavy auto out of bog holes.

For several seconds they stood there, Tom seeking to tune his ears to what Ned had said he had heard -- a noise in the deserted house. But as no sounds came to him, the young inventor began to believe that his chum was mistaken.