1 files changed, 6035 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/75217-0.txt b/75217-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf0a8d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/75217-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6035 @@
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75217 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Note
+  Italic text displayed as: _italic_
+  Bold text displayed as: =bold=
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ “I have a feeling that we’ll never be bothered with them again,” said
+ Buck.
+
+  (_Page 234_)      (_In the Camp of the Black Rider_)
+]
+
+
+
+
+  IN THE CAMP
+  OF THE
+  BLACK RIDER
+
+  By CAPWELL WYCKOFF
+
+  AUTHOR _of_
+
+  “The Mercer Boys Series,” “The Secret of
+  the Armor Room,” etc.
+
+  [Illustration: Decoration]
+
+  A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+  _PUBLISHERS_
+
+  New York      Chicago
+
+  Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE AND MYSTERY SERIES FOR BOYS
+
+12 TO 16 YEARS OF AGE
+
+
+  =Tom Blake’s Mysterious Adventure.= By Milton Richards.
+  =Barry Dare and the Mysterious Box.= By Gardner Hunting.
+  =The Black Skimmer.= By Philip Hart.
+  =The Wreck of the Dauntless.= By Philip Hart.
+  =The Valdmere Mystery.= By Milton Richards.
+  =The Flight of the Mystic Owls.= By Philip Hart.
+  =The Secret of the Armor Boom.= By Capwell Wyckoff.
+  =Adventures of a Patriot.= By Philip Hart.
+  =Donald Price’s Victory.= By L. P. Wyman.
+  =The Mystery of Eagle Lake.= By L. P. Wyman.
+  =In the Camp of the Black Rider.= By Capwell Wyckoff.
+  =The Mystery at lake Retreat.= By Capwell Wyckoff.
+
+
+  Copyright, 1931
+  By A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+  IN THE CAMP OF THE BLACK RIDER
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
+
+      I. TED TAKES A POST                                              5
+
+     II. IN THE CAMP OF THE BLACK RIDERS                              16
+
+    III. FOLLOWING THE LIGHT                                          26
+
+     IV. A STARTLING SIGHT                                            33
+
+      V. SETTING UP CAMP                                              44
+
+     VI. A PROWLER IN THE NIGHT                                       56
+
+    VII. WEIRD SOUNDS                                                 66
+
+   VIII. A GRIM FIND EXPLODED                                         76
+
+     IX. TED LAYS DOWN THE LAW                                        88
+
+      X. MOUNTAIN CHASE                                               99
+
+     XI. THE LONE LIGHT                                              110
+
+    XII. HEAVEN’S ARTILLERY                                          119
+
+   XIII. BUCK MAKES A DISCOVERY                                      129
+
+    XIV. THE STORY OF THE BLACK RIDERS                               140
+
+     XV. MUTINY                                                      152
+
+    XVI. THINGS ARE SETTLED MAN-FASHION                              165
+
+   XVII. BUCK’S SQUAD TAKES THE FIELD                                177
+
+  XVIII. AN UNEASY CAMP                                              188
+
+    XIX. DRUMMER SAVES HIS CHIEF                                     198
+
+     XX. A VISIT TO HOGS’ HOLLOW                                     210
+
+    XXI. THE WATCHING POST                                           220
+
+   XXII. GHOST MEETS GHOST                                           229
+
+  XXIII. A GAME OF NICKY NIGHT                                       238
+
+   XXIV. MYSTERIES ARE CLEARED UP                                    249
+
+
+
+
+IN THE CAMP OF THE BLACK RIDER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+TED TAKES A POST
+
+
+The noon whistles blew in the little inland town of Ridgefield and the
+sound, flung from many a hoarse factory siren, reached the ears of the
+few men who worked at piling lumber in Thorn’s Lumber and Millwork
+Company yard. The work of the men was instantly suspended and most of
+them walked off to look into well-filled lunch pails. A few, fortunate
+enough to live close by, started off for their homes.
+
+At the first sound of the whistles two clean-cut young fellows at
+the far end of the yard had just lifted a long plank, preparatory to
+tossing it on a towering pile beside them. They looked smilingly at
+each other as the whistles, joined by others, increased in volume of
+sound.
+
+“That’s what we have been listening for!” smiled Ted Thorn, son of the
+owner of the lumber yard.
+
+“Be careful!” warned Buck Dalton, his constant companion and devoted
+chum. “You will come under the heading of a whistle-listener! That’s
+the next worse thing to being a clockwatcher!”
+
+“Can’t help it,” grinned Ted. “My stomach has been listening for that
+sound for some time past.”
+
+“Mine has, too,” confessed Buck. “Let’s heave this last board up.”
+
+With a concerted heave they sent the long board flying upward to the
+top of the pile and then, after washing at the nearby faucet, they set
+off for home and the noon meal. It was a noontime in late July and as
+they walked along they talked of summer plans.
+
+“I hope we can get in some camping before long,” Ted said, as they
+turned down the shady street upon which they both lived. “We’ve made a
+little extra money this summer so far and we’re in fine shape for the
+football season this year. I think that it is time we knocked off our
+work and figured on a little camping trip.”
+
+“I agree with you on that,” nodded Buck. “I’m just about ready for a
+good outdoor trip and a few weeks under canvas. There is nothing I like
+as well as the woods and a tent.”
+
+“That, and a fire which glows a dull red,” cried Ted, his eyes shining.
+
+“You bet! Well, here’s your gate, so the best of friends must part. See
+you after dinner.”
+
+Ted Thorn went into the plain old house while Buckley Dalton continued
+on his way to a house a little way further along the street. These two
+boys had been loyal comrades since they had been old enough to play
+together. Ted was the son of the owner of the local lumber yard, a man
+of quiet personality and moderate means, who was wrapped up in the
+lives of his two children and his wife. Ted’s sister Dorothy was one
+year his junior and his companion of more than one good time in the
+events of the local school. The household was a happy one and in such
+an atmosphere Ted had grown up to be a clean-cut, manly fellow, now
+eighteen, and about to enter upon the last year at the local academy.
+
+Buck was Ted’s age and was a worthy companion, a fun-loving fellow who
+was honest and generous to the core. In physical proportions he passed
+Ted, weighing a few pounds more and being gifted with a wider span of
+shoulders. Both of the boys had been working throughout the summer
+at Ted’s father’s lumber yard, to store up a little money to their
+accounts at the bank and to keep themselves in trim for the coming
+football season. On the Ridgefield Academy team Buck played fullback
+and Ted had been for the past two years the quarterback of the team. It
+was the intention of the boys to work at least a month or more and then
+to spend some time during the summer on a camping trip, to round off
+their summer training in that way. Now, with August near at hand, they
+were beginning to think more seriously of the trip into the woods.
+
+Ted entered the house quickly and washed up, after which he reported
+to the dining room table. His father and mother were there, though
+his sister was visiting at another house. With all the evidence of a
+healthy appetite Ted attacked the food which his mother placed before
+him.
+
+“The foreman tells me that you and Buck are becoming first class men,”
+his father, a middle-aged man with heavy gray hair, told him.
+
+“Glad to hear that,” Ted smiled. “When we first started to work at
+the yard it seemed that all we could do was to collect sore hands and
+blisters! I guess that after we finish at the academy you may be able
+to hire us for good, Dad!”
+
+“I shouldn’t wonder if you might be able to do something else beside
+pile lumber, after you graduate from the academy,” returned his father.
+
+“Hope so,” his son said. “Pretty soon we’ll have to pick out a
+preparatory school or college for me, won’t we Dad?”
+
+“In another six months,” his father nodded, deriving pleasure from the
+thought. The fact that Ted was going to college outweighed the thought
+of personal expense with Mr. Thorn.
+
+“Ted, there was a telephone call for you today,” his mother, a fine
+looking, sweet-faced woman, put in. “Mr. Calvert called up and left a
+message for you.”
+
+“Mr. Calvert?” frowned Ted. “Let’s see, he’s the president of the Boys’
+Club of the town, isn’t he?”
+
+“Yes, and also a prominent lawyer,” replied his father. “I wonder what
+he wants you for?”
+
+“Can’t guess,” Ted shook his head. “What message did he leave, Mother?”
+
+“He asked to tell you to get in touch with him as soon as possible,”
+she replied.
+
+“All right, I will. I suppose I had better go to his house this
+evening.”
+
+“Go to his office this afternoon,” his father said. “It may be
+something important and there is no use keeping Mr. Calvert waiting. I
+guess the lumber yard can spare you for a little while.”
+
+“I guess you won’t lose any money while I’m gone,” grinned Ted.
+“All right, I’ll call him and make an appointment with him for this
+afternoon.”
+
+After the noon meal Ted called up the lawyer and made an appointment
+with him for an early hour. He then went out to the gate and waited
+for Buck to come by. In a few moments his chum came swinging along the
+street.
+
+“Come on, back to the field of battle,” he called, gaily.
+
+“You go ahead,” Ted advised him. “I won’t be over there right away.
+I’ve got an appointment with Lawyer Calvert.”
+
+They discussed the item for a few moments before they parted. “He must
+want you for something pretty important,” Buck thought. “Maybe he wants
+you to work for him during the rest of the summer.”
+
+“If that is what he wants, he won’t get it,” Ted shook his head. “I’m
+going camping with you, Buck old boy.”
+
+“Well, don’t be foolish about that,” Buck advised. “We can go camping
+some other time, you know, and Mr. Calvert doesn’t offer jobs every
+day.”
+
+“We’re getting a bit ahead of the game,” Ted smiled. “We don’t know yet
+what he does want. I’ll see you later in the day and tell you all about
+it.”
+
+Buck went on the way returning to his work in the lumber yard, while
+Ted waited until it was time to go downtown to see the lawyer. Promptly
+at the appointed hour he reported at the office of Mr. Calvert and
+after his name had been sent in, he was admitted to the presence of the
+man.
+
+Ted had seen Mr. Calvert before but he was not personally acquainted
+with him. The lawyer was a fine, upstanding man, a power in the little
+community, and a great lover of boys and their activities. Ted was a
+little surprised when the handsome, middle-aged lawyer got up from his
+deep leather chair and smilingly shook hands with him.
+
+“How do you do, Thorn!” he asked, giving Ted a hearty pressure of the
+hand. “I’m glad you found the opportunity to drop in and visit me. I
+suppose you have no idea why I sent for you!”
+
+“None at all, sir,” Ted confessed.
+
+“Take a seat,” the lawyer directed, and when Ted had seated himself
+opposite him the man went straight to the point.
+
+“Thorn, you know that I am president of the Boys’ Club of this town, an
+organization of young fellows numbering about twenty young fellows, all
+pretty wide-awake boys who are banding their activities together and
+learning some pretty useful things in life. These boys are younger than
+you are and that is the reason that you and some of your particular
+friends have never been asked to join. Well, the time has come when
+these boys are asking for a regular summer camping trip, and the
+officers of the club have agreed that the boys shall have a month of
+camping life this year, under the direction of the club. We want some
+one trustworthy to take these boys off on a camping trip and take care
+of them, and we feel that we couldn’t get a better leader than you.”
+
+Ted’s face flushed with pleasure but he hesitated, questions surging
+in his mind. “That’s a very kind thought, Mr. Calvert,” he said. “But
+don’t you think I am a little young?”
+
+“No, I don’t, and besides, you’d have help. We know that you travel
+constantly in the company of Buckley Dalton and if you accept the post,
+we want your comrade to go with you. Between the two of you, you’d have
+no trouble in handling the boys. You speak of being young. Well, we
+wouldn’t consider anyone as young as you are unless he was the power
+among younger fellows that you are. For the past two years you have
+been quarterback on the academy team, and the boys in the club have
+looked at you with eyes of worship! Your clean playing, your clear head
+work on the field, has captured their imagination so that they will hop
+with joy when they are told that you will lead the camping trip. We
+propose to pay you and Buck a small salary for your work. How about it,
+Thorn?”
+
+“On one condition,” said Ted, instantly.
+
+“What is that?” Calvert asked.
+
+“That you withdraw what you said about the salary. Buck and I were
+planning to go for a camping trip very soon and this plan which you
+propose would simply be a bigger trip than we had planned. If you pay
+all expenses for food, as I suppose you will, that will be enough.”
+
+“Nonsense, Thorn! If we hired a professional man, we’d have to pay
+him,” the lawyer said.
+
+“Yes, but we’re not professionals. Buck and I have camped before,
+and this trip will be a new experience for us. Now, if our food and
+equipment is to be furnished, Buck and I will be saving, and that will
+be plenty as it is. How do you know that we’ll make a success of it?”
+
+“The men in this town notice a thing or two, Thorn,” was the quiet
+answer.
+
+“This is something new,” Ted said. “But we’ll try it—with no salary! I
+think we’ll both feel more like doing the job right if we do it for the
+benefit of the club and the boys, than if we do it because we are paid
+for it. The Boys’ Club is a fine institution, and Buck and I will be
+glad to help it along.”
+
+“I appreciate your good spirit,” smiled the lawyer. “I am glad that we
+are able to get leaders like you two. And now I want to speak to you
+about the camping site.”
+
+“I was wondering where the camp would be,” Ted nodded.
+
+“Have you ever heard of Black Riders’ Camp?” the lawyer asked.
+
+Ted considered. “That is the place where a number of patriots used to
+meet in a band at the time of the Revolutionary War, isn’t it?”
+
+Mr. Calvert nodded. “Yes. This state played a big part in the
+Revolution and a band of mounted men, known as the Black Riders, used
+to meet in a camp near here and sally forth to worry the British all
+over the countryside. That camp is now owned by the members of the
+Boys’ Club Trustee Board, and it is on that spot that we wish the
+camp to be pitched. A large and beautiful stream of water, called
+Bear Creek, runs through the hollow where the camp was, there is an
+excellent natural swimming hole, and all in all the spot is ideal,
+except in one particular.”
+
+“What is that?” Ted asked.
+
+“Unfortunately,” replied Mr. Calvert slowly. “The camp of the Black
+Riders is said to be a haunted spot!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IN THE CAMP OF THE BLACK RIDERS
+
+
+“The camp is haunted!” Ted asked, quickly, leaning forward in interest.
+
+Mr. Calvert smiled. “It is said to be, at any rate. There are all sorts
+of foolish stories connected with the place, and I have no doubt that
+people residing in the surrounding country could tell you many of them.
+It is all probably nonsense, but I thought it better to tell you.”
+
+“Do any of the boys who are going on the camping trip know that the
+camp is supposedly haunted?”
+
+“As far as I know they don’t, but they will be told of it by someone.
+You may have a little difficulty on that score, but not much, I think.”
+
+“I don’t think that we will,” affirmed Ted. “Most of the boys are
+sensible fellows and they will take care of the rest. The camp is some
+little distance away from here, isn’t it?”
+
+“About forty miles. Some of the parents may wonder why we select a
+spot so far away, but there is not much real fun out of a camping
+trip unless the camp is some distance away. There are other spots
+nearer, but none of them is as ideal as the Black Riders’ Camp, and
+the trustees wish that particular spot to be used. The creek that
+runs through the natural basin has a fine curve in it which makes the
+swimming hole I spoke of and seldom have I seen anything to even equal
+it for attractiveness. If our boys get a month in a place like that,
+with constant outdoor work and play, I’m sure that it will do them a
+world of good.”
+
+“There is no doubt of it,” Ted agreed. “I’m very glad to be in on the
+thing. Buck and I have had enough camping experience to swing the job
+and I think we’ll both enjoy the experience of handling a big crowd
+instead of just a few fellows. How will we get to the place?”
+
+“A couple of trucks will take you there and all of the necessary
+equipment will be provided. Anytime that you desire fresh food you
+can call me up and it will be sent. I’m very glad that you are going,
+Thorn, because I feel sure that the camp will be in the hands of two
+trustworthy fellows. I wasn’t sure whether your friend Buck would be
+free to go along and so I only asked you to come and see me.”
+
+“Buck will be glad to go along,” smiled Ted. “We don’t go very many
+places without each other! By the way, do you think it would be wise
+for me to run out and look over Black Riders’ Camp before the camp
+actually settles there?”
+
+“I think it would be an excellent idea. Take the Black Horse Pike out
+past Montvery, turn off on a dirt road which you will find on your left
+as you leave Montvery, and you’ll have no trouble locating the camp. If
+you see the site of the location you will have no trouble in setting up
+camp, because you have time ahead to figure out space.”
+
+“All right, I’ll do that. How soon will the boys be ready to go?”
+
+“In a week. There are some few details to be worked out and then
+everything will be in readiness.”
+
+After some more talk Ted left the lawyer’s office, well pleased with
+the project which loomed up before him, and made his way quickly to the
+lumber yard. The sense of responsibility which would rest upon him gave
+him something serious to think about, but the more he thought it out
+the more it seemed to him that the experience would be a good one. On
+the other camping trips there had always been a few fellows and every
+one had had his own affairs to look out for, but this club camping trip
+promised to tax his executive powers. There would have to be system and
+obedience and he liked the prospect of organizing such a camp.
+
+“Buck and I will learn a whole lot out of this trip,” he thought, as he
+entered the lumber yard.
+
+Buck was in the yard office, busily checking up on some lumber when Ted
+came in, and he looked up with his customary grin. “Here comes the big
+boss!” he cried. “Good morning, Mister Thorn!”
+
+“Good morning is right!” flashed back Ted. “Arriving to work at three
+o’clock in the afternoon is quite a privilege, isn’t it? Never mind,
+when you get to be an old and trusted employee, as I am, you can do the
+same!”
+
+“I’ll do that. What did Mr. Calvert have to say, if it is for me to
+know.”
+
+“It is very much for you to know, Buck,” replied Ted, seating himself
+on a stool beside his chum. “You and I have been appointed camp
+leaders for the Boys’ Club during their August encampment!”
+
+“Get out! You’re fooling!”
+
+“I thought Mr. Calvert was, but he wasn’t. No, he wants us to go and
+take charge of the camp, which will be out in the woods at the camp of
+the Black Riders.”
+
+“Hello, the haunted camp!”
+
+“Where did you hear that it was haunted?” Ted asked, quickly.
+
+“Oh, a cousin of mine told me, but it is just some foolishment, as our
+friend Jake Meyers would say. Some countryman went to sleep there one
+time and a rock rolled down hill, passing close to his head. It was a
+big rock and the man wouldn’t believe but that some ghost or goblin
+or something did it, and I guess from that time on there have been
+stories. They don’t amount to anything, though.”
+
+“They don’t with us, but I don’t know how things will be with younger
+boys. You and I will have to laugh off any such feelings if they do get
+around, and if possible, we must do our best to see to it that they
+don’t get around. You’ve never been there, have you?”
+
+“No. Have you?”
+
+“No, but in accordance with a suggestion which Mr. Calvert approved,
+I’m going to run up there on Saturday afternoon and look the place
+over. Want to come along?”
+
+“I won’t be able to, because I’m going visiting with the family. But
+you go ahead and look things over. Now, let’s have the whole story of
+what Mr. Calvert said.”
+
+Ted told Buck the arrangements and his companion was enthusiastic.
+“We’ll get a good insight on how to run a big camp,” he declared. “Of
+course, in some respects, it won’t be as much fun as camping alone,
+because when you are with one or two fellows you can do pretty much as
+you please, but we’ll try our hand at something new. I’m all for it.”
+
+“I knew you would be, and I told Mr. Calvert so. What I’ll do is this:
+I’ll drive up there in the Rattletrap and look over the spot, to get a
+fair idea of the place. Then you and I will figure out just where we
+want the tents to go and how we’ll want things arranged.”
+
+That night the two boys told the news at their respective homes and
+the plans for the rest of the summer were approved. Buck was the only
+son of his parents and they were very proud of their stalwart son.
+Between the two families there existed a warm friendship which was of
+years standing. And although Buck went to Ted’s house presumably to see
+Ted, it was no secret that he hoped on each visit to see Ted’s sister,
+Dorothy.
+
+On the following Saturday both boys terminated their work at the mill
+yard and that afternoon Ted went to the old barn back of his house and
+took out his battered old car, which he capped with a fitting name when
+he termed it the Rattletrap. It was of an ancient vintage and rattled
+before each start and halt with singular energy and application. But it
+always went and it had more than once taken the two boys to school and
+other events, keeping to date a record for performance of which any car
+might well be proud.
+
+In this old wreck of a car Ted left Ridgefield and headed out for the
+Black Horse Pike, one of the oldest roads in the State. He followed
+this for the forty miles which Mr. Calvert had told him of, and reached
+the small town of Montvery. Traversing this same road he passed through
+the village and came to a grass-grown old road that led away toward
+the encircling forest. Judging this to be the road in question, Ted
+followed it, and after passing about a half mile of fields, the road
+dipped into thick woods. As soon as he left the open grounds the gloom
+seemed to wall him in and the woods were cool.
+
+A farmer was approaching and Ted brought the Rattletrap to a stop,
+hailing the man. “Am I anywhere near the camp of the Black Riders?”
+
+“Keep going for another half mile,” was the answer. “Then you’ll get
+to the end of the road and you’ll have to hike down the path into the
+gully.” He rested his foot on the runningboard of the shaking car.
+“Don’t many people come up to see the camp any more,” he confided.
+
+“How is that?” Ted asked.
+
+“Oh, people get tired of lookin’ at nothing but an open space. If it
+was a building or something else it would be different. You going to
+take a look at it?”
+
+“Yes,” Ted nodded. “A bunch of fellows are going to camp there in a
+week or so.”
+
+“I see. Well, you won’t have nobody bothering you.”
+
+“That is comforting news,” Ted thought, as he left the farmer and moved
+on. “That will be something like real camp life.”
+
+He came to the end of the rough road and left the car, starting out
+on a steadily descending path until he came at last to the camp of the
+Black Riders. Before going to the bottom of the basin he paused to
+look around him. The place was a perfect bowl, the sides of which were
+sheathed with fine pine trees. At the bottom ran Bear Creek with its
+curve that made the swimming pool. On all sides, sloping upward, the
+forest rippled away into the distance, solid and green.
+
+Ted descended to the bottom of the basin and looked closely over the
+camp site. His satisfaction was complete as he discovered two fine
+springs at a little distance above the spot where he figured that the
+tents should go. The streams from the springs flowed down and into Bear
+Creek.
+
+“Two dandy springs,” he reflected. “That’s fine. The water goes into
+the creek, and I guess that makes the water pretty cold, but I suppose
+we won’t mind that.”
+
+He continued to look over the spot, noting all the natural advantages
+of the place. As far as he knew there were no disadvantages attached
+to it. The ground was carpeted with soft pine needles and the air was
+charged with a fragrant tang. Lost in his thoughts, Ted did not notice
+the swift passage of time.
+
+The gloom of the woods increased and he awoke at last to the lateness
+of the hour. His start that afternoon had not been an early one and he
+realized that he must hurry back. The suddenness with which darkness,
+aided by a group of dull clouds, came up, amazed him. He could scarcely
+see before him as he turned to leave.
+
+“Golly, it certainly did get dark in a hurry,” he thought. “I must be
+getting out of here. I must be the only one for miles around.”
+
+But a moment later, as he glanced up the towering mountains to the left
+of the camp site, he knew that he was mistaken. In the darkness above a
+lantern bobbed and swung.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FOLLOWING THE LIGHT
+
+
+The sight of a lantern high up in the mountains captured Ted’s
+imagination as well as his attention. The region seemed to be a
+particularly lonely one and he wondered who the lantern-carrier could
+be. While there had been light he had looked along the mountain side
+but had seen no house or barn. The wooded slopes had appeared untouched
+by the hand of man and altogether too dense and forsaken for a house of
+any kind. Yet the bearer of the lantern was going somewhere.
+
+The light flashed in and out among the trees as the bearer carried it
+onward and upward, winking at irregular intervals as it passed back
+of trees. The gleam was yellow and a trifle dim, yet there was power
+enough to it for the watching boy to see. Although it was perhaps
+perfectly natural for someone to walk the mountains with a lantern,
+Ted’s mind pondered it.
+
+“Wonder where he can be going? It really isn’t any of my business, and
+I suppose that the person carrying the lantern knows what he is up to,
+but it looks a bit mysterious. Still, it isn’t necessary to follow it.”
+
+His mind had already considered the possibility of following, but at
+first he rejected the idea wholly. In the first place, the action would
+probably end in his seeing the man enter some hidden barn on perfectly
+proper business, and in the second place, it was the right of anyone to
+walk along the mountain at any time. But the upward twist and turn of
+the tiny, bobbing light fascinated him.
+
+“I guess I will follow it,” he finally decided. “I’d like to see where
+it goes to. I may learn something about the region if anything can be
+learned on a dark night like this, and anyway, I’ll feel a little more
+satisfied if I see where the light is going. Now, let’s see how good I
+am at finding my way around here in the dark!”
+
+Centering his eyes upon the light’s feeble gleam Ted started on his
+climb up the side of the mountain. As soon as he plunged into the trees
+he lost sight of the gleam which he was trying to trace, but from time
+to time he caught sight of it again as he came out into a cleared
+space. It was no longer moving up but was keeping on a level of the
+mountain side and he took an abrupt cut across the contemplated line of
+march. The light moved slower and slower now and he gained upon it.
+
+In one stretch of his climb Ted lost sight of the light altogether and
+for some moments he was unable to locate it. He was about to give it
+up as a bad job when a fleeting flash came to him through the trees.
+Now he made out that the lantern-bearer was standing still and in this
+interval he hoped to catch up. With this in mind Ted rapidly climbed
+the last slope and stood on comparatively level ground on what was a
+great shoulder of the mountains, heavily wooded as was the rest of
+the region. Before him the lantern, hung in an invisible hand, cast a
+circle of light around the ground.
+
+In the shelter of some bushes and trees Ted crouched and looked at the
+lantern. It was an extremely old-fashioned one, with three rounded
+sides open and the fourth blank. Due to this structure of the lamp
+Ted was unable to see who it was who held the thing. The uncompleted
+circle cast by the lantern showed only the tips of two large shoes and
+the shadowy outline of a pair of trousers which seemed much the worse
+for wear. Above this, the bearer was invisible and might have been
+looking in Ted’s direction as well as in any other, for all that the
+boy knew. In fact, the continued silence of the man, combined with his
+motionlessness, made Ted somewhat uneasy, for it was possible that he
+was simply standing there and looking around. Ted imagined that he had
+made a lot of noise in his climb.
+
+At last the lamp was slightly shifted, much to Ted’s relief, and he saw
+at once the object of the man’s search, or at least the goal of it. The
+feeble rays from the old lantern showed dimly the outline of an old
+house. In the fitful gleam there was revealed a short section of the
+foundation, which was crumbling away, and a limited view of the warped
+boarding on the side of the house. It was to this spot that the lone
+prowler had come and he seemed to be intent upon his job.
+
+As Ted remained at his post watching the lantern and the man moved
+away, passing along the side of the house. The watcher had a hurried
+glimpse of broken masonry and rotting boards occasionally obscured by
+masses of bushes and creepers. The man went around to the back of the
+house and for a few moments the light was entirely withdrawn from Ted’s
+sight.
+
+By this time Ted had entered fully into the sense of adventure of
+the thing. Surely, there was something unusual going on. Something
+important must be bringing this man out with his lantern to look around
+an old house. The building itself aroused Ted’s curiosity. Who could
+have built it up in the solitary fastness of the woods and how long had
+it been standing idle? Something beside the beauty of the place must be
+responsible for the intent prowling of the man with the lantern.
+
+“I must see this house by daylight,” Ted decided.
+
+The light winked suddenly around the far corner of the house and moved
+along the front. Rough steps were revealed and the man with the shadowy
+legs mounted the steps, crossed the porch and passed through a gaping
+doorway into a front door. A swift glimpse was afforded Ted of white
+plaster on the walls and then the light disappeared.
+
+It was gone for some little time, finally appearing briefly in an upper
+window. After that it disappeared again and was gone so long that Ted
+grew highly impatient and seriously contemplating leaving. He knew that
+he should be getting back to the town, for it was late and he had a
+long drive before him. But the subject in hand fascinated him and he
+wanted to see it through.
+
+“I’ll give the gentleman a few more minutes,” he thought. “If nothing
+shows up then, I’ll have to beat it.”
+
+Crouching there in the bushes he waited straining his eyes toward the
+blackness of the house. The whole mountainside had now become so black
+that the house was not even distinguishable as a darker blot, and if
+the man with the lantern had not revealed it, Ted could not possibly
+have become aware of its presence except by bumping into it. With the
+light out of sight the darkness was a solid wall.
+
+Just as Ted’s impatience was nearing the breaking point he heard the
+man with the light returning. There was a sound of crunching footsteps
+and he came down a staircase in the house and before long the flashing
+beam of the lantern showed. Man and lantern crossed the front porch and
+without hesitation approached the bushes off to the left of where Ted
+was concealed.
+
+Now the lantern was placed on the ground and the man, still invisible
+and keeping out of the rays of the lamp in a manner that was
+particularly irritating, crashed his way into the bushes. Something was
+hauled forth with a rustling, crackling noise. For a brief instant the
+sides and rungs of a ladder were disclosed and then the thing passed
+out of the light circle. But there was a bump which led Ted to believe
+that the ladder, an old common farm ladder, had been placed against the
+side of the house.
+
+In this guess he was correct. The lantern was lifted from the ground
+and the two mysterious legs sought the bottom rung of the ladder. As
+Ted watched, the light and the legs went up step by step, the side of
+the house, briefly illuminated, sliding by as the man mounted to the
+top.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A STARTLING SIGHT
+
+
+A flash of the lantern showed the slope of the roof and a broken tin
+gutter. Plainly the intention of the man was to mount this roof and the
+watching boy wondered how he was going to do it, as there was a decided
+slope to the house covering. But the man with the lantern evidently
+knew his territory, for he stepped from the top of the ladder and his
+foot descended to the roof, resting in a hole which the elements had
+eaten through the shingles. He began to climb upward, picking his way
+along the top of the roof with a certain foot, knowing the breaks and
+the rough spots where he could travel in safety. Without wavering he
+pressed on and reached the top of the house, where a crooked chimney
+was shadowily revealed in the glow of the light. The man raised the
+lantern.
+
+Ted peered eagerly from his post in the bushes, hoping to get a good
+look at the man but he was doomed to disappointment, at least as far
+as the man’s face was concerned. He had his back to the boy and only
+the general outline was disclosed by his act of raising the lantern. He
+was outlined against the sky in a blurred picture, and he seemed to be
+tall and thin. His clothing was of the roughest sort and his hat was a
+relic which might, at one time, have been a soldier’s campaign hat. The
+roof seemed to be familiar to the man, for he proceeded to business as
+coolly as though he was standing on the firm ground instead of on the
+slope of a rotting roof on a solitary house in the mountains.
+
+He rested the lantern on the top of the tilted chimney and then dropped
+his hands to his waist, fumbling there for a few moments and puzzling
+Ted, who could not make out this latest move. At length the question
+was cleared up, for the man began to pull on something which revealed
+itself as a rope and which was coiled around his waist. In a few
+minutes it slipped off of his person and then he proceeded to tie one
+end of it to the handle of the lantern. Then he dropped the lantern
+down the mouth of the chimney, paying the rope out gradually, his body
+bent over so that he could look down the shaft.
+
+Ted was rooted to the spot by the strangeness of the thing. The light
+had ceased to shine abroad, instead, it now shot up a feeble shaft from
+the interior of the chimney, bathing the head and shoulders of the lone
+man in its wavering, uncertain gleam. The lower part of the man’s body
+was lost to sight and the upper portion, half disclosed, gave a weird
+appearance, as though the man was a half-spirit materializing in the
+air. With absorbed attention the man lowered the lantern until the end
+of his rope put an end to the process and then he began what looked
+to be a profound search of the depth of the brick shaft. He moved the
+rope from side to side, backward and forward, the ray of light shifting
+as he did so, becoming larger and smaller as the man persisted in his
+efforts.
+
+Whether or not his work proved profitable Ted never knew, for he could
+not see the face of the man and there was nothing to be learned as long
+as the purpose of the thing was a mystery. But the man concluded his
+search in short order, drawing up the rope rapidly and pulling out the
+lantern. Rapidly he untied the rope, wound it around his waist and
+then descended the roof, finding the places where he dared to walk. His
+foot found the top rung of the ladder and he reached the earth a few
+seconds later.
+
+The lantern was once more deposited on the ground. The ladder was
+removed and placed in the bushes, and the work of the man seemed to be
+finished. He picked up the lantern and walked off, passing so close
+to the hiding Ted that the boy felt the perspiration start suddenly
+as he realized that the faltering rays of the lantern might disclose
+his hiding place. The looks of the man were unknown and the prospect
+of being seen by a man whose features were still formless in his mind
+did not look inviting to Ted. But the man passed the spot while he was
+thinking of these things and started down the mountain, leaving him to
+lie there and wait until it was safe to go on.
+
+It was manifestly not safe to go on just then. The man was below him
+and in the darkness Ted might start a stone down and advertise his
+presence, in which case the game would be very much against him, for
+the man with the light knew the country and he was a stranger in a
+strange land. He watched the lantern bobbing down the slope until it
+was out of sight and then he sat up, turning the whole thing over in
+his mind.
+
+“By George, that surely was a funny one!” he thought. “What in the
+world should he go and lower the lantern down the chimney for?”
+
+The whole circumstance was so unusual that he was forced to give up
+the solution as a bad job and one far beyond his powers to figure out.
+The house which the boy had caught brief glimpses of was apparently a
+deserted old place of no value whatsoever and why any one should take
+the trouble to search it with a lantern for was beyond him.
+
+“Can it be possible that there is something of value in the house?” he
+wondered, as he stood up and looked in vain for the light. “I can’t see
+why else a man should look around a place in the night. I wonder why he
+doesn’t look around in the daytime? Probably he would have to have a
+lantern in the daytime as well as in the night if he wanted to explore
+the bottom of that chimney.”
+
+Ted glanced toward the black outline of the house, hesitating as a
+thought entered his mind. He was debating the question of entering
+and looking around the place. In one sense, he wanted to do so, and
+in another he did not want to. The curiosity of the whole thing was
+strongly upon him, yet the solitary house was not inviting. He had no
+way to make a light and he knew better than to think of prowling a dark
+house, yet he could make an expedition around the house and get a fair
+idea of the place. Then another thought caused him to abandon that idea.
+
+“There may be some well close to the house, and I couldn’t afford to
+fall into it. No, I guess I’ll be better off to stay out and away from
+it. After we have made our camp up here I’ll go through the house some
+day.”
+
+Realizing that it was becoming far later than he had had any idea of,
+Ted decided to go back to his little car and drive home. For a moment
+he paused, undecided. In his haste to track the man with the lantern
+he had not taken time to map out in his mind the direction in which
+he had come and for a moment he was dismayed at the blackness of the
+woods. Anyone used to at least the partial illumination that exists at
+all points in a city is apt to be disagreeably surprised at the total
+blackness of the night in the woods, and Ted was experiencing this
+feeling now. But he fought off his uneasiness.
+
+“I’ll get back to the car,” he told himself. “I’ve got to! I’ll just
+follow down the side of the mountain. Gosh, I never knew how dark the
+woods could be!”
+
+He began to descend carefully, feeling his way before him, covering to
+the best of his knowledge the route which he had followed as he tracked
+the man with the light. Once or twice he came out on ledges which ended
+abruptly and he was compelled to retrace his steps and work further
+down, but before long he found ground which was more level. In a few
+moments he heard the murmur of the stream and recognized it as that of
+Bear Creek.
+
+“Landed almost at home!” he exulted. “Now I guess I can find my way to
+the Rattletrap!”
+
+He started to cross the long glade which had been the camp of the Black
+Riders and came in sight of the springs. A light flashed there and he
+stopped quickly.
+
+Beside one of the springs the lantern rested on the ground and the
+figure which had carried it bent over the spring, washing his hands.
+Ted’s foot touched and rolled a stone, which made a slight noise as it
+rolled.
+
+The man at the spring bent forward without looking around and with a
+single breath blew the light out.
+
+The situation was an odd one and not at all a comfortable one. The
+man with the lantern was there in the darkness, crouching beside his
+darkened instrument, doubtless peering around him to ascertain who it
+was who had approached. Ted stood on the spot where he had first seen
+the man at the spring, undecided as to what to do, his nerves tingling.
+The one comforting thought that he had was to the effect that the man
+did not know who it was that had come up behind him and so he felt a
+certain reassurance. But if the prowling man knew from what direction
+the sounds of approach came he might take it into his head to explore
+in the dark, a thing which might be very bad for Ted.
+
+In silence they both kept their positions—at least Ted hoped that the
+man was keeping his, and as for the boy he never moved a muscle, but
+listened with straining ears. No sound of a footstep or anything else
+reached him, the woods were silent and as far as sound went Ted might
+just as well have been in another world. But he knew that the man was
+there near him and the feeling was not a happy one.
+
+It was always possible for him to call out and explain his presence
+there, trusting to luck that the man before him was no madman and
+that his explanation would be accepted on its face value. But the
+actions of the man were so stealthy, so mysterious, that they could not
+possibly be honest ones. For any man to bend forward and blow out a
+lantern in one, swift decisive breath was worthy of comment by the most
+unsuspicious, and it would be reasonable to suppose that explanations
+would not be accepted by a man engaged in the type of business that
+this was employed in.
+
+So he waited for what seemed an age and when the situation had become
+almost unbearable he heard a stone roll and a twig snap some distance
+away from the spring, conclusive proofs that the man with the lantern
+was stealing away. Other sounds, accidental but informing, came to him
+in the distance which the man was trying to put between himself and the
+boy and Ted felt a sense of relief.
+
+“But he knows that I am here,” he realized. “He must be up to something
+so shady that he doesn’t want to see anyone, no matter who they may
+be. Maybe he is one of the fellows who gives this camp the reputation
+of being haunted, and I don’t wonder that anyone would think of such
+a thing if they saw him dodge around with his lamp. I hope he doesn’t
+show up and give the boys a scare, because some of them are pretty
+young.”
+
+Guided solely by a sense of direction, Ted found the path and located
+his car in the same spot where he had left it. A rapid inspection
+convinced him that the little machine had not been harmed and he got
+in, starting his engine and leaving the spot as rapidly as possible.
+
+“I must get home,” he thought. “My folks will be worrying and I don’t
+want them to do that. Tomorrow I must hunt up Buck and tell him what I
+saw out there. I think that he will agree with me that we ought to keep
+it quiet.”
+
+Ted’s folks were beginning to get worried but his appearance reassured
+them and he gave the excuse that certain things about the camping spot
+had interested him so much that he had remained at the place longer
+than he had intended to. Conscious that he had told the truth and not
+wishing to alarm them with any further details, he retired for the
+night and enjoyed a good sleep.
+
+On the following day he and Buck attended the local Young Men’s Bible
+Class in their church and on the way back they discussed the things
+which Ted had related to his chum on the way to the church. Buck was
+unable to figure anything out and he agreed that they should make it
+their own secret.
+
+“We’ll take a look at that old house when we get camping there,” he
+said. “Maybe when we see what it looks like in the daylight we will be
+able to tell something. Whatever we do, we mustn’t allow the boys to
+know what you saw and we’ll have to laugh down any silly stories that
+are brought up.”
+
+“When the gentleman with the lantern sees that there is a camp around
+he’ll probably stay away,” replied Ted.
+
+“You’re not even going to tell Mr. Calvert, are you?”
+
+“No, I’ll just tell him that I am impressed with the camp site itself.
+No use in spreading alarm, and it might get out. After all, that man
+might have had a good reason to walk around in the woods at night, and
+we’d only look silly making a big story out of it.”
+
+“Sure. Well, I’m all set for the trip. We start this week, and it can’t
+come too soon for me.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SETTING UP CAMP
+
+
+One morning later in that same week the two chums arose early and
+gathered up their camping outfits. Ted said goodbye to his folks, swung
+his pack on his back and sallied forth to meet Buck, who was standing
+at his own gate and waiting for him. Buck was rigged out in a style
+similar to Ted’s, with a good camping pack, a campaign hat, buckskin
+blouse, stout trousers, heavy shoes, pick and camp shovel, and an axe.
+
+“Well, here we go at last!” hailed Buck, delightedly, eager for the
+trip before them. “Seemed like this morning would never come!”
+
+“I was awake a couple of times myself,” smiled Ted, as they swung along
+toward the club house in town. “We have a dandy day for a start.”
+
+It was a cool morning, bright and clear, and a more promising day could
+not have been ordered. Their blood tingled as they looked forward to
+the coming encampment.
+
+“Are they going to have one or two trucks?” Buck asked, as they turned
+down the street upon which the club house was located.
+
+“One big one,” Ted replied, “for the fellows, and a little one for
+supplies. The tents and the grub will take up plenty of space and I
+guess the number of boys who are going will fill up the big truck.
+Eighteen boys have given their names and with the two of us we’ll have
+twenty, a big enough crowd to handle.”
+
+“It surely will be,” murmured Buck. “Especially if you have never done
+that sort of thing before.”
+
+“We won’t have any trouble if we start right,” said Ted. “If we show
+the right authority and set up a sort of military discipline we’ll get
+along very well. Most of these club boys are just small fellows and
+things shouldn’t be so difficult with them.”
+
+By this time they had arrived at the club rooms of the Boys’ Club and
+there they found about half of the young boys assembled. Mr. Calvert
+was with them and the two trucks stood at the curb. With interest the
+two camp leaders looked the boys over.
+
+They were young boys of the age ranging between twelve and fifteen and
+there was one boy sixteen. They seemed to be a lively bunch of young
+fellows who were all obviously keen for the trip before them. Some of
+the boys Ted and Buck knew, either by sight or by name, but there were
+several that they did not know. The boys all had variously assorted
+packs and kits with them and while waiting they were amusing themselves
+by chattering and tossing around a large hand medicine ball.
+
+But if the two leaders did not know the boys, the boys knew them. There
+was an immediate rush toward them as they entered the yard before the
+frame building which housed the club. A number of boys plied them with
+questions.
+
+“You’re really going to be the leader, Thorny?” a boy asked Ted, who
+nodded in smiling assent.
+
+“I am, along with Buck,” he said.
+
+“Gee, that’s great!” was the enthusiastic reply. A stout boy of
+fourteen pushed up to Ted, with an anxious look on his face.
+
+“Mr. Thorn, is it true that we won’t have anything but oatmeal and
+bread on our camping trip?”
+
+“Why, I don’t know!” puzzled Ted, looking toward Mr. Calvert, who
+winked. “Why do you ask that?”
+
+“All these fellows been telling me that,” said the chubby one. “I don’t
+like just oatmeal and bread! I guess they’re fooling, eh?”
+
+“I hope so myself,” smiled Ted. “I’d like something else beside that!”
+
+Mr. Calvert joined the group. “Don’t mind this boy and his demands
+for food, Thorn,” he said. “This is Al Barker, but the boys call him
+Drummer.”
+
+“Why? Does he play a drum?” Ted asked.
+
+There was a general laugh and Mr. Calvert explained. “No but he spends
+his time between meals drumming up an appetite for the next one! So the
+boys have always called him Drummer!”
+
+“We’ll try to keep him so well filled that he won’t have to drum,”
+grinned Buck, while the stout boy looked pleased and relieved.
+
+The boys drifted away to various occupations and the two chums talked
+over details with Mr. Calvert. A few more boys had arrived and the
+lawyer remarked that they were almost all on the spot.
+
+“Are all of the boys of this same age?” Buck asked.
+
+“All but one of them,” Mr. Calvert said, lowering his voice. “Or I
+should say, two of them, for we have one young boy of eleven and one
+boy of seventeen. It is of the older boy I wish to warn you. His name
+is Ralph Plum and he is actually too old for the club boys, but an
+uncle of his gave quite a bit of money toward starting the club and
+so has always been allowed to join in with them, though none of the
+trustees have felt very cheerful about it. He is a big hulking fellow
+and apt to be a trouble maker, so keep your eyes on him and use your
+own judgment. We’re hoping all the time that he’ll get tired of the
+club and leave, but so far he hasn’t, and it was with much regret that
+we learned that he was going to go on this trip. We’ve tried here to
+teach him something in the manly line, but haven’t progressed very far,
+I’m afraid. Speaking of bad pennies, there he is now.”
+
+They turned to look at the boy who walked into the club house yard and
+were not impressed. He was as Mr. Calvert had described him, a huge
+fellow with wide-spreading shoulders and a rolling, careless walk. His
+camping outfit was brand new and his axe and knife were of the best. A
+fine pack was strapped to his back. But his face was a discontented one
+and he chewed gum with an assurance that was insolent. He passed them
+easily, nodding to Mr. Calvert and immediately took the ball away from
+the smaller boys and kept it for some time.
+
+“Something of a bully,” murmured Ted, his eyes narrowing.
+
+“Quite a bit, I’m sorry to say,” was the reply.
+
+The boys all seemed to be on the ground, Mr. Calvert said, as he
+glanced around. “All except the smallest boy, the eleven-year-old I was
+telling you about,” he went on. “Little Tom Clayton, but I guess he
+isn’t coming, although he was eager to come.”
+
+But at that moment the small boy appeared in company with his father
+and Mr. Clayton was introduced to Ted and Buck. He had come with his
+boy for a purpose.
+
+“I heard that you two boys were going to lead the camp,” he told the
+boys. “It was only because Mrs. Clayton knew you that she allowed Tom
+to go along.” He smiled in a somewhat nervous manner. “Tom’s our only
+boy—only child, in fact, and we set a lot of store by him. His mother
+would spoil him by not letting him go anywhere and certainly never
+on a trip like this, but I want Tom to grow up to be a real man.” He
+glanced down at his son, a somewhat pale and sensitive-looking boy, and
+then went on: “We had a hard time getting permission for this camping
+trip, didn’t we, Tommy? But we finally made it. I just want to ask you
+fellows to see to it that the boy is well taken care of and that he is
+properly developed. I know you will, but I just wanted to make sure
+that everything will be all right, you know.”
+
+The two leaders made haste to reassure him. They could visualize
+without any trouble the condition of the boy’s home and they
+sympathized with him. The father’s desire to have the boy grow up to be
+a fine, strong man was evident.
+
+All of the boys were now assembled and Mr. Calvert called for their
+attention. “I want you all to file into the club room and sit down
+for a last word of instruction from me,” the president of the club
+announced, and with more or less noise they obeyed, pushing and
+scrambling to the seats inside the long frame club house. In the front
+of them Mr. Calvert and the two chums stood.
+
+“Now, boys,” the president announced, when he had obtained their
+attention. “I simply want to give you some last minute instructions.
+Most of you know that Mr. Thorn and Mr. Dalton will be in complete
+charge of the camp to which you are going, and you are to give them
+your very best support in making the camp a good and effective one.
+This point I want you to get clearly in your minds: these two young men
+are in absolute charge. Their word is law. If they do something that
+you don’t feel is the right thing to do, you do it anyway, and if you
+think it is so bad that you can’t stand it, you write to me or call me
+up somewhere before you refuse to obey orders! We want this camp to be
+a credit to the Boys’ Club of this city, and it can’t be that unless it
+is an orderly one!”
+
+“You will have a certain amount of camp work to do, and these leaders
+will be in charge of that. Obey them without question. In that way
+you will make the most out of your camping trip and I’m sure that in
+another year you’ll want to go again. Any questions, before you start?”
+
+“This Black Riders’ Camp is said to be haunted, isn’t it?” Ralph Plumb
+spoke up, from where he was lolling around on a bench.
+
+There was a moment of silence and the two boys felt some annoyance. But
+Ted spoke up.
+
+“There used to be some silly stories about that,” he smiled. “But they
+were just old women’s tales! We’re too sensible to give any thought to
+anything like that. If twenty fellows couldn’t scare away a poor little
+ghost or witch or whatever it is they used to say hung around the
+place, then we’d better go camping over in the City Park!”
+
+There was a laugh at this and Plum muttered something, but no attention
+was paid to him. There was a scene of confusion as packs were slung and
+then the big truck shook as the boys swarmed over the sides and into
+it. The smaller truck with the supplies had already started off.
+
+It had been agreed that Ted would drive the big truck to the camp and
+that the driver of the supply truck would drive it back. The little
+truck was the property of the club and would remain in camp with them,
+in case they wished at any time to drive to town for fresh food. The
+big truck, which was a hired one, would go back to the city and return
+at the end of the month for the boys.
+
+“Buck, maybe you had better get into the body of the truck and see
+to it that none of these fellows get to fooling and fall off,” Ted
+said, as the boys pushed and jostled in the truck. “I’d like to have
+you drive along with me, but we had better have somebody on duty back
+there.”
+
+“Guess you’re right,” nodded Buck. “I’d like to drive alongside of you,
+but I’ll get back.” He tossed his pack on board and climbed into the
+truck. “All shipshape back here!” he sang out.
+
+Ted warmed up the engine, shaking hands in farewell with Mr. Calvert.
+“Lots of good luck!” smiled the lawyer.
+
+“Thanks! I’m sure we’ll have a fine time!”
+
+The president leaned nearer. “If there is any trouble, Thorn, let me
+know at once.”
+
+“I will,” Ted nodded, “but I’m sure everything will be fine. Goodbye.”
+
+The truck rumbled off in a cloud of dust and gasoline smoke, the boys
+gave a shrill cheer, and the journey to Black Riders’ Camp had begun.
+
+The ride was a long one in the truck but the boys did not mind it. In
+the back of the truck the boys talked and sang and Buck joined them in
+their conversation, answering a number of questions concerning camping
+life in general.
+
+Outside the last town on their route they met the supply truck waiting
+and in company they proceeded down the bumpy wood road until the autos
+could go no farther. They were in the shelter of the trees and a
+stone’s throw from the camp of the Black Riders.
+
+“All out and grab some equipment!” shouted Buck, and they descended
+from the truck in a torrent, making shrill demands for their packs from
+those who were still in the truck. These were supplied and then Ted and
+Buck ordered them to unload the supply truck. This was soon done and
+the boys began to descend the slope to the camping spot.
+
+The driver of the supply truck took the big truck back to the city,
+leaving the smaller vehicle alone there in the woods. Ted then made his
+way to the camping grounds and heard with pleasure the cries of delight
+as the boys looked over the spot.
+
+“It surely is a dandy,” Buck told him. “Well, I suppose we had better
+step to it and get the tents up.”
+
+To this work they fell with a will and before long four big brown tents
+had been pegged down tightly. They were on a slight slope facing the
+creek, with the springs off to one side and back of them. By the time
+the canvas shelters were up it was growing dusk and Buck and a squad
+made haste to gather a big load of wood for night. Others, under Ted’s
+leadership, built a fine, substantial fireplace. By the time that this
+was done the darkness had settled over them like a blanket, and the new
+fires tossed a yellow and flickering light to the sky.
+
+“This will be our first night out here,” Ted reflected, as he looked
+around him. “Wonder what it will be like?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A PROWLER IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+An event for which the boys had long been waiting now came, after some
+confusion, to pass. Several requests had been made for something to eat
+but Ted turned a deaf ear to it until the camp had been put in shape.
+The noon meal had been a sandwich affair and now the hungry stomachs
+were demanding something solid. Ted gave orders for the meal.
+
+He and Buck took care of the cooking for that one meal and they had
+a big job on their hands. The two fires were used to cook beans and
+soup and warm up coffee and before long the fragrant smell of the food
+floated through the woods around them. Impatiently the boys awaited
+their meal.
+
+“Seems like I never was so hungry before!” sighed Drummer, gazing at
+the big pot of cooking beans with wistful eyes.
+
+“You drummed up a good appetite this afternoon, didn’t you?” someone
+asked, and the stout boy nodded.
+
+They used a flat stump to cut the bread on and for a general table,
+finding that its location to the fires made it a handy natural object.
+Buck organized a number of the boys to go and bring pails of water so
+that they could be put on the fire as soon as the food was off, to heat
+for dish water.
+
+“Do we have to wash dishes here?” was an innocent inquiry.
+
+“Well, I want mine washed,” grinned Buck. “If you want to eat from
+yours without washing, why, go right ahead!”
+
+“Who is going to wash them, Mr. Dalton?” a boy asked.
+
+“We’ll have a volunteer gang tonight,” responded Buck, seeing to it
+that each boy had a pail. “After that, we’ll have regular squads to do
+the work. Go to it, boys.”
+
+Ted had found that the supply truck was well filled and figuring even
+recklessly he was of the opinion that they would not soon have to renew
+their main supplies, though things such as butter and eggs and milk
+would have to be taken care of from day to day. Much care and thought
+had been taken by the leaders of the Boys’ Club in the selection of
+the goods, and Ted was pleased.
+
+At length the supper was cooked, the beans lifted from the fire and the
+coffee pushed back to keep warm. “Come and get it!” called Buck, and
+they obeyed loyally and enthusiastically. Forming in a line they pushed
+their cups and plates toward Buck and Ted and for some minutes the two
+leaders were busy dishing and pouring. Within the circle of the fires
+the boys sat around, most of them silent as they applied themselves to
+the subject at hand.
+
+“Golly, nothing ever seemed so good at home!” declared Drummer,
+munching contentedly.
+
+“I don’t think so much of beans,” struck in Ralph Plum. “I wouldn’t eat
+’em home!”
+
+“You aren’t home,” was Drummer’s retort. “What do you eat them here
+for?”
+
+“There isn’t anything else, is there?” retorted Plum.
+
+“I guess not,” replied Drummer. “Any time you don’t want your beans you
+just let me know, Ralph.”
+
+The little fellow, Tom Clayton, sat close beside Ted as they ate and
+Ted smiled down into his serious face. “How are you enjoying it, Tom?”
+
+“Great!” was the answer. “I’m glad I could come along, Mr. Thorn!”
+
+“So am I,” agreed Ted. “We’ll have a lot of fun out of this camping
+trip. You won’t get homesick, will you?”
+
+“No, I guess not,” was the slow answer. “I’ve only been away from home
+once before this, but I guess I won’t be homesick. Anyway, if I do, I
+won’t let these fellows see it, because they’ll kid me about it!”
+
+“That’s the spirit!” approved Buck.
+
+After the meal was over came the task which was not welcomed any too
+cheerfully. A multitude of greasy tin plates and cups lay piled up near
+the creek and the pails of water were ready. Ted asked for volunteers,
+and a few of the boys helped the two leaders do the washing and drying.
+Most of the boys were content to lie around and chatter. When the
+camp work was finished they all gathered around the fires while Ted
+addressed them.
+
+“Now, fellows,” he began, when he had claimed their attention. “Tonight
+is rather an informal time and we’re just getting acquainted. Tomorrow
+we’ll settle down to real business. Up to now I don’t even know the
+names of all of you, but I’ll get on to them pretty quickly. In order
+to get the best results out of our encampment we’ll have to have good
+discipline and willing workers. For instance, we’ll have to have a
+wood-gathering committee, a fire committee, a cooking committee, a
+water committee, and a dishwashing committee. Some of these committees
+won’t be as popular as others, I know, but we won’t be on the same
+committees all of the time. Frequent changes will give us all a chance
+to work at something different. Buck and I will take our share of the
+work along with the rest of you.”
+
+“That makes me think of something else. Some of you are calling me Mr.
+Thorn and calling Buck, Mr. Dalton. That’s very nice, but we want to be
+all fellows here together and so we are just plain Ted and Buck to you.
+We’ll all work together and have a good time. Now about the tents: we
+have four of them and that means that there will be five in a tent. We
+have plenty of room, and Buck will sleep in one of the tents and I in
+another. For the other two tents I’ll appoint a captain and he is to
+be in complete charge of that tent. To him you will make any complaint
+or suggestion and he can take it up with me. We’ll want to go to bed
+early at night so that we’ll get plenty of good sleep. We’ll be up
+early in the mornings.”
+
+“Why didn’t we put the tents up in between the trees?” a boy asked.
+
+“Because there will be such things while we are here as thunder
+storms,” smiled Ted. “And if we do have them we want to be out in the
+open and not under a tree which might be struck by lightning and fall
+over!”
+
+This was a thought which had not as yet struck any of them and for a
+moment there was complete silence. They were all young boys and the
+woods experience was new to them. Thunder storms had been witnessed by
+most of them from a secure house or a comfortable bed and the thought
+that they would now be almost exposed to the elements was somewhat
+staggering. They looked around and up into the blackness of the
+crouching mountains.
+
+“Gee, it does get some dark up here, doesn’t it?” inquired one boy, in
+an awe-struck voice.
+
+The circle of light from the fires was not a large one and the
+blackness around them seemed an immensity which held untold things
+mysteriously unpleasant. Buck laughed to reassure them.
+
+“Yes, they don’t have any street lights up here,” he said. “The animals
+like dark nights!”
+
+“Animals!” cried another boy. “Are there any animals up here? Do they
+call the water Bear Creek on purpose!”
+
+“I don’t know,” said Ted. “Some day we’ll look up the animals and see
+if any of them live around here.”
+
+The talk was resumed and under cover of it Buck and Ted conferred. “You
+think I had better sleep in another tent than the one you are going to
+have?” Buck asked.
+
+“I think so,” nodded Ted. “You take the one on that end and I’ll take
+the one at this end. We’ll put the smaller fellows in the two middle
+tents and that will reassure them a little more.”
+
+“Do you think they are going to be scared?”
+
+“No, not when they get used to the camp, but you see they didn’t have
+much in the way of daylight today while here and the night seems so
+black. Probably a lot of them won’t sleep and it will seem an age
+before the sun comes up tomorrow.” He glanced at his watch. “I guess we
+had better turn in now.”
+
+The word to this effect was passed around and the boys were not
+reluctant to turn in. Ted told off Bob Gilmore as the captain of one
+tent and Charlie Wells as leader of the other one.
+
+“Each one of you will undress by the light of a single lantern which
+will be hung from the pole of the tent,” he directed. “As soon as the
+last man is in bed the captain of that tent will personally put out the
+light. No loud talking after you are in your beds, in fact, none at all
+would be better, because you’ll keep somebody else awake. Now go to it.”
+
+The fires burned low and the four tents glowed with a subdued light
+as the boys all prepared for bed. In the tent with Ted was little Tom
+Clayton and three other fine young fellows and they were speedily in
+their beds which they had built from boughs and packed leaves. Ted had
+purposely placed the bed of the small boy beside his own. They were
+all in under their blankets when he put out the light and crawled in
+between his own.
+
+The talking in the other tents died down as the lights were
+extinguished. That some of the boys were restless was attested to by
+the rustling turnings in their beds. One boy had gathered his boughs
+with too much wood attached to the smaller branches and they made
+him so uneasy and uncomfortable that he was compelled to throw most
+of it out and sleep closer to the canvas covering that served as a
+tent floor. Some deep breathing announced that a few boys had fallen
+instantly asleep, tired out with the events of the day.
+
+There was no talking on the part of the boys in Ted’s tent, inspired
+probably by his presence and the little boy at least did not remain
+awake long. Ted’s eyes began to close and the last sounds and
+impressions were somewhat dim. The fire snapped once or twice, the
+wind blew with a very faint rustle of leaves, and a katydid started
+his endless fiddling, being joined by several others who tried to
+out-fiddle him. Then Ted went to sleep.
+
+He slept on for what seemed to be some hours and then a light struck
+quickly and fleetingly across his eyes. The flap of the tent was
+half open and he could look out, but there was no repetition of the
+incident. He was puzzled and sat up.
+
+“Was that from the fires?” he wondered, poking his head out of the tent
+and glancing towards the two fireplaces.
+
+It was not. Both fires had gone out and not a single spark glowed to
+show even where they had been. But there was no question in his mind
+as to whether there had been a light, for the thing had been very
+definite. He stepped out of the tent, unmindful of the cool, damp earth
+under his bare feet, and stood there in his pajamas, looking keenly
+around.
+
+A wandering beam of light came from around the last tent, the tent in
+which Buck was sleeping, and Ted frowned. “Now, who the dickens can be
+prowling around with a lantern?” he wondered, starting forward. “I’m
+going to find out.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WEIRD SOUNDS
+
+
+The faint shaft of light vanished as Ted made his way along the line
+of the silent tents and for a moment he almost doubted that he had
+seen it. His total glimpses had consisted of flashes and nothing more,
+and the fact spurred him on with greater curiosity. When he had first
+seen the light he thought it might have been one of the boys or even
+Buck prowling around, but the way the gleams came and went he began to
+doubt it seriously. Remembering the man whom he had previously seen,
+he became cautious as he stepped to the end of Buck’s tent and looked
+around.
+
+He was not able to see a thing, for the darkness was so dense that it
+presented to him only a solid wall. His ears were listening keenly but
+he heard nothing. He supposed he had better look back of the tents, but
+this thought brought a problem. There was no use in doing that unless
+he took a lantern with him, and he might alarm the boys if he did so.
+The question was not an agreeable one.
+
+A low hiss reached his ears, a sound which came from the tent. He
+thrust his head inside the flap.
+
+“That you, Buck?”
+
+An answering whisper came back to him. “Yes. What are you doing up?”
+
+“I’m just looking around, that is all. Can’t you sleep?”
+
+“I was sleeping until you flashed your light in here! What are you
+looking for?”
+
+“Come on outside a minute,” directed Ted, still in the same low
+whisper. Buck made motions which led his chum to think that he was
+tossing aside his blanket and then he joined him outside of the tent,
+grunting as his feet touched the cool earth.
+
+“Gosh, this ground is cold! What in the world are you—”
+
+“Buck, did you see a light before?”
+
+“Yes, when you passed by with the lantern.”
+
+“That’s just the point—I didn’t pass by with any lantern! I was
+awakened by a flash in my eyes and then as I looked out of the tent
+flap I saw the light dodge down this way. Somebody who doesn’t belong
+to the camp is prowling!”
+
+Buck was impressed at once. “But we don’t know if everybody is in their
+tents,” he pointed out.
+
+“They are all in my tent and I suppose they are all in yours, but we
+don’t know about the others. The worst part of it all is that we can’t
+go snooping into the tents to see, because if we wake the youngsters
+up we’ll throw a scare into them. I guess we’ll have to do all the
+investigating ourselves.”
+
+“I’ve got a flashlight inside and I think I can locate it,” whispered
+Buck. “Hope I don’t wake anybody up!”
+
+He felt his way into the blackness of the tent and located the
+flashlight, appearing with it immediately afterward. “All right, let’s
+go,” he whispered. “I don’t like this barefoot business though.”
+
+“Best we can do. Keep your light shaded away from the tents.”
+
+Buck carefully switched the light on, keeping the glare of it away from
+the tent, playing the beam on the undergrowth in back of the tent.
+Nothing out of the ordinary was disclosed to their view and they walked
+with tense muscles around in the back of the shelters. Here the light
+was played around the bushes and trees but everything around the camp
+was normal. In silence they moved away and even went as far as the
+springs, but their trip was in vain and their only reward wet and cold
+feet.
+
+“Nothing doing,” shrugged Buck, turning off the light.
+
+“I’m glad that you saw the light, though,” said Ted. “I would have
+begun to think that I was seeing things. Well, I don’t know what we had
+better do.”
+
+“The only thing that we can do is to go to bed and sleep as lightly
+as possible,” returned Buck. “We are on the ends and if anyone comes
+into the camp we should hear ’em. Funny thing, though, we didn’t hear
+anything out of that prowler after he put his light out. Confound it,
+looks like somebody was trying to make this a haunted camp!”
+
+“Well, we won’t let the boys know anything about it. Suppose we get to
+bed and keep our ears open as much as we can.”
+
+They parted, each to return to his own tent, and in his Ted carefully
+eased himself into his bed listening intently. There were no sounds
+abroad, however, and for a long time he managed to keep awake but at
+last the effort was too much for him and he went to sleep.
+
+Morning came without incident and early the whole camp was astir. The
+day was a fine and clear one, a little warm but not too much so. Some
+of the hardier souls went for their initial swim in Bear Creek but to
+most of the boys the black waters looked too cool. Ted and Buck were
+among those who went in, and Ted, after probing for depth with a pole,
+was perfectly satisfied that it was deep enough at one point to dive
+in. He led the way in a splendid dive.
+
+The water struck a sharp shock through him and by its very coldness he
+knew that springs surely fed the brook somewhere. But he showed no sign
+of his shock when he bobbed to the top, shaking his head and clearing
+his eyes.
+
+“How is it?” Buck cried, from his post on the bank.
+
+“Fine!” replied Ted. “Warm as toast!”
+
+“Doesn’t feel like any toast I ever had to my feet,” Buck replied,
+poising for his dive. “But I guess it is all right when you get in.
+Here goes!”
+
+He flashed downward in a fine dive and when he appeared on the surface
+of the water he looked at the grinning Ted. “Wow! what nice cold
+water!” he shouted. “This may be Bear Creek, and I’ll say it is a bear!
+Warm as toast, eh?”
+
+After the invigorating swim they dressed and the task of preparing
+breakfast was undertaken. The effects of the camping trip were
+beginning to tell, for all the boys had developed hearty appetites and
+looked in a fair way to sinking the provision pile alarmingly.
+
+Ted and Buck managed to take a quick look back of the tents but there
+was no trace of the night visitor. They were inclined to think that it
+was merely some neighboring farmer, though they confessed that his zeal
+must have been great to have brought him in curiosity to that spot at
+such a time.
+
+“Anyhow, nobody knows about it,” Buck said, but he was mistaken. Plum
+spoke up as they were eating breakfast.
+
+“Who was going around with a lantern last night?” he asked. There was a
+general stir of interest.
+
+“Who says anybody was?” Buck asked, coolly.
+
+“I saw it,” was the confident assertion. “I slept in your tent and you
+went out and talked to Ted, only I couldn’t make out what you said.
+Then you two went for a walk around the tents.”
+
+“You didn’t do much sleeping, did you?” inquired Buck.
+
+“No. But how about the light? Was somebody walking around the camp last
+night?”
+
+Ted and Buck exchanged glances. They were annoyed that Plum had brought
+up the subject but they saw that he was not to be denied. Ted took it
+upon himself to answer.
+
+“We think somebody did pass the tents,” he was forced to admit.
+“Perhaps it was some farmer who took a shortcut or something, because
+we didn’t find him. That is all there was to it.”
+
+But Plum had ideas of his own. “But you two were worried, weren’t you?”
+he pressed. “I heard you talking and then Buck got his flashlight and
+you went exploring. How about it?”
+
+“Do we look very much worried over anything?” Buck grinned, secretly
+angry with the insistent one.
+
+“You were last night,” said Plum doggedly.
+
+They turned the conversation and the meal was soon over, but the boys
+talked of the unknown prowler more than Ted and Buck cared to have
+them talk. There was one good remedy for their fears, however, and that
+was tried. Hard work soon made them forget about the previous night.
+Squads were told off and the labors of the day were begun. A group
+spent a few hours cutting and piling fire wood and others washed the
+dishes. One group under Buck went to work in deadly earnest on the
+tents. The bedding was all strung on lines to air and the boys were
+taught that cleanliness is as important in camping life as in private
+life. The beds were all more carefully remade and then ditches were dug
+around the tents so that the water from a rain storm would run away
+from the tents and not come in over the canvas floors. All these tasks
+took up most of the day and late in the afternoon all of them went
+swimming.
+
+The two leaders found that few of the boys could swim well and some
+could not swim a stroke, so they organized a swimming class at once
+and the next two hours were spent in giving instructions. Some of
+the boys were timid and clearly afraid of the cold water, but Buck
+and Ted patiently taught them, stressing the value of a thorough
+knowledge of swimming. The small boy was very much afraid and shivered
+pronouncedly, but he kept his lips tightly closed and made a valiant
+effort at it.
+
+In this way another day wore to its close and while they were eating
+supper the darkness folded down over the camp. But by this time they
+had become used to the “feel” of camp life and the location became
+somewhat familiar to them. Now that the hardest part of pitching the
+camp was attended to they began to plan more than one tramp through the
+mountains which encircled them.
+
+When the dishes were piled away they sat around the fire, enchanted
+by the red magic which emanates from glowing embers and the darkness
+closed in more tightly. There were no stars on this night and there
+was even a little oppressiveness in the air, as though it was charged
+with something not altogether pleasant. Not wishing the boys to dwell
+on subjects which would worry them Ted and Buck kept the conversation
+going rapidly and they talked of football and baseball, camping and
+canoeing.
+
+But Plum was the trouble maker. His mind reverted to things which the
+leaders wished to avoid. His eyes roved around the dark camp.
+
+“This camp could easily be haunted,” he remarked, patting an instant
+stop to the cheerful conversation.
+
+“Who believes in ghosts anyway?” snorted Drummer.
+
+“Nobody with any sense,” retorted Plum. “But just think of this place
+in the old days, when the Black Riders were meeting here to plan out
+raids on the British. There must be something scary about a place like
+this.”
+
+“Never mind any such talk about foolish things, Plum,” called Ted,
+sharply. “This is a fine place and everything around is as it should
+be.”
+
+Hard on the heels of this statement there came a sound which made the
+faces of the boys, old and young, blanch with fear. A wild, dismal howl
+rose on the air, seemingly overhead, and echoed in a sobbing wail as it
+was tossed to the mountains. The silence which succeeded was almost as
+bad as the shuddering shriek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A GRIM FIND EXPLODED
+
+
+The silence lasted for what seemed to be a long moment and then Buck
+and Ted sprang to their feet. A dozen tongues were unloosed and an
+exciting chorus went up, in which uneasiness prevailed.
+
+“What in the world could that have been?” Buck asked Ted, as they
+peered into the darkness beside the camp, in the direction from which
+the sound had seemed to come.
+
+“You’ve got me,” was the perplexed answer. “I never heard anything like
+it before in my life. Let’s get the lanterns and go look around.”
+
+They went to the tents to get the lanterns and Bob and Charlie got
+out the ones in the middle tents and lighted them. The boys were now
+standing in a huddle around the fireplace and talking.
+
+“I knew that this was no place for us,” Plum was telling the other
+boys. “I always heard that this camp was haunted. I guess I’m going
+home.”
+
+“Maybe we had all better go home,” suggested another boy.
+
+“Yes, go home and let the whole town have the laugh on us!” snorted
+Drummer.
+
+The four lanterns were lighted but before they sallied forth another
+sound reached their ears. It was that of an object which had apparently
+just fallen, for they could hear it strike the rocks and break. This
+came from the same direction as the weird call had come and for an
+instant they simply stood and looked in the direction, waiting for some
+further sign. But the silence was unbroken.
+
+“Well, let’s go,” said Ted, starting off towards the woods with his
+lantern. “We’ll see if we can learn anything.”
+
+He and Buck took the lead, the two smaller boys bringing up cautiously
+in the rear, fearful but curious. The two older boys plunged straight
+into the bushes that fringed the camp and mounted the slopes of the
+mountain, looking before them as they went, on the alert for something
+unusual. There was no further sound and they proceeded to the spot
+from which the sound had come, to find it a high and bare rock which
+commanded an excellent view of their camp.
+
+“Somebody stood here and looked down at the camp,” said Buck, with
+conviction.
+
+“You’re right about that,” nodded Ted. “I think they must have dropped
+something at the bottom of this big rock. Let’s go and see.”
+
+“Here come the rest of the boys,” said Bob.
+
+The others had become tired of standing around the fires and now, as
+their courage began to return, they climbed the short slope and joined
+the boys with the lanterns. The lightbearers had made their way down to
+the base of the rock and there they flashed the light around, resulting
+in an instant discovery. On a smaller rock lay some fragments of a sea
+shell, now broken into several sections.
+
+“Just an old sea shell!” cried Drummer. “What good is that?”
+
+“Do you know what it is?” Ted asked Buck.
+
+“Can’t say that I do,” he shook his head.
+
+Ted picked up the fragments, fitting them together until the large
+shell was nearly whole. “This is a conch shell,” he said. “It is often
+used as a horn, and when it was blown it makes plenty of noise, as we
+just found out! This is the horn which was blown to scare us.”
+
+“That’s a seashore shell, isn’t it?” Plum asked.
+
+“Yes, a large marine shell, a univalve shell, and it can be blown into
+and makes quite a good horn. Somebody from up on top of that rock saw
+us down in the camp and just tooted that shell to scare us.”
+
+“Didn’t they use those shells a lot in the Revolutionary war, to call
+people?” a boy asked.
+
+“Yes, and this may be one as old as that. Some farmer around here must
+have owned it.”
+
+“I’ll bet anything that those Black Riders had shells like that and
+maybe all that stuff about the camp being haunted is true,” argued
+Plum. “It sort of seems as though a spirit of one of those fellows is
+trying to warn us away!”
+
+“Do you believe in ghosts, Plum?” Ted asked, looking straight into the
+eyes of the big boy.
+
+“Well, no, but——”
+
+“If this was a ghost he was a pretty careless one wasn’t he? Couldn’t
+even hold on to his conch. I guess we don’t have to worry about anyone
+as careless as that.”
+
+Plum muttered but no further attention was paid to him. They hunted all
+around the rock and even went a short distance into the surrounding
+woods, but not a single clue was to be found. The woods were dark and
+silent, breathing an air of mystery.
+
+Ted ordered them back to the camp and to bed. There was a bit of
+protest at this, but Ted put it down at once.
+
+“There is no need to sit up and talk about it all,” he told them. “It
+is already past the hour for retiring anyway, and you need sleep,
+because some of you didn’t sleep any too well last night. I guess
+everything is over and you’ll have nothing to worry about.”
+
+“You guess!” grumbled Plum, expressively.
+
+Ted looked at him sternly. “We’re not going to sit up like a bunch of
+frightened old maids looking for something to happen,” he said. “Into
+your tents, now!”
+
+There was much chattering as the boys reluctantly obeyed this order.
+Buck and Ted met for a final word.
+
+“Looks as though somebody didn’t want us around here,” Buck said.
+
+“I’m afraid that is the whole point,” nodded Ted, speaking in a low
+tone. “But we have every right to be here and no one is going to make
+us go. The bad part about this whole thing is that we can’t ask any of
+these little fellows to stand guard at night. They’d fall asleep and
+be scared to death in the bargain. Neither can you and I do all the
+watching, so we’ll have to just trust to luck and be on the lookout.”
+
+But the balance of that night passed quietly away. The two leaders
+tried to sleep lightly and some of the boys slept fitfully and
+fearfully, but there was nothing to disturb them and when the morning
+came the events of the night did not seem so black as they had seemed
+at the time.
+
+After camp chores had been completed the two older boys and a small
+squad set out to make a thorough search of the immediate neighborhood,
+but nothing was found although their search was an exhausting one. It
+was finally given up as a bad job and the afternoon was devoted to
+swimming. That evening and night were undisturbed and for the first
+time since they had struck camp everyone got a good and satisfactory
+sleep.
+
+On the following day they took a hike, leaving a reserve force back at
+the camp under Buck. Between themselves they had agreed that one of
+them was to stay in camp if the other was out of it, and Ted felt safer
+knowing that the camp was well protected. They made a long trip of it,
+climbing the mountains, finding a deep valley and a cave and when it
+was growing late in the afternoon they came back, tired but satisfied.
+Ted had purposely led them around by the old house where he had first
+watched the man with the lantern and as soon as the boys saw the place
+they wanted to explore it.
+
+Nothing suited Ted better and they roamed all over the house, finding
+it of great interest. It had evidently been furnished at the time of
+its abandonment, for there were beds and bureaus, tables, chairs and a
+sofa in the house, all the worse for the wear and tear of the elements
+which had found unobstructed entrance through doors and broken windows.
+It was not a farm house, for there was no barn near it and it appeared
+to be more on the style of a private house. On one corner, just above
+the front porch, there was an octagon tower or cupola and they entered
+that from the front bedroom, obtaining from its glassless windows a
+fairly good view off across the mountains. Whoever had lived in the
+place had left it fully furnished and the storms of a few years and one
+or two visiting and curious persons, possibly small boys, had made a
+wreck out of the glassware and the furniture.
+
+Ted looked around carefully to see if there was any clue as to why the
+man with the lantern should have lowered the thing into the chimney but
+he could learn nothing definite. There were several open fireplaces in
+the house and he could see no reason why anyone should want to lower
+a lantern to them. When they finally left the place he had obtained a
+working knowledge of it but was none the wiser as to the intentions of
+the mountain prowler.
+
+The others were preparing the fires for supper when they returned and
+everyone helped in the process of getting the evening meal. Buck and
+the camp squad planned a hike on the following day while the others
+took their turn at guarding the camp.
+
+Once more the night passed without incident and they were beginning
+to feel reassured. If someone did not desire their presence they had
+undoubtedly tired of the attempt to oust them and they were now able to
+enjoy the camping trip unmolested.
+
+Buck’s squad went for their hike on the following day and came in
+late in the afternoon. They had taken an entirely different direction
+and they had but one incident of importance to report. In a sheltered
+valley about a mile away they had come upon something that excited
+their curiosity.
+
+“It was a good sized log cabin,” Drummer related. “There was a high
+barbed wire fence around it! Can you imagine a log cabin way out in the
+woods with a barbed wire fence around it?”
+
+“Anyone living in it?” Ted asked.
+
+“Yes, I guess so, at least it looked as though somebody was. A couple
+of windows were open and a curtain was flapping out in the breeze. The
+gate on the fence was padlocked. Whoever lives way out there doesn’t
+want any company.”
+
+“It surely is a queer looking place,” Buck said, thoughtfully “Right
+in the midst of wild country, too. There is a little cabin that looks
+like a stable in the back of the place, and a steamer chair was out in
+front. We went up and looked in but nobody came out, though if there
+was anybody at home they must have heard us talking.”
+
+“Funny that anyone should want to put up a fence like that out in the
+mountains,” Ted thought. “And with curtains and a steamer chair in
+evidence, it doesn’t look as though it was some wild mountaineer. I’d
+like to know who it is.”
+
+“Maybe someone around here knows about the place,” suggested Buck.
+“When we go for eggs and butter we’ll find out.”
+
+“Yes, and we will have to go tomorrow,” nodded Ted. “By the way, we
+must build a good ice box. I think we can sink one in the mud down near
+the creek.”
+
+They were on their way to the tents that night to turn in, when an odd
+sound reached their ears, causing them to look toward the back section
+of their camp beyond the tents. The wind had been blowing in gusts for
+the last hour and there had been a distinct rustling in the trees and
+bushes. But this was something different, a rattle and a click, and it
+came from a section which they had never bothered to investigate with
+any degree of interest, though it is probable that one or two of them
+had been to the spot. They stood outside the tent and listened, and as
+a gust of wind sighed through the trees the clicking came again.
+
+“What can that be?” Buck asked.
+
+Ted reached into the tent and took down the lantern. “We’ll soon see,”
+he said. But one of the younger boys was ahead of him. Bob Gilmore, the
+captain of the tent next to Buck’s, took the lantern from his tent and
+taking a short cut between the tents, plunged into the undergrowth.
+The light winked at them for a moment and then was gone.
+
+The others followed Buck, Ted, and Charlie Wells in a body as they
+hurried on after Bob. Then, right in front of them they heard a
+smothered gasp and a crashing. Bob burst through the bushes, lantern in
+shaking hand, his face white as a sheet.
+
+“A skeleton!” he gasped, staring at them with wide eyes.
+
+“A what?” cried Buck, sharply.
+
+“A skeleton,” the boy repeated. “Hanging on a tree and the bones are
+clicking together. Listen!”
+
+The wind sighed, and the clicking noise reached them, blanching the
+faces of the boys. Ted started forward, and in an open space he came
+upon a sight calculated to unnerve anyone not gifted with feelings of
+iron. A skeleton hung from an old rope, swaying in the breeze, the
+skull lying on the ground upside down. In the dark glade, lighted only
+by their lanterns, the sight was indeed a creepy and chilling one.
+
+The other boys came crowding in, huddling in a group, scared but
+fascinated, while Ted picked up the skull and examined it. Then he
+moved all around the hanging bones, the lantern flashes stabbing
+through the ribs. When he turned to the others they were amazed to find
+that he was smiling broadly.
+
+“What is the joke?” Buck asked, blankly.
+
+“Why, this poor skeleton must feel pretty much out of place here in the
+woods,” was Ted’s reply. “He belongs in, and must recently have come
+from a doctor’s office!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+TED LAYS DOWN THE LAW
+
+
+“How do you know that?” Buck asked, as they all crowded closer to look
+at the dangling skeleton.
+
+“Because the person who hung it here forgot to notice that there is
+a name on the lower left rib,” replied Ted, pointing. “There is some
+white chalk over it, but if you look closely you’ll see the name of
+Doctor Hemple. I don’t know anything about skeletons, but this one has
+evidently been in this state a long time.”
+
+“I’ll be hanged!” cried Buck. “What do you suppose anyone did that for?”
+
+“I imagine that it is all part of what has been going on right along,”
+Ted answered. “Somebody thought this would scare us. But I guess
+they thought we haven’t any eyes or brains! Look at the rope which
+is holding it up! It is an old one, and somewhat weather-beaten, but
+not as much as it would be if this was the skeleton of a man who had
+either hung himself or been hanged in the woods. I wouldn’t be a bit
+surprised if whoever hung it here wanted us to believe that it was the
+skeleton of some British soldier!”
+
+“Looks like somebody is trying to impress us with the history of the
+place,” smiled Buck.
+
+“Looks more to me as though someone was trying to impress us with the
+fact that we aren’t welcome around here,” grumbled Ted. “But this
+act won’t get them anywhere. If that rope was supposed to have hung
+there all these years while the skin dropped off and all trace of the
+clothing disappeared, all I have to say is that it is a mighty fine
+piece of rope, that is all!”
+
+“It certainly was well thought out otherwise,” remarked Buck, as the
+boys fell to talking it over among themselves. “The head lying on the
+ground half upside down looks for all the world as though the skull
+fell off and has never been touched.”
+
+“That skull has been touched, though,” said Ted, examining it. “It has
+been cut with some surgical tool. Well, that was just a lot of time
+wasted on the part of someone.”
+
+“But it is a real skeleton, isn’t it, Ted?” Drummer asked.
+
+“Oh, yes, it is real enough, all right, but it belongs in some
+doctor’s study and has been there for a long time. I never heard of a
+Doctor Hemple, but we’ll try and find out if there is anyone around
+here with that name.”
+
+“What are you going to do with it?” Buck asked. Ted considered, but
+shrugged his shoulders.
+
+“Blessed if I know. We don’t want it, and at the same time we don’t
+want it hanging around here to click with the wind. Let’s put it up in
+the hollow above and leave it there. We can look at it from time to
+time and see if anyone has taken it.”
+
+The boys shrank from touching the thing so Ted and Buck cut the rope
+down, picked up the skull, and carried the skeleton to a small hollow
+well above the camp, where they left it and returned to the others.
+
+“That skeleton was rather a clever fellow,” laughed Ted. “We found that
+his joints had all been wired together with a thin wire, which means
+that after his skin dropped off he got down off of his rope, wired
+himself together, and then got back on his rope, if we’re supposed to
+think it is a genuine affair. I think that whoever hung it there must
+have hoped that we’d be so scared that we would flee from the camp in
+terror, without stopping to investigate thoroughly.”
+
+“Say, this couldn’t be a trick to draw us out of camp, could it?” Buck
+asked, suddenly.
+
+There was a moment of silence as they thought it over. Ted seized his
+lantern.
+
+“I hope not, but it might be,” he cried, bolting through the bushes.
+
+But there was nothing to worry about on that score. The camp was
+perfectly peaceful and if anyone had visited it in their absence there
+was no trace of the fact. The fires were dying and everything was in
+order.
+
+“All right, let’s get to bed, and we’ll talk about it all in the
+morning,” Ted called, cheerfully.
+
+Most of the boys obeyed at once, but four or five boys clustered around
+Ralph Plum, who was talking to them earnestly. Their heads were close
+together and he seemed to be doing all the talking. Ted walked over to
+them and they looked at him somewhat nervously.
+
+“Well, what is on your minds?” Ted asked.
+
+The other boys looked at Plum and he cleared his throat defiantly. As
+he stood before Ted he was fully as big as the leader, with a bigger
+shoulder spread. Obviously he was out of place with the smaller boys
+and should have been one of the leaders, a fact that had crossed his
+mind more than once as he secretly chaffed under Ted’s and Buck’s
+orders. He was well aware that his relative had given a big sum of
+money to the organization, and to rank simply as a member of the club
+and not even as a captain of a tent had irritated him from the start.
+Deep in his heart there was a fear of the camp they were in, and
+although he would not go so far as to say that he feared the presence
+of anything supernatural near the place, he did feel a bad atmosphere
+and it made him perpetually uneasy.
+
+“We fellows don’t like this place for a camping place,” he began. “We
+want to go somewhere else.”
+
+“Want to run away, eh!” asked Ted, as the other boys, crowding into the
+open, watched.
+
+“We aren’t running away,” returned Plum, doggedly. “But this place
+isn’t healthy for anybody. Already we have received several warnings
+that we aren’t wanted around here, and I don’t see why we can’t get
+wise to ourselves and get out before something happens. Up to the
+present time nothing has happened, but how do you know that something
+won’t happen that we’ll be pretty sorry for? We don’t have to go home,
+but there are places nearer home where we can camp, and I can show you
+a couple of good ones, almost as good as this one.”
+
+“And then, at the end of the month, we go back to the trustees and tell
+them that we were afraid to use their own camping site and had to go
+somewhere else? Let everybody in the town know that we were scared to
+death? Is that what you mean?” asked Ted.
+
+“No, because if we all agree to keep still we won’t have to let the
+story out. We could even go back and make out that we did stay in this
+camp all summer, and who would be the wiser?”
+
+Ted stood with his hands on his hips, a frown of contempt on his face.
+He would have thought differently about it if it had been one of the
+younger boys who had made the request, but Plum was a big boy and his
+counsel was dangerous for the little fellows. Ted longed to take the
+big boy and shake him until his teeth rattled, but he did not feel
+justified in going that far. To his mind the question just now was one
+of discipline in the matter of going to bed, and he felt that he must
+make good on that first.
+
+“We’ll discuss all that in the morning, right after breakfast,” he
+said. “Right now I have ordered you to bed, and you are going! I’m the
+boss of this camp and you fellows are going to obey me, at least for
+the present. As to the idea that I would ever sneak off somewhere else,
+and then go back and tell Mr. Calvert that we had spent the month here,
+that is so silly that I won’t even discuss it. You’ve heard what I said
+about bed. March to your tents!”
+
+There was one long moment of indecision. Those back of Ted near the
+tents watched with breathless interest to see what the outcome would be
+and Buck was prepared to back his chum up. The smaller boys with Plum
+hesitated and looked at him. That Plum was angry there was no doubt,
+but he did not know clearly what to do. He measured Ted up in a glance
+and he felt for a moment that he was physically able to handle him, but
+he was not so sure when he looked into Ted’s clear, direct eyes. They
+didn’t look uncertain, and he lowered his own gaze.
+
+“You’ll talk it over in the morning?” he asked, somewhat lamely.
+
+“Yes, I will. But not another word tonight.”
+
+Plum walked slowly to his tent and the other boys followed to their
+own. Ted looked to see if little Tommy Clayton was with them, but the
+small boy was over in front of his own tent, looking on. As Ted walked
+back to his tent they all scattered and were soon undressing, the
+lights going out one by one.
+
+The night was quiet and uneventful.
+
+In the morning something radically different claimed their attention.
+One of the boys, looking out of the tent, cried in an excited voice
+that there was a bear in the camp. Every head was thrust out of the
+flaps, and sure enough, there near the dead embers of their fire, was
+a small brown bear, sniffing around a spot where some beans had been
+dropped. The cries of the boys made him lift his head, and he stared at
+them with his small, piggy eyes.
+
+“Oh, will he attack us?” a boy asked, in Buck’s tent.
+
+“No, unless he is pretty desperate for food, and I don’t see why he
+should be at this time of the year,” answered Buck. “I think I can get
+rid of him.”
+
+Buck reached into his duffle bag. Drummer stared in fascination at the
+undecided bear.
+
+“Gosh, suppose he ate one of us!” he said.
+
+Charlie Wells grinned at him from another tent. “I think he came down
+here just on purpose to get you, Drummer!” he said. “He probably heard
+that you eat more than anybody else, and he is here to make a meal of
+you. If we had to throw somebody out to him to keep him quiet, we’d
+throw Drummer, wouldn’t we, fellows?”
+
+“Sure!” came in a chorus.
+
+“I don’t doubt it!” returned the fat boy.
+
+Buck appeared in the doorway of the tent with something in his hand. He
+drew back his arm and launched the tennis ball at the bear. The white
+ball went straight and true, hitting the bear on the nose with a whack.
+
+The little bear gave a grunt of surprise, shook his head in evident
+perplexity, and turned and ran at a lumbering trot away from the camp,
+pursued by the laughter of the boys. He disappeared at top speed in the
+undergrowth and avoided the camp from that day onward.
+
+Breakfast was eaten cheerfully, the bear incident having put them all
+in good spirits, and afterward Ted addressed them as they sat around
+the fire. He talked without heat, but earnestly.
+
+“I want to lay down the law to you fellows, not in any nasty way, but
+so that there will be no mistake,” he said. “From the events which have
+gone on around here we know that someone doesn’t want us in this camp,
+because if anyone will go to the trouble to blow a conch shell and hang
+up a skeleton, they aren’t fooling. But we’re not going to run away
+like a bunch of babies. I’m responsible for this camp, and if I went
+back and said that I couldn’t hold you here, I would be falling down on
+a trust which was committed to me. We’ll show this prowler, whoever he
+is, that we have more right to be here than he has and that we won’t
+pack up and move!”
+
+He glanced briefly at Plum. “If any of you boys have any complaint to
+make, make it to Buck or to me. We are the leaders and we’ll try and do
+what is right. We’re not going to run away from this camp just because
+someone wants us to, and we’re not going home one single day before
+Labor Day! So get that straight, and also the fact that all orders
+must be obeyed without argument. If there are several bosses around
+any organization things jar, and while I don’t want to appear to be
+overbearing, Buck and I must have your full support. We’ll be fair
+with you, I promise you that. That will be all for now.”
+
+The group broke up, scattering to the affairs at hand. Tom Clayton
+spoke to the morose Plum.
+
+“Ted is quite a leader, isn’t he?”
+
+“He’s too much leader!” was the growled response.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MOUNTAIN CHASE
+
+
+For a few days after Ted’s talk there was no further trouble of any
+kind in the camp. Neither was there any further annoyance upon the part
+of the person or persons who had kept them in an unsettled state of
+mind for so long. After a time the boys began to feel that the person
+had tired of the contest and had gone away, for the time being, at
+least.
+
+After the third day of peace one of the boys discovered that the
+skeleton had vanished from the hollow back of the camp. They had
+watched it each day to discover if possible the owner of the weird
+thing, but apparently during one of the slack periods of watching the
+owner had come and taken it. This was a relief in one sense and not in
+another.
+
+“We’ve had somebody hiding in the bushes and watching that thing almost
+every day,” Ted said to Buck, as they sat apart one day. “But on the
+very first day that we didn’t have somebody, away it went. That looks
+as though whoever planted the thing knows our movements pretty well.”
+
+“He probably knows more about us than we’d like him to,” was Buck’s
+comment.
+
+They had been to a farm house nearby to purchase butter, eggs and milk
+and Ted had asked concerning a Doctor Hemple. No one knew the man or
+had ever heard of him.
+
+“Our local doctor’s name is Ord,” said the farmer. “Where’d you hear of
+this Hemple?”
+
+“Oh, we both know him by name and just wondered if he came from up this
+way,” Ted passed it off.
+
+Buck told of the cabin with the barbed wire and the farmer knew
+something, though not much about it. The owner was a mystery to
+everyone, he said.
+
+“He built that cabin nigh onto four years ago, and he’s a mighty
+unfriendly critter,” related the farmer, as he tied up their packages.
+“I come through there once from huntin’ and I had my dog with me. Dog
+run up to the cabin—the barbed wire fence wasn’t finished then—and that
+feller was settin’ in some kind of a fancy cheer there. No sooner’d
+that man see my dog than he popped out o’ his cheer and chased him
+out of the yard like he was the plague. ‘Dog won’t hurt you, mister,’
+I says ‘he’s a mighty friendly dog.’ ‘Don’t keer if he is!’ yells back
+the man, ‘don’t want dogs or humans on my property. What you think
+I’m puttin’ up a barbed wire fence for?’ ‘Well, mister,’ I sez, ‘not
+wishin’ you any hard luck or nothin’, I’d like to have a couple of
+thousand wild hogs to chase across your front yard!’ That’s the way I
+felt, too!”
+
+“He must be an unsociable party,” grinned Buck.
+
+“Worse than that!” was the hearty response.
+
+“What does he look like?” Ted asked.
+
+“Tall feller with a heavy shock of gray hair,” replied Farmer Crane.
+“Got a sort of a long face with deep black eyes. He looks like he was a
+drinker or something, because he looks worried all the time, least he
+did all the time I saw him.”
+
+The supplies which the boys brought back with them from this trip
+was eagerly welcomed at the camp. Then they set to work to make some
+improvements in the camp itself. They cleared away undergrowth which
+was too close to the back of the tents. The small truck, which was
+marooned up on the dirt road was backed down into the camp by means of
+two sturdy ropes, its own brakes, and convenient stones. By snubbing
+the ropes around trees they were able to bear the strain of easing the
+truck down hill and in its new position it made a convenient storeroom.
+There was still the matter of the ice box.
+
+“How you going to sink it?” Buck asked.
+
+“Straight down in the cool earth beside the creek,” Ted told him.
+
+“But the dirt is pretty soft there. How will you keep the sides from
+caving in and spoiling everything?”
+
+“We’ve had some unexpected good luck,” Ted smiled. “Under the seat
+of the truck I found six large square pieces of tin, and although I
+don’t know what they were intended for, I am going to use them. I
+imagine that they were sent along in case we wanted to use them for a
+fireplace, but I guess the use won’t matter. I’m going to floor and
+wall the ice chest with that.”
+
+With a camp shovel Ted and some of the boys dug a hole a good four feet
+down into the soft earth beside the creek and here they placed one
+square of tin as the flooring. On the sides they sheeted with the other
+pieces of tin, fastening them down with hand cut pegs which they drove
+right through the tin in the same fashion as nails. Except for a cover,
+the ice chest was complete.
+
+The cover was constructed of sections of a packing box which they
+sheeted on the under side and finished off on the top with a wooden
+handle. When all this was finished they had a cool and serviceable ice
+chest which would never get hot or need ice. The perishable articles
+were lowered into it, the cover was placed on top at a depth of about
+six inches from the surface of the ground and the task was complete.
+
+“That ought to work all right,” Ted said, casting an appraising eye
+over his and his boys’ handiwork.
+
+“Mighty nice piece of work,” approved Buck.
+
+That night Ted called them to attention as soon as the evening meal was
+over and asked them if they wanted to play a night game. The response
+was instant and curiosity was expressed as to the nature of the game.
+
+“This game is called Mountain Chase,” Ted told them. “We divide up into
+two squads and both squads must have lanterns. There are ten small
+lanterns in the truck, and that means that if we can divide into two
+squads—that is, if you all will play—there will be a lantern to every
+two men. Now, here is the point. The mountain squad goes out with
+lighted lanterns and gets a good twenty-minute start, time enough in
+which to lose themselves. As soon as the twenty minutes are up the camp
+squad goes out after them. The object of the camp squad is to capture
+the mountain men before they can sneak back into the camp, and the
+mountain men will, of course, try like the dickens to sneak back past
+the camp outfit and win their way into the camp.”
+
+“The lanterns must be kept lighted at all times. If there is going to
+be any prowling around these mountains without a light, it will be the
+last time anyone goes out of the camp at night. We don’t want anybody
+to fall in a gully and get hurt. You may hide the lanterns behind a
+tree or your body if you think you hear an enemy coming, but no lights
+out! That wouldn’t be fair to the searchers, for you could slip past
+them in the darkness and reach the camp without any trouble. The game
+is just a game of skill with the lamps, and dodging your enemies.”
+
+“How do we capture the other side?” was asked.
+
+“Your enemy must be touched before he is officially captured, and in
+that the advantage is clearly with the camp party, because we’ll all be
+travelling in parties of two. Now, if the camp couple spot a couple of
+mountaineers sneaking along, the camp men can split and then run you
+down from two angles, though the split isn’t to be big enough to allow
+the man without a lantern to get far away from it. When the mountaineer
+with the lantern is touched he and his partner are both captured. Is
+everything clear?”
+
+It seemed that it was and there was vast enthusiasm over the prospect
+of an evening of fun. The two older boys told off the two squads,
+lanterns were brought out and lighted, and the mountain squad prepared
+to go off.
+
+“Remember, no lights out!” Ted warned them, as they started off.
+
+Buck was with the mountain squad, paired off with Drummer, for whom he
+had a warm friendship, and at this final word from Ted they took to
+the hills, splitting up so that five points of light went bobbing and
+turning up into the darkness of the night, to be eventually blotted out
+between the trees.
+
+The twenty minutes seemed a long time to the boys who were waiting in
+the camp. They were all eagerly interested in the game which was before
+them, for on other nights they had sat around the campfire talking and
+singing until it was time to go to bed. There was the thrill of the
+unusual and the challenge of a combat in this, and they were enjoying
+it to the utmost, impatient to get into action.
+
+“Time is up,” announced Ted, putting his watch away and getting up from
+the log upon which he was sitting.
+
+They immediately started off in the direction taken by the other squad,
+in pairs, with swinging lanterns which had just been lighted. Ted had
+with him the small boy, deeming it wise to see to it that the small boy
+was not entrusted to the care of any one who was not likely to be too
+careful of him. The little fellow was developing under the camp life
+and Ted felt a great deal of fondness for him.
+
+They soon left the camp back of them and arriving at the foot of
+the mountain, began the climb. They spread out in fan shape as they
+continued, busily watching their step in front of them and for a sign
+of a light between the trees. Sticks and small stones were avoided so
+that noise did not betray them.
+
+The woods were profoundly still, so much so that no one would have
+believed that twenty active boys were hunting each other. Ted and Tom
+crept steadily forward, keeping the lamp low and peering into the
+thickets.
+
+“Not a sign of them yet,” Ted began, when the small boy touched his arm.
+
+“Look down that way, to your left!”
+
+Ted obeyed, and saw at some yards distance the gleam of a light. It was
+behind a tall and pointed rock, and he motioned to his companion to
+follow as they crept toward it, keeping their own light in back of them
+so that scarcely a beam from it showed before them.
+
+Ted halted and whispered to the small boy. “You slip around in front
+of the rock and I’ll drop on them from the rear. If they try to get
+away from me you just touch the fellow with the lantern. Don’t make any
+noise.”
+
+As noiselessly as possible Tom slipped away around the lower side of
+the rock and Ted went around the higher side, his lantern held far to
+one side so that the beams would not show. Cautiously he peered over
+the top and the sight pleased him. Bob Gilmore and another boy were
+standing there, crouching in the shelter of the big stone, listening
+and trying to cover up the lantern beams.
+
+“I’m sure I heard somebody, even if I didn’t see a light,” Bob was
+whispering, as Ted looked down on them.
+
+“But they must be gone now,” his companion said. “Let’s make a sneak
+for the camp.”
+
+Ted waited to hear no more, but slid over the rock and landed beside
+them. They started and turned wide eyes upon him, but had presence of
+mind to run. But Tom stepped from the shelter of the rock and touched
+Bob on the arm.
+
+“I got you!” cried the small boy, triumphantly.
+
+“Yes, you are ours,” smiled Ted, taking the others’ lantern away from
+them.
+
+“I guess we’ll have to surrender,” admitted Bob.
+
+In close company they marched back down the mountain, to find that
+two other couples had been captured and that one pair had managed to
+return to camp. Only one couple of each squad was unaccounted for, and
+presently Buck and his companion slipped into camp with the pursuers
+hard after them.
+
+“Well, I guess that means that my side has won,” announced Ted. “We
+captured three of your teams.”
+
+“You are right and we admit it,” Buck acknowledged. “I’m afraid we
+didn’t spread out enough. Some other night we’ll play it and change
+sides.”
+
+“Sure. Well, I guess we are all here, aren’t we?” Ted asked.
+
+“All present,” Buck nodded.
+
+“There must be somebody absent,” piped up a boy. “There goes a light up
+the side of the mountain!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE LONE LIGHT
+
+
+With one accord they turned and looked up the mountain. Just as the boy
+had announced, a single light was moving up, like some firefly on a
+wall.
+
+For the moment it was in a cleared space and they could follow it. In
+another moment it had passed from sight and only a fleeting glimpse was
+to be seen as it flashed from between a tree screen.
+
+Ted looked in perplexity around him, counting the boys. “Twenty,
+counting myself and Buck,” he murmured. “We are all here.”
+
+“That must be our party, the gentleman who has been annoying us,” Buck
+said, as they stared up the slope.
+
+“Perhaps it is. I wonder if he has any intentions tonight.”
+
+“Hard to tell. Let’s follow him!”
+
+“I don’t know as we ought to do that,” mused Ted. “Suppose it shouldn’t
+be the right person? If it isn’t the one we think it is, we’ll look
+silly chasing him.”
+
+“Why not have half of the gang stay here in camp while half of us go
+out and trail him?” asked Buck, eagerly. “We could see where he is
+going, and if he is coming down this way for any foolishness we’ll have
+him red-handed.”
+
+“That’s true. All right, I’m willing, but we can’t all go, because he
+would surely hear the noise made by twenty of us. One of us must stay
+here in the camp with the boys, and four or five of us can get on his
+trail.”
+
+“Oh,” said Buck, with less enthusiasm than before.
+
+“I’ll stay here in camp if you want to do the trailing,” spoke up Ted,
+quickly, aware of Buck’s disappointment.
+
+“I’ll stay with the boys and take care of them,” said Ralph Plum,
+stepping forward. The chance of authority was a welcome one and he
+had no personal desire to climb the mountain after the man with the
+lantern. The two leaders looked at him in a moment of doubt, but his
+size impressed them, and as both of them wished to do the trailing,
+they consented.
+
+“All right, you can take charge of the boys,” nodded Ted. “Bob and
+Charlie, Drummer, Buck and I will do the trailing. See to it that the
+lanterns are put back in the truck before you turn in or even as soon
+as possible, Ralph.”
+
+“All right,” said the new camp director. “You kids get busy and put
+those lanterns in the wagon.”
+
+“That’s no wagon, it’s a truck,” retorted one boy.
+
+“Never mind any back talk. I’m in charge of this camp and I don’t want
+any suggestions from anyone,” was the loud answer.
+
+“You won’t be in charge any longer than I can help it,” thought Ted, as
+he lighted his lantern.
+
+When the five trailers were ready Ted gave Plum some final
+instructions. “When we come back to the camp we’ll whistle before we
+enter, so you’ll know that we are the ones who are approaching. If
+anything goes wrong, blow the automobile horn, which is detached and in
+my tent. We’ll surely hear that and come hotfooting it back to you.”
+
+“Nothing will go wrong while I’m here!” returned Plum, with careless
+ease.
+
+“Glad to hear you so confident,” half-smiled Ted. “Come on along,
+fellows.”
+
+With lighted lanterns the others joined him and they set off once
+more for the slopes of the mountain. Nothing more had been seen of the
+vagrant light above them and they realized that their chase might be a
+vain one. But none of them felt content to go to sleep that night until
+they knew that everything was safe so far as the camp was concerned.
+
+The initial climb was a hard one and they were all panting when they
+reached a less abrupt slope of the mountain. Here they halted to
+breathe in the air that they felt the need of.
+
+“We’ll soon be up to the spot where we saw him cross that open glade,”
+Ted said to Buck. “That is just where I saw the light on the night I
+came up here alone.”
+
+They pressed on, gaining the open stretch of the mountain and crossed
+this space, looking down to where the campfires gleamed like small red
+dots. They could make out a few of the boys standing around the fires
+and they knew that their progress was being watched. As a signal, they
+waved their lanterns.
+
+They had just entered the higher wooded slope above the cleared spot,
+when a sound reached their ears which stopped them in their tracks.
+
+“What was that?” Bob gasped, looking around. But the others knew at
+once.
+
+“Thunder!” Ted said to Buck, raising his eyebrows significantly.
+
+Buck looked away across the valley in which Black Riders’ Camp lay. “I
+don’t see any sign of lightning,” he said. “Probably it is miles away
+from here yet. We can do a little more hunting around and then go back.”
+
+“I wonder if it is worth while?” asked Ted, looking up the slope. “I
+haven’t seen any sign of our friend with his light. Maybe he has gone
+home and to bed.”
+
+“We’ll go a little further, anyway,” urged Buck. “Then we can fetch up
+in a wide circle and come in back of the camp. If anything is wrong
+down there we ought to arrive in time to be in on it.”
+
+“Wait until I see what time it is,” Ted answered, and he glanced at his
+watch. “Just ten-thirty. We must get back pretty soon. All right, let’s
+go on.”
+
+He wondered if he had been wise in giving in to Buck, for a more
+penetrating and rolling peal of thunder reached their ears, bringing
+with it a brooding sense of uneasiness that was disconcerting. The
+thunder rolled back and forth between the mountains, which seemed to
+toss it back and forth after a profound rolling that had a grinding
+sound attached to it. The air itself had been comparatively still but
+now a faint and disturbing little wind slipped in and out between the
+leaves and branches of the trees. Out of the corner of his eye Drummer
+caught a glimpse of a lightning flash.
+
+“I saw that flash of lightning just then,” he proclaimed, confirming an
+impression that Ted had in his own mind. Drummer was not comfortable
+and longed to return to camp.
+
+They came to a halt, uncertain, with the majority desiring to return to
+camp. Buck alone wanted to chance the thunder storm which there was now
+no doubt in the world was coming. But he knew that such a course was
+foolish and he gave in.
+
+“All right,” he sighed. “I do hate to give up the chase, though.”
+
+“I guess we all do,” agreed Ted. “But we’ll have to get right back. It
+will take us a good half hour as it is, even if we do have to go down
+instead of up, and we will be lucky if we reach the camp in time.”
+
+“Oh, you’re right there,” his chum agreed, glancing for the last time
+up the mountain in a searching way. “We simply must get back. I was
+just—Ah!”
+
+At the sharp exclamation in his tone the others looked at him, noted
+his startled facial expression, and then glanced up the slope to a
+ledge some twenty feet above them, and off to one side. The lantern was
+coming toward them, but even as they looked it stopped, hesitated, and
+began a speedy retreat. Whoever was behind it was represented merely by
+a blur.
+
+They forgot the advancing storm at once and set off in pursuit. At the
+moment of seeing the light so near to them they were too startled to
+move, and had the man with the light advanced upon them, they would
+have been frozen to the spot with apprehension. But now that the man
+with the lantern ran from them the thing was put in a different light.
+Seeing it run away put courage into them.
+
+“Stick together and don’t get lost!” cried Buck, as he ran up the slope
+to the ledge upon which the man had been walking.
+
+This ledge could only be climbed by taking a diagonal course and
+Charlie Wells complicated matters by slipping when he was almost at
+the top and falling all the way down to the level upon which they had
+been a minute or two previously. Not wishing to run on without him
+they were compelled to wait and when he joined them, adorned with a few
+cuts and scratches, they ran on again. When they rounded a knob of the
+mountain there was no light to be seen and they guessed the story only
+too well. The mountain man had put his lantern out and all trace of him
+was lost, to the eye at least.
+
+They stood in a cluster listening, but no sound except the wind greeted
+them. The stillness inspired a new idea.
+
+“I’ll bet he just put out his light and is hiding around here
+somewhere,” said Drummer, voicing the thought.
+
+“I’m afraid that is true,” agreed Ted. “Well, we don’t care to go
+looking all around the bushes for him. I can see now where we made our
+mistake in the first place.”
+
+“Where?” asked Buck.
+
+“By going around with five lanterns lighted, making ourselves
+absolutely conspicuous,” returned Ted. “If we had had only one light
+we wouldn’t have advertised ourselves as we did. Perhaps if he hadn’t
+thought there were five of us he would have offered to talk or fight
+instead of legging it away as fast as he did!”
+
+“Yes, one light would have been enough,” admitted Buck.
+
+“Sure it would have! Well, there isn’t anything that we can do about it
+now. I——”
+
+He was interrupted by an ear-splitting crash of thunder and a flaming
+tongue of fire flashed across the mountains, causing them to jump
+severely. Ted turned back toward the camp.
+
+“Come on, we’ve simply got to get back there!” he cried.
+
+They started off on a fast walk, regretting that they had chased the
+man with the light as far as they had. In their enthusiasm they had
+covered a long distance and they had not descended very far down the
+side of the mountain before large rain drops began to spatter through
+the trees upon them.
+
+“I’m afraid we’re not going to make it!” shouted Ted, above the noise
+of the rising wind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+HEAVEN’S ARTILLERY
+
+
+Ted’s guess was a perfectly correct one. Before they were half down the
+mountain side the rain began to come down in sheets.
+
+Added to the rush of wind and water there was the bewildering addition
+of thunder and lightning. The thunder kept up the rolling roar as the
+sound bounded from mountain slope to mountain slope, and the flashes
+of lightning almost blinded them. The quality of it was deceptive. It
+revealed obstacles in the path which were imaginary most of the time,
+and by constant flashing made the lanterns of little or no use. Two of
+them had already been puffed out by the wind and the rain drops on the
+others caused them to sputter and hiss. It was with a sense of feeling
+rather than seeing their way that the boys pushed on.
+
+“Isn’t there any place that we can duck into for shelter?” Buck shouted
+in Ted’s ear.
+
+“I don’t know of any,” he replied. “This is all new country to me.”
+
+“How about that old house?”
+
+“We’re nowhere near it,” was the discouraging answer as Ted kept on
+going.
+
+They were frantically seeking a shelter, for there was no thought in
+their minds that they could ever make camp with safety. They could see
+the fires in the camp below, now rapidly being put out by the storm.
+The rain had increased in violence and it gave every appearance of
+being a violent summer storm.
+
+The glass on one of the lanterns cracked and broke and the wind
+promptly snatched out the dancing flame. But their chief help in their
+flight from the storm was the lightning which flashed with great
+brilliance. Although it created illusions it served as a guide and kept
+them from running on dangerous ground.
+
+There was a severe crack of thunder, a dazzling flash of electrical
+fire hard on its heels, and a big tree near them seemed outlined for an
+instant in quivering fire. The monarch of the forest split in two, and
+one portion came down with a rush and a roar that bewildered them.
+
+“That was close!” yelled Drummer, as they came to an abrupt halt.
+
+“We have got to get under some kind of a cover,” cried Ted, peering
+around him. “If we don’t we may have a tree down on top of us!”
+
+“Let’s try that rock over there,” Buck pointed out, and they dashed
+in the direction of the somewhat vague rock which loomed off to their
+left. When they reached it they were grateful to find that it afforded
+a slight shelter at least from falling trees, though as a covering for
+rain it was a total failure.
+
+The rock was small at the base and towered above their heads,
+mushrooming out as it went up, until the top was a flat surface which
+would hold all five of them without crowding, had they been in any mood
+to sit on the top of the big rock. But they crouched at the base of the
+big stone and there prepared to make the best of it, striving to keep
+the two good lanterns going, for in their present predicament even a
+little light was welcome.
+
+“This is better than nothing at all!” declared Bob, pushing his back up
+as close to the rock as it would go.
+
+“We’re safe from falling trees, anyway,” observed Charlie, as he set
+his useless lamp to one side and jammed his hands into his pockets.
+
+“Not the dryest place in the world!” chuckled Ted.
+
+The rain slanted right into their faces, causing them to avert them,
+and the drippings from the top of the rock spattered over them. A thin
+trickle oozed down the sleek sides of the big stone and made their
+backs more wet than ever. Their plight was not a happy or a comfortable
+one.
+
+“What I wouldn’t do with a good old fire right now!” sighed Drummer,
+shivering slightly.
+
+“Here, hold your hands over the top of the lantern,” directed Ted, and
+Drummer followed his instructions and found the warmth welcome.
+
+“I wonder how the fellows in camp are making it?” Ted worried, as the
+lightning flashes grew less frequent. “Of course they have the tents,
+but I wonder if they knew enough to loosen up on the tent ropes so as
+to take the strain off of the pegs? I won’t be surprised if we get back
+and find that half of the pegs have been pulled out of the ground!”
+
+“How does that work, Ted?” Bob asked, with interest.
+
+“Why, when a storm is coming up a camper must loosen up on his tent
+ropes, because when the canvas gets wet it pulls pretty strongly on
+the ropes, and if they haven’t been attended to they pull right out of
+the ground. If that business hasn’t been done I’ll have only myself
+to blame, for I neglected to tell you all about it. Never gave it a
+thought, though I should have at the time we dug the trenches around
+the tents.”
+
+“It is a mighty good thing that we did dig the trenches,” put in Buck,
+all crouched in a heap. “Those fellows would be good and wet by this
+time if we hadn’t.”
+
+“I don’t doubt but what they are right now,” said Ted, seriously. “With
+a fall of rain like this those trenches couldn’t possibly carry off all
+of the water. I think that we’ll all have to do some drying out when we
+get the fires started again and get back to normal!”
+
+“The lightning is letting up, but listen to that thunder!” remarked
+Buck. “That’s heaven’s artillery for fair!”
+
+A full and weary hour dragged by while they remained there in the
+shelter of the big rock waiting for the storm to cease. The lightning
+had moved on across the mountain and the thunder was about to follow.
+The rolls of the pealing concussions now came to them in a more muffled
+state and the rain was beginning to thin out though it did not cease to
+fall. They had hopes of making a break when the thunder and lightning
+had passed away.
+
+“We won’t stay here just for the sake of the rain,” said Ted. “We
+couldn’t possibly get any wetter than we are, so as soon as we are sure
+that there will be no more lightning we’ll make a dash for it.”
+
+“Better be careful of your dashes,” warned Buck. “The ground has become
+very slippery and we’ll have to watch our steps.”
+
+“We’ll keep our eyes wide open,” promised Ted. “I guess we can go now.”
+
+The five wet and stiff boys stood up straight, stretching their aching
+muscles. After the game of the evening, the chase over the mountains,
+and the thorough wetting, all of them felt worn out and stiff. It was
+with genuine pleasure that they looked forward to the return to the
+camp, for the exercise alone.
+
+“It isn’t going to do us much good to get to camp,” said Drummer.
+“There won’t be any wood to start a fire with.”
+
+“This storm has taught me a big lesson,” said Ted. “Hereafter we’ll
+have a shelter for a pile of dry wood, for just such an emergency as
+this. But don’t forget, Drummer, there are warm blankets for us to wrap
+around us when we do get there.”
+
+“That is so,” the other realized, brightening. “That will help a lot.”
+
+They hurried away from the big rock and made their way to the best of
+their belief toward their camp. They had not gone very far, however,
+before Bob cried out in dismay.
+
+“My lantern is going out! Guess all the oil is burned up.”
+
+With a flutter his light went out, leaving them with but one good
+lantern among them. For a moment they were at a loss, for the mountains
+were very dark and slippery and if the last light went out their case
+would not be a happy one.
+
+“Well, we still have one left and there must be a little oil in the
+other lanterns,” said Ted. “We’ll push along with the one light and if
+that goes out we’ll refill my lantern with the oil from the others.”
+
+They continued on their way for some time, moving in the general
+direction of the camp. The ground was indeed muddy and treacherous and
+they were compelled to watch every footstep. As they rounded a point on
+the mountain Buck paused and pointed to a light below them.
+
+“Hello, we have certainly wandered off of our course, all right! There
+is the cabin of that unsociable fellow that the farmer told us about.”
+
+They looked down into the slight valley to the cabin before them,
+noting with some envy the lighted windows, speculating on the warmth
+and cheer which was inside. The light in the cabin was a good one and
+the square panes of glass released broad floods of yellow illumination.
+As they looked the door opened and a tall man came to the door looking
+out.
+
+“Duck the lantern!” whispered Buck, and Ted dropped it behind a bunch
+of bushes.
+
+The man looked up at the sky, apparently wishing to see if the storm
+had passed over. He was much as the farmer had described him and he was
+dressed in an odd costume for a backwoods cabin, for he had on a soft
+white shirt and white flannel trousers.
+
+“My, my, what a nice looking pioneer he is!” muttered Buck as the man
+retired.
+
+“Buck, do you know what I think?” asked Ted, slowly.
+
+“What?”
+
+“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that man is the one who has been
+annoying us in our camp!”
+
+There was a moment of silence and the boys all looked at Ted. “What
+makes you think so?” Buck asked.
+
+“You remember what that farmer told us about the very unfriendliness
+of the man? I wouldn’t be surprised if he just resented our camping
+anywhere near him and he tried to chase us away.”
+
+“You think he is the man we chased, with the lantern, tonight?”
+
+“I don’t know. Anyway, he had time to get back to his cabin and change
+his clothes. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find that he is the one.
+But come on, we won’t get anywhere by just standing around here.”
+
+They continued on their way to camp, talking over Ted’s theory, and the
+more that they talked of it the more plausible it seemed. They felt
+that they had made an important discovery.
+
+“Maybe he has tired of his effort to scare us away,” said Buck.
+
+“I hope so. We’re not going, anyway.”
+
+“Hurrah, there is the camp!” cried Charlie, as they reached the bottom
+of the slope and started across the basin towards the tents.
+
+Ted was in the lead and he quickened his steps, looking ahead into the
+darkness. There was a sound of scrambling and jumping which he could
+not understand and the spot looked curiously empty.
+
+“Why, the tents are all down!” he exclaimed, running forward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+BUCK MAKES A DISCOVERY
+
+
+The one lantern carried by Ted threw but a poor light over the scene of
+the camp but it was enough for the arriving boys to see that all of the
+tents were down, apparently blown over from the storm. The first two
+were down altogether, canvas and poles, while the last two consisted of
+flapping canvas on the poles. While they looked they were joined by the
+other boys, who came jumping and running from the truck, where they had
+taken a poor refuge during the storm.
+
+“Oh, boy, I’m glad you are back!” exclaimed Plum, fervently, catching
+Ted by the sleeve.
+
+“What happened here?” Ted asked.
+
+“Why, the storm blew the tents down. We were all under the canvas and
+keeping pretty dry, except for some water which leaked in from the
+trenches, when all of a sudden there was a blow of wind and the tents
+were down. It even carried over the poles on two of the tents, or
+else we knocked them down getting out, I don’t know which. But we were
+soaked and tried to get in the truck and pull a piece of canvas over
+our heads, but it didn’t do us much good.”
+
+Apparently, it had not. All of them were as wet as the five who had
+been trailing. With the tents down and all of them dripping they
+presented a sorry sight which even the flicker of the one lamp could
+not make up for. Looking backward, the evening did not seem to have
+been a success.
+
+“Well, only one thing to do,” directed Buck, briskly. “Let’s locate our
+axes and hunt dry wood for a fire.”
+
+“There isn’t any dry wood,” a boy objected.
+
+“We can get dry wood by taking a fairly large log and chopping off the
+wet outside,” explained Buck. “In that way we’ll get down to the heart
+of it and find something that we can burn. You know where that dead log
+is back of the springs, and you can surely cut something dry out of
+that big fellow. Come on, I’ll show you.”
+
+Buck went to the mass of canvas which had been his own tent and lifting
+the soggy material, felt inside for his axe, which he had no trouble
+in locating. The other boys procured theirs and then they went off in a
+body to hunt up dry wood, a seemingly impossible process. But Buck had
+had to deal with wet wood before in his camping experiences.
+
+“Now, here is this log,” he told them. “The outside looks pretty wet,
+and it is wet. Start cutting it away in slices, this way.” With his axe
+he split the wood along the upper side, tearing off the wet strips and
+tossing them to one side. “Now, here is some that looks fairly dry,” he
+went on, as they cut deeper. “This stuff will do very nicely for our
+fire.”
+
+The younger boys were surprised to find that there was indeed a goodly
+supply of dry wood in the old log and they gathered a large heap of it
+and took it back to the camp. Buck knew that they were going to need
+lots of it, for it was impossible to think of going to bed that night.
+The wet canvas could not be put up and the entire camp would have to be
+dried out. They would need wood for the entire night.
+
+“They are all excited and won’t mind staying awake all night,” he
+reflected, as he carried an armful of wood back to the fireplaces.
+
+Here he found Ted down on his knees cleaning out the wet mass of ashes
+which had been the evening’s fire and when these had been raked out
+and scattered to one side, some paper, which came from under the seat
+of the truck was stuffed into the stone fireplaces and the wood was
+piled so as to catch fire. A match was applied and the tiny spurt of
+flame which immediately jumped up was a very welcome one. The one
+faithful lamp was still going and had done its duty well.
+
+Carefully they fed the flame with splinters of wood, and the building
+of the fire took care, for the log wood was not thoroughly dry, but had
+in it enough moisture to make it a problem. It smoked and drove them
+away from the fire more than once, but they were pleased to see that
+it did burn. Some good fuel was added in the form of a canned goods
+box which had been under the truck and so was not very wet. Around the
+blaze created by this wood they dried their clothing as much as they
+could.
+
+“We can’t go to bed tonight, can we?” Tom Clayton asked.
+
+“No, we couldn’t get the tents up tonight, because we’ll have to dry
+them,” replied Ted. “But the night won’t last so very long now. When
+we do get everything fixed up we’ll put in the daytime sleeping, if we
+feel that way.”
+
+“I certainly would like to go to sleep right now!” yawned Drummer,
+stretching himself.
+
+“I guess most of us would,” nodded Buck. “But everything is against us.
+How would you like to snuggle down under that canvas right now?”
+
+“Ugh, not while it is as wet as it is!” cried Drummer. “I’d rather
+stand up around the fire all night!”
+
+“Is everything soaked, blankets, sweaters and everything?” Ted asked.
+
+“Yes,” replied Buck. “As soon as the canvas fell on the stuff it all
+got soaked, at least in the tents where the poles went down. I don’t
+know about the other two.”
+
+Some of the boys rummaged under the canvas and found that blankets were
+damp and not too wet to put on, and immediately they returned with
+blankets over their shoulders. Others had not been so lucky and they
+crowded close to the fire. As morning came on another group went out
+and hunted for wood, bringing back a large supply. The fire had been
+effective but not perfect, and the smoke had chased them from side to
+side of the fireplace.
+
+It was the first really disagreeable camp experience that these boys
+from the club had ever had and some were plainly discouraged by it
+while others enjoyed the novelty and adventure of it. The conversation
+by the fire became more cheerful and soon jokes and laughter took the
+place of brooding silence. The five who had trailed the man with the
+lantern told their experiences and those who had remained in camp told
+theirs.
+
+“We were just standing around watching your lights when the storm was
+first heard,” related Plum. “We hoped you’d come down right away, but
+you didn’t and then the old storm hit and we dug for the tents. We
+sat in there pretty dry except for some water that came in around the
+bottom of the tent and then all of a sudden there was a little blow and
+the tent I was in came down! Seemed like the canvas on one side just
+collapsed, the back pole seemed to come down in a hurry and I guess we
+knocked the rest down when we tried to get out from under. The rest was
+the same as we was, scrambling out of tents and looking for somewhere
+to go, when we thought of the truck and climbed in there.”
+
+“I knew that it blew pretty hard when we were up there under the rock,”
+remarked Ted. “But I didn’t know that it blew hard enough to blow down
+the tents.”
+
+“The wind must have been stronger down here than it was up there,”
+suggested Bob.
+
+“That is hardly possible, because the wind always blows harder on a
+higher level than in a basin, such as this spot is. I can see how a
+wind would blow down one tent but it seems funny that it should blow
+down four of them. However, I guess it must have just swooped down in a
+sudden gust and done the job.”
+
+“Which way did our tent buckle in?” Buck asked Plum.
+
+“From the left side,” was the answer.
+
+“Couldn’t have,” said a boy, promptly. “Ours went in on the right!”
+
+“One of you must be wrong,” said Buck. “The wind must have come from
+one direction to have force enough to flatten out the tents, and it
+would have hit either on the right or the left side and not on both.
+How about you fellows in the first two tents?”
+
+“Ours went in on the left,” said a boy from the second tent.
+
+“But ours collapsed on the right,” said Tom Clayton.
+
+Buck snatched up the lantern. “I thought there was something funny
+about that tent business all along,” he said. “Wait until I come back.”
+He strode off with the lantern, leaving them wondering.
+
+Buck went to the tents and placed the lantern on the ground. The canvas
+had fallen in a confused mass and he was compelled to fish under it for
+the ropes. He located the ropes which had been pegged into the ground
+and examined them carefully. Without saying anything he examined the
+others, passing from tent to tent.
+
+“Find anything?” Ted hailed him, from the fire.
+
+“Yes, sir!” was the vigorous answer. “These tent ropes were cut!”
+
+“What!” cried Ted, leaping to his feet.
+
+“That is just what happened. Come here.”
+
+The entire group clustered around Buck as he held up ropes from two of
+the tents. “Look here. One fellow says his tent collapsed from the left
+and another fellow says his let go from the right. Good reason why.
+Somebody stood between two tents and cut the ropes under cover of the
+storm. Of course the tents went down on opposite sides, and I suppose
+the man shoved the back poles and skipped to the next two tents and
+cut the ropes there. He didn’t have time to knock over the uprights
+there, because the boys were swarming out, so he left that to them and
+probably took to the woods. Look at these ropes.”
+
+There was not the slightest doubt in the world that the ropes to the
+tents had been cut, and cut with a sharp knife which had required no
+second cuts. They stared at the ends of the ropes in amazement.
+
+“We didn’t hear anybody,” said Plum. “Probably you wouldn’t, with the
+noise of the storm. If we want any additional proof that the ropes were
+cut and not pulled, look at the tent pegs. They are all in the ground
+as they were when we left and the other pieces of the rope are still
+attached. There is no doubt that you boys had a visitor while we were
+chasing!”
+
+“It might have done us more good to have stayed at home and minded our
+business,” smiled Ted.
+
+“Maybe. Say, how near the end of the storm did this thing happen?”
+
+“Almost at the end,” said Plum. “Just when the thunder was going away.”
+
+“Then that kills our theory about the man in the log cabin,” Buck said
+to Ted.
+
+“Yes, it does,” replied his chum. “He couldn’t possibly be the one,
+because if he had been in on this he couldn’t possibly have returned to
+his house and changed his clothes.”
+
+“No, he is out of it,” agreed Buck. “But who in the world can be doing
+all this business? I tell you, I’m getting sick and tired of it and I’m
+going to break loose before long and hunt somebody down.”
+
+“The trouble with your breaking loose is that we don’t know who to hunt
+down!” smiled Ted.
+
+“No, that is the trouble. But someone is responsible. I don’t believe
+it is any supernatural element, either, or if it is, that ghost carries
+a fine sharp knife! When it gets light enough we’ll have to look around
+for footprints.”
+
+“It won’t be long before it is light now,” said Charlie, glancing at
+the sky.
+
+The last of the darkness was beginning to break in the east, a broad
+bar of yellow-white light was appearing. Far over in the west the last
+of the stars began to fade and as the minutes ticked off the band of
+light spread and broadened and the aspect of the woods changed. The
+darkness withdrew and the flush of a new and beautiful day appeared.
+
+“Golly, I never was so glad to see the daytime come!” sighed Drummer,
+as they stood around the fires watching the advance of the day.
+
+“I guess none of us ever was,” agreed Buck. “And could I eat!”
+
+“Then let’s get at it right now,” said Ted. “We’ll have an early
+breakfast and then get to work. We are going to have a busy day.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE STORY OF THE BLACK RIDERS
+
+
+The sun seemed to burst forth from the sky, flooding over the camp
+as it did so, and never before had the great ball of fire seemed so
+comforting and cheerful. The fires were going briskly and the coffee
+was sending out its tempting aroma. Drummer, warming up throughout, was
+inspired to joke.
+
+“Hey, you fellows!” he cried. “Who is going to take their morning dip
+in Bear Creek?”
+
+A medley of groans greeted him and he grinned. “We ought to toss you in
+for even suggesting such a thing!” grinned Buck, as he fried the bacon.
+
+The touch of the sun turned the camp into a new place. Their spirits
+rose visibly and all the uncertainty of the night passed away. No one
+felt the loss of sleep, and while the breakfast squad was busy another
+detachment took the wet canvas and spread it out to dry. The blankets
+and all personal effects were next in line and were hung on convenient
+limbs to partake of the beneficial sun.
+
+Fortunately for them it was a warm day and things began to dry at once.
+As the heat increased they began to shed outer garments so as to give
+them a chance to dry also. The chill was out of their bodies and they
+felt perfectly normal.
+
+“I feel better than I did before I got all wet!” declared one boy.
+
+“You’ll probably have a reaction later on,” advised Ted. “I mean that
+you’ll probably get tired and want to sleep. We’ll all try a little
+sleep after we get the tents up again.”
+
+The call for breakfast was now issued and disregarded by no one. With
+whoops of delight they trooped around, tin plates thrust forward,
+and for several minutes the cooks were busy young men. Never before
+had breakfast tasted so good, and there was a general satisfaction
+expressed.
+
+“The cooks are putting their best into it this morning,” said Drummer.
+
+“No differently than other mornings,” smiled Ted. “But you are
+hungrier.”
+
+After breakfast the camp was cleaned up, the canvas reversed and the
+blankets treated in the same manner. There was also another problem
+before them and this had to do with the icebox. It had filled up with
+water and they had to take everything out of it, pull out some of the
+tin sheeting, and allow the water to seep into the ground.
+
+“We didn’t make it water-tight,” said Buck.
+
+“No, and the rain last night was so hard that it just settled above
+the cover and leaked through. I see now where we have made a mistake.
+Instead of sinking the ice chest so deep we ought to build it up a bit
+and have the cover above ground, with sloping sides, so that the water
+would run away from it. In that way a few drops might leak in, but not
+a couple of quarts as it did last night.”
+
+Later in the day they made the improvement and did not have any further
+trouble with wet weather in regard to their provisions. Then they
+turned their attention to the tents, after having looked around back of
+them for footprints, but there were none, so they gave it up.
+
+“We might find some way back in the bushes,” said Ted. “But we’ll look
+’em up some other time. Let’s see what we can do with the tents.”
+
+They presented quite a problem, for the cut rope had to be tied
+together. There was no extra rope to be had and while they were tieing
+pieces together Ted had an idea.
+
+“Look here, I’ve got an idea which will keep us from using pegs or
+having to tie all these ropes to the smaller pieces.”
+
+“What is it? I don’t see how—”
+
+“The tent ropes on one side of each tent are still tied to the pegs,
+aren’t they?”
+
+“Sure.”
+
+“Well, the ropes have been cut on the sides of the tents facing each
+other. Instead of bothering to tie new ropes and peg them down, lets
+tie the ropes from each tent together and simply lay a heavy log across
+the ropes. That will be heavy enough to hold down the canvas and when
+it rains again we won’t have to loosen ropes because as the canvas
+tightens it will simply raise the weighing logs a little bit.”
+
+“Say, that’s fine! We’ll do that!” approved Buck.
+
+On the sides of the tents where the cut ropes faced each other the
+boys tied them together and then came the problem of logs. They did
+not want to use old half-rotted logs and they did not care to cut down
+good trees. Buck suggested that they seek out some trees that were dead
+but still standing, and this they did, finding more than enough of
+such trees. As soon as the best ones had been picked out they cut them
+down to the desired length, brought them back to camp, and then laid
+them across the ropes which stretched from tent to tent. Immediately
+they weighed the canvas down by their pressure on the ropes much as
+pegs would have drawn them tightly, and altogether proved themselves
+satisfactory.
+
+“By George, any camp where they had more than one tent, could do that,
+and it would be an improvement on pegs!” approved Buck.
+
+“Well, not exactly an improvement,” Ted shook his head. “Pegs give a
+more direct and downward pull. But the logs make a good substitute. It
+surely makes the camp look funny.”
+
+The sight of the three logs hanging on the ropes between tents might
+have puzzled anyone who did not understand them, but the boys were
+content with their work. The camp was now in good condition and the
+reaction set in soon after the noon meal. The excitement and work had
+kept them all wide awake, but now yawns began to be heard from them.
+
+“All of you fellows who want to can turn in for a good sleep,” said
+Ted. “Just roll up in your blankets and snooze away! Everyone who
+doesn’t feel like sleeping will please be quiet and give the others a
+chance.”
+
+“I’d like to know who won’t be sleeping,” Bob smiled, rubbing his eyes.
+
+“I’m not going to sleep right away,” replied Ted. “Buck and I are going
+over to the farmhouse where we buy the fresh supplies and get some
+stuff. When we get back we’ll turn in.”
+
+The other boys straggled off at once to their tents, and wrapping
+themselves in their blankets, fell asleep without any trouble.
+Fortunately, the sun had passed far enough behind the trees so that the
+rays did not beat down on the tents and they had no great difficulty in
+getting to sleep. Ted and Buck put empty knapsacks on their backs and
+started off for the farmhouse where they bought their provisions.
+
+“I certainly won’t mind a little sleep myself,” yawned Buck, as they
+left the camp.
+
+“I won’t either,” his companion remarked. “But we’ll get back in time
+to snatch a few hours when we do get back.”
+
+“Think we’ll learn anything from Farmer Crane?”
+
+“I don’t know, but I hope so. This thing is getting serious. So far the
+boys haven’t been bad about it, although some of them are pretty scared
+at times, but I don’t know how long it will last. The uncertainty of it
+wears us down. We don’t know when somebody is going drop in and play a
+trick on us. I want to find out what it is all about.”
+
+“If we find the person who is doing it,” said Buck, slowly, “we’ll
+surely tell him a thing or two!”
+
+“If we ever catch him around the camp we’ll turn him over to the
+police in short order,” was Ted’s grim promise.
+
+The farmer was glad to see them and he listened with interest to their
+story of the cutting of the tent ropes during the storm. It was felt
+that there was no need to tell him anything else, for fear that it
+would get abroad too much. The farmer was interested and excited.
+
+“Somebody must have a grudge agin you fellers!” he cried. “Nobody’d be
+doing that for fun.”
+
+“It must be somebody up this way, then,” said Ted. “Somebody doesn’t
+want us around. We thought it was that fellow you spoke to us about,
+the man who lives over in the log cabin, but he couldn’t have been the
+one, because we saw him a few minutes before all this happened.”
+
+“Can’t think of no one else, ’less it could of been old Jerry Jackson,
+who lives over in Hogs’ Hollow,” mused the farmer.
+
+“Where is Hogs’ Hollow?”
+
+“’Bout a mile beyond where your camp is. It is a swampy sort of a place
+not fit for nothin’ but hogs to live in, and old Jerry has a shack
+there. But he never bothers no one and I don’t know why he’d ever want
+to chase you out of there.”
+
+“I guess he couldn’t have anything to do with it,” agreed Ted. “By
+the way, what is that house way up on the mountain, the one where the
+furniture is still in the place? Looks like it was furnished and never
+used.”
+
+“Oh, that’s the Bainbridge place,” was the reply. “Rich feller by the
+name of Bainbridge built that house for his wife and it sure was a
+handsome dwellin’! I saw it when it was first finished, and I want to
+tell you it had more gilt and brass and blue and everything than any
+place I ever saw. Well, Bainbridge was lookin’ forward to bringin’ his
+wife up there—she’d never seen it—when she decided she wasn’t goin’ to
+live up in no mountains, and she finally up and run off with somebody
+else. Bainbridge spent a lot of time mopin’ around the place and acted
+like he was half-crazy, and then finally he disappeared. Nobody knows
+where he is today.”
+
+“That fellow over in the cabin isn’t Bainbridge, is he?” Buck asked,
+quickly.
+
+“Oh, no! I know both of ’em by sight, and that ain’t him. No, unless
+Bainbridge’s ghost is hangin’ around that old house. I don’t know where
+he is.”
+
+They paid for their provisions and then tramped back to camp,
+discussing the affair between them. Nothing definite appeared to have
+been learned from the farmer and they decided to keep a stricter
+lookout in the camp.
+
+“If we ever hear anybody around in the bushes we’ll have to make a dash
+for them,” said Buck.
+
+Arriving at the camp they found it apparently deserted and perfectly
+quiet, but a glance into the tents showed that all of the boys were
+asleep. Very quietly they packed the provisions in the improved ice
+chest, and then as quietly crawled into their blankets for a nap. For
+the next three hours the camp was so still that anyone looking down
+upon it would have decided that it was deserted, and then, as the
+coolness of the evening came on, first one and then another began to
+stir, until the whole camp was awake.
+
+Supper was eaten and then they sat around, content to remain in the
+camp. Just before they turned in there was a dispute about the Black
+Riders and Ted was called upon.
+
+“It was started by a man named Simon Reed,” he said.
+
+“I don’t think many of us know the story,” Alfred Paulson said,
+thoughtfully. “Won’t you tell it to us, Ted?”
+
+“You want me to tell you the story of the Black Riders?” Ted asked.
+
+There was a general nod of assent. He looked at his watch, shaking his
+head.
+
+“It is getting too late now,” he said. “But I’ll tell it to you after
+supper tomorrow night.”
+
+Back of them a stick broke sharply and a few of them turned their heads
+to look in the direction of the tents. But in the talk that followed no
+one paid any further attention to it.
+
+On the following evening, after the supper, Ted faced an expectant
+group of boys. They were ranged in a bow formation, with the ends drawn
+in toward the middle, and Ted stood near the fire. They were very quiet
+and he began at once.
+
+“Most of you fellows know something about the history of the
+Revolutionary War at the time that Washington and his men were in
+Valley Forge, about forty miles from here, and the British were having
+a gay old time in Philadelphia. The British and the Hessians were all
+around here, a fine, fully equipped army of men, while the ragged,
+cold, heroic Americans were freezing over in Valley Forge. That was
+in the winter of 1777 and 1778, if my memory serves me correctly, and
+things in this particular part of the country were in pretty bad shape.”
+
+“There was a man down in Germantown by the name of Simon Reed, and he
+was a patriot who had never run away even in the face of the British.
+He knew that up in these mountains there were some wild, hard-fighting
+farmers, and he used to slip out this way nights to get them organized.
+Right in this hollow they used to meet, all dressed in black, all of
+them riding black horses, and here they’d make up their plans to annoy
+the British. They used to go stealing out of here and lay in wait
+for stray British baggage trains, and then they’d swoop down on them
+and capture them. All through the winter they did such good work for
+Washington that they came to be recognized as the Black Riders. You
+know, during the Revolution, there were a number of cracker-jack bands
+of fighting men who just hung onto the British flanks and worried them
+to death, Marion’s men in the South, and Morgan’s Riflemen, Light-Horse
+Harry Lee’s men, and others. These Black Riders were a smaller bunch,
+but they helped a lot.”
+
+“After awhile things got so hot for them around here that Washington
+had them taken into the regular army as part of Light-Horse Harry Lee’s
+division and they ceased to be known as the Black Riders from then on.
+But people around here always remembered them from the days before they
+joined Lee and this spot had always been known as their camp.”
+
+“Gosh, that’s a great story!” exclaimed Drummer.
+
+“It must have been great to have met here and planned their raids,”
+said another boy, looking around him.
+
+“Wish I could see what one looked like,” said Bob Gilmore.
+
+The words were scarcely out of his mouth when something happened which
+left the boys speechless with wonder. There was a soft flare of light
+near them and they all turned their heads toward the end of the camp
+nearest the foot of the mountains, to where a flat, moss-covered rock
+jutted out. There on the rock, lighted by the soft, noiseless glow, was
+a black horse and seated upon it, a rider dressed entirely in black,
+with a wide black hat pulled over his face. The glow burned only for a
+brief second, but in that second horse and rider stared straight ahead,
+and then the flare went out, and the Black Rider and his black horse
+disappeared from view.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MUTINY
+
+
+The silence that succeeded the vision of the Black Rider on the rock
+was a vast and throbbing one, and the senses of the boys reeled
+slightly under the shock. Ted still stood in his position staring
+toward the rock on which the fascinating thing had showed, his heart
+beating like a trip-hammer and his mouth curiously dry. In the very
+atmosphere there was a sense of unreality.
+
+The figure had been real, yet ghostly. All of them were sure that they
+had seen an actual man seated on a very real horse exposed for an
+instant on the rock, and yet the very immoveableness of it inspired a
+feeling of awe. There was no second flush of light and nothing broke
+the silence.
+
+Then the tongues of the boys were unloosed like a flood and they all
+talked at once. They scrambled to their feet, confused and uncertain.
+The fire had burned so low that the darkness pressed in tightly upon
+them, and a few, with more presence of mind than the rest, threw some
+fresh wood on the fire, where it blazed up and dimly showed the rock
+upon which the Black Rider had appeared. But there was no sign of him
+now.
+
+“What in the world do you suppose that was?” Buck demanded, bounding to
+Ted’s side.
+
+“You certainly have me,” was the fervent reply. “I never saw anything
+like it in my life. Bob had just said that he would like to see a Black
+Rider and one just glowed out. It is beyond me.”
+
+“If anybody believes in ghosts, that was surely a ghost of a former
+Black Rider,” said Buck. “But there is a trick in it somewhere. Look
+how he just glowed and then went out. Come on, let’s investigate that
+rock.”
+
+Without argument Ted took the lantern and he had taken two strides
+before Buck could catch up with him. Ted was trying to get the incident
+straight in his mind and he was eager to see that rock. A few of the
+boys straggled after them, but the bigger group remained near the
+campfires.
+
+Arriving at the rock the two older boys quickly bent forward and looked
+at the flat top of the big stone. There was a slight film of moss on
+it and the moss was marked by the feet of a horse, very faintly, but
+marked, nevertheless.
+
+“Well, it was a sure enough horse, anyway,” commented Ted, as he kept
+flashing the light around the rock. “Look here!”
+
+He pointed out a thin white line with purple edges which ran across the
+rock. Buck studied it, but for the moment its meaning escaped him.
+
+“What is it?” he asked.
+
+“Evidently it was a line of powder, something like flashlight powder,
+only calculated to burn longer,” explained Ted. “Whoever led the horse
+out here set a powder train and then got on the horse and waited. He
+must have been able to hear all that we said around the campfire, and
+Bob’s words gave him just the cue he wanted. Somehow or other, maybe by
+a small pocket battery wire, he set off the powder and played spirit,
+if that is what he was meant to be.”
+
+“I guess that is so,” nodded Buck. “Say, you remember that snapping
+sound we heard last night?”
+
+“Yes, and I guess I see what you mean. This fellow must have heard us
+planning and then he planned a little plan of his own. I’ll bet that
+fellow is in and around our camp more than we know about!”
+
+“Believe me, we must lay our hands on that fellow,” said Buck, grimly.
+“We had better begin to lay some traps for him when we get back.”
+
+“Yes, we’ve simply got to get him. Come on and see if we can follow the
+tracks of the horse’s hoofs.”
+
+They were able to find the spot where the horse had stepped onto the
+rock and a few hoof prints nearby, but the man who had arranged the
+thing had done his work well. For yards around the ground was half rock
+and no print showed.
+
+“No use hunting around any more tonight,” said Ted, after they had
+spent a half hour in fruitless effort. “In daylight we might be able to
+see something worth while, but never with the light of the lantern. I
+think those hoofs must have been muffled.”
+
+“Oh, there is no doubt of that,” replied Buck. “There was no sound when
+the horse was led out on the rock and no sound when he retreated. This
+man knows what he is doing.”
+
+“Yes, and do you know, we’re dealing with an educated man and no Jerry
+Jackson from Hogs’ Hollow. This man knows more than one thing and when
+we find a man who is a historian we’ll have our man. He knew just how
+a Black Rider should be dressed and he did the thing to perfection.
+Maybe he is doing it for a big joke, I don’t know.”
+
+“But cutting our tent ropes is no joke, I don’t care how well educated
+a man is!” reminded Buck, as they made their way back toward the camp.
+
+“Oh, I agree with you there and I must confess that I can’t begin to
+see his idea. If he just wants to get rid of us, he is going to a
+lot of trouble, because we aren’t going. On the other hand, is there
+something around there that he doesn’t want us to see or know it is
+going on?”
+
+“That is something we’ll have to find out,” Buck answered. “I hope we
+find out soon, too, because this stuff is getting my goat. Well, I see
+that the boys are still around the fires. They must have received a
+pretty rough shock this time.”
+
+As the two chums approached the group they noted that there were two
+distinct sections of it, one centering around Drummer and the other
+around Ralph Plum. They were strangely silent as the two leaders came
+in and no one asked a single question.
+
+“Well, somebody likes to play jokes on us, and that Black Rider one was
+a good one,” smiled Ted.
+
+“That wasn’t a joke, Thorn,” said Ralph Plum, quietly.
+
+“Well, I suppose it was a joke,” countered Ted. “We found that somebody
+had put some light powder on the rock and then lighted it so as to show
+himself off as a Black Rider. If they didn’t do it for a joke, I don’t
+know what they did it for.”
+
+“Well, some of us are through with this camping trip,” said Plum.
+“We’re going home!”
+
+Ted counted the boys who were grouped around Plum. “Seven of you,” he
+said, coolly. “All of you going home?”
+
+“Yes, they are going home and I’m going to take them home,” sneered
+Plum, his self-control breaking down. Each day had added to his
+irritation at the small part he played in the camp and he was aroused
+at the chance which had come his way. “These boys aren’t safe in this
+camp and I’m going to take them home and let their parents know that I
+brought them safely home, too!”
+
+Ted smiled slightly. “Yes, I’m pretty sure that you’ll do that, Plum!”
+
+Ralph Plum stepped closer and tapped Ted on the chest. “You know just a
+little too much, Thorn! I don’t like the way you have been running this
+camp, anyway. I’m one of the older fellows here and I wasn’t even made
+a tent captain. My family gave money to this club and I don’t even get
+any recognition out of it. I told you several days ago that this camp
+wasn’t safe and you wouldn’t listen and go somewhere else. Now, I’m
+going to take these boys home with me, and you won’t stop me!”
+
+Ted’s temper trembled dangerously, but he turned to the other boys. “Do
+you boys want to go home?” he asked them. They looked at each other and
+then one or two nodded.
+
+“I don’t think they really want to go,” cried out Drummer, angrily.
+“Plum has been telling them that they ought to go home and making up
+big yarns about something happening to them if they don’t get out of
+here! All he wants is to get them home and get a lot of credit for it!”
+
+“Say, you just keep your——” began Plum, lunging toward Drummer, who
+immediately struck an attitude of defense.
+
+“Wait a minute!” Ted cut in, stopping Plum’s rush. “Is it true that you
+have been working up fear in the minds of the boys?”
+
+“No!” shouted Plum. “But some of us decided that we have had enough of
+this camp and that we are going home. You can’t stop us, Thorn.”
+
+“I don’t want to stop you,” replied Ted, quietly. “If you want to go,
+you can go ahead. I can’t keep you here by force and I wouldn’t try to.
+Only, you are doing the very thing that the unknown person wishes you
+to do. Somebody is trying to scare us out of this camp and they haven’t
+succeeded in doing it yet. Now you decide that you will go home and
+admit defeat to this man who wishes you to clear out. Not very brave,
+is it?”
+
+“Never mind about brave!” growled Plum. “There is only one reason why
+you don’t want to give up the encampment and that is because you are
+afraid the trustees will say that you gave it up and they won’t ask you
+to be big boss another year!”
+
+“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” smiled Ted. “Are you thinking of
+starting for home tonight?”
+
+“No, but we will the first thing in the morning,” promised Plum.
+
+“All right,” nodded Ted. “When the daylight comes if there are any of
+you who still think that you want to go home, why, just march right
+ahead. The rest of us will finish out our vacation here in Black
+Riders’ Camp.”
+
+“You bet we will,” said Bob Gilmore.
+
+“You are welcome to do it,” retorted Plum. “It is as plain as can be
+that somebody doesn’t want us around here, so why should we hang
+around?”
+
+“Who has a right to chase us out of this camp?” demanded Buck.
+
+“I don’t know, but I do know that I won’t stay here any longer,” said
+Plum flatly, and he walked off with his own friends, one of whom Ted
+was surprised to note was the small Clayton boy. He excused the little
+fellow in his mind.
+
+“Oh, well, he’s pretty young and he’s probably scared,” he thought.
+
+The rebels hung around the tents talking and the loyal party stood at
+somewhat of a loss near the fire. Buck was inclined to be more vigorous
+about it than Ted was.
+
+“That Plum needs a good punch on the nose!” he declared, with emphasis.
+
+“I guess he’d go home, punch or no punch,” grinned Ted.
+
+“Yes, but he’d really draw those youngsters with him just on his own
+arguments. You ought to talk to them and try and keep them here with
+us.”
+
+“I’m going to wait until morning before I say anything,” said Ted. “By
+that time some of the boys will have experienced a change of heart.
+Tonight they are scared and that will take time to work off. Did he try
+to win over all of you fellows?”
+
+“Yes,” replied Charlie. “When you had gone to examine the rock he told
+us that the place was unsafe and that he was sure that some dangerous
+spirit was controlling the camp. Drummer asked him if he believed in
+ghosts and he said no, but he wasn’t going to stay in the camp any
+longer. He worked on the smaller fellows by saying that you would never
+give up until something serious happened to somebody, because the club
+was going to pay you and Buck something and if you didn’t make the camp
+a success you wouldn’t be paid.”
+
+“Well, that is news to us,” Ted smiled to his chum.
+
+“The same old argument every agitator uses when he wants to start
+trouble,” said Buck.
+
+“Well, let’s turn in and forget it until morning,” advised Ted.
+
+They passed the silent group near the tents and entered the shelters,
+proceeding at once to get undressed. It looked for a moment as though
+the ones outside were going to remain up, but they straggled in at
+last and went to bed. As Ted was crawling in the small boy came in and
+started to undress.
+
+“I’m not going, Ted,” he said. “I’m going to stay with you.”
+
+“Good boy!” was Ted’s only comment.
+
+The night was peaceful and in the morning the two bands again formed
+in groups, the ones who were going to leave sticking close to Plum and
+the others working at the meal as though nothing had happened. The
+rebels did their share but said nothing and they ate in an unbroken
+silence.
+
+Besides Tom Clayton there had been another desertion from the ranks of
+those who were leaving. Alfred Paulson refused to go with Plum and his
+party. The new section leader tried to argue him into it.
+
+“No, Ted is the leader of this camp,” said Alfred, firmly.
+
+“He was the leader of it, you mean!” Plum said loudly. “Pretty soon
+he’ll be leading himself home all alone! Something else will happen
+around here and then the rest of the fellows will come running home, so
+you might just as well come now.”
+
+“I’m going to stay right here with Ted!” said Alfred, stubbornly.
+
+The breakfast was over and the rebels who were on committees helped to
+put the camp in order. When it was over with Plum spoke to his four
+young companions and they went straight to their tents and began to get
+their duffle together. The others stood and watched them in silence for
+a time.
+
+“Confound it, this breaking up of the camp will give us somewhat of a
+black eye!” grumbled Buck.
+
+“No it won’t.” Ted shook his head. “But it won’t do this camp site any
+good.” The ones who were about to depart were now ready and they stood
+around waiting for something. Ted sauntered over to Plum.
+
+“Going to walk all the way home?” he asked, as his own friends gathered
+around.
+
+“Sure! I guess we can do it, can’t we?”
+
+“You can, of course. It is between thirty and forty miles, and the
+fellows you are taking with you aren’t used to any such hikes as that.
+You have planned to camp somewhere by the road, of course? You are
+going to buy food somewhere, too, aren’t you?”
+
+“I’ll attend to that,” was the confident reply. “I have money and we
+can camp anywhere in a field. Don’t you worry, Thorn, I will manage. I
+don’t do things like you do.”
+
+“No, you don’t,” agreed Ted, softly, his hands sunk in his pockets.
+
+Plum turned to Ted’s tent, a frown on his face. “Come on, hurry up!”
+he cried, angrily, and to Ted’s surprise Tom Clayton appeared with his
+pack on. The little fellow did not look happy.
+
+“What is the matter, Tom?” Ted asked. “Did you have a change of heart?”
+
+“No, but Plum says I better come home,” replied the boy. “He says if I
+don’t he’ll tell my mother and she’ll come up here and take me home. I
+don’t like to leave you, but I don’t want my mother to worry.”
+
+The careless look vanished at once from Ted’s face and his hands came
+out of his pockets. He squared his shoulders as he looked Plum in the
+face.
+
+“He won’t go home and tell your mother, Tom,” the camp leader said,
+quietly. His tone changed and hardened as he pointed his finger at the
+trouble-maker. “You, Plum, take off your pack, because I’m going to
+give you a good thrashing!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THINGS ARE SETTLED MAN-FASHION
+
+
+For a moment after Ted made his announcement there was a complete
+silence as the boys looked from one to the other of them. Plum just
+stared at Ted, who looked him levelly in the eyes.
+
+“You’re going to what?” demanded Plum, slowly.
+
+“I’m going to give you a sound thrashing for being a trouble maker
+in this camp and for trying to force Tom to go home with you,” Ted
+repeated.
+
+His last wish was to stage a fight in front of the small boys, for he
+did not wish to set an example of fighting if he could help it. There
+was no physical reason why he should not engage Plum in combat, because
+the boy, though younger, was broader of shoulder and heavier than he
+was, but Ted was determined that he had something definite coming
+to him for his actions. He rather hoped that Plum would back down,
+so that the smaller boys would not be treated to an exhibition of a
+fight between two older boys, but he felt warmly that Plum deserved a
+trouncing.
+
+But as it so happened, Plum was in no mood to back down. Eagerly he
+welcomed the prospect of a fight and on the previous night he had
+purposely pushed Ted rather roughly on the chest with the sole object
+of angering him and starting a fight. He knew now that he would have
+to prove himself in the eyes of his friends and show his leadership.
+Long ago and more than once he had looked Ted over with a calculating
+eye and the conclusion that he could “lick” him at any time had been in
+his mind for several days. It was with visible joy that he accepted the
+invitation for battle.
+
+“You’re going to thrash me, eh?” he sneered, thrusting forward his
+chin. “So that’s what you think you are going to do, is it? Why, if I
+couldn’t tie you up in a knot I’d go back home and join a kindergarten!”
+
+“Join whatever you please, but take your pack off,” nodded Ted.
+
+The pack was slipped off in a rush and the coat followed. Ted stood
+ready and waiting while Plum rolled up his sleeves. The other boys
+crowded around, some of the smaller ones looking a bit scared. Tom
+Clayton put in a last word.
+
+“You mustn’t fight on account of me,” he said, looking distressed.
+
+Before Ted could reply Plum struck in with: “Don’t worry, we aren’t
+going to fight over you, kid. This Thorn has had a trimming coming to
+him for a long time and I’m going to give it to him! He’s been the big
+boss around here for some time and he has put it on thick. Telling us
+when to go to bed and when to get up and when to eat and when to do
+everything, like he was the king of the country or something! When we
+fellows who are going home do get home we’ll go off on a camping trip
+of our own and we’ll do things to suit ourselves. Get on guard, Thorn!”
+
+“Wait a minute!” cried Buck, who was burning to take Ted’s place, but
+who kept quiet with some difficulty. “This affair has to be run right.
+Two minute rounds, and I’m the boss! You start and finish when I say
+so!”
+
+Plum dropped his hands to his side. “Say, this is a fight, not a boxing
+match! I want to lick him in a hurry and I don’t want to have to stop
+right when I’m going strong.”
+
+“If you want to do it in a hurry, two minutes ought to be plenty of
+time,” retorted Buck. He took out his watch. “Here, all the rest of you
+get back and form a big circle. When I say time you start and when I
+say time again, you stop. Got that clear, Plum?”
+
+“Sure. Let’s get going and stop all the hot air!”
+
+Buck looked at his watch, and then, “Time!” he called.
+
+Ted and Plum faced each other grimly, squared off for the battle.
+
+In his crouching attitude Plum looked bulky and menacing, while Ted
+looked cool and alert. Plum began to advance, his steps cautious and
+his fists poised in the attitude of a boxer. He had taken lessons in
+the art and was no novice at it, while Ted had confined his activities
+to neighborhood scraps which had been informal affairs and in which he
+had been as often beaten as victorious. But he had no fear of Plum, who
+was to be counted on for more in the line of bluster and noise than for
+anything else.
+
+They were close now and Ted tried a light shot which was quickly
+blocked by the other boy. Plum then jabbed quickly at the camp leader
+with his right, stopped the blow halfway and landed with his left on
+the shoulder. That tap, light as it was, started the fight off in
+earnest, for Ted bored in, disregarding a few shots at close range and
+the fight was actually on.
+
+Plum knew how to box well and most of the close-in blows which Ted
+directed toward him were deftly and completely blocked. In return he
+shook Ted up, planting his blows almost at will, though Ted kept his
+chin covered up. When Buck called time for the first round they had
+just warmed up.
+
+Ted retired to one side of the ring to recover his breath and Plum
+walked across to the other. “How many rounds is this thing going to
+be?” Ralph demanded.
+
+“It will go on until one of you admits that he is licked,” replied
+Buck. He glanced again at his watch. “Time is up. Go to it.”
+
+This time Plum was out to win. He rushed in with his head down and
+his heavy fists swung like battering rams. Ted was forced to put all
+the strength he had into his footwork, for Plum was on the march and
+would not be denied. He had the weight to keep on coming and Ted was
+unable to stop him. There was no cautious poking this time, but serious
+rushing and stepping aside. To keep his feet at all Ted was forced to
+move fast.
+
+During this round, busy as he was, Ted saw that he was making a mistake
+by allowing Plum to get the start. With a rushing start and the power
+of a heavier body the big boy had everything his own way and it was
+impossible for Ted to do more than keep him off. From his football
+playing Ted was fast and nimble, but he hadn’t gone into the argument
+just to run around the ring. Plum must be punished or he would draw
+most of the boys away from the camp and spoil a perfectly good Summer.
+
+When the round was over he thought seriously of the affair in which
+he was engaged. It was no good natured argument that didn’t matter
+very much whether he won or not. He realized that he must win, or the
+breaking up of the camp would be a blow from which he would not recover
+in a long time. Most of the boys would desert him and return home with
+Plum, he was sure, and the failure would make the trustees of the
+club regret their choice of him as the leader. Boys naturally follow
+the one who can lead, even if that leadership is attained by the use
+of ready fists, and Plum, swaggering in the triumph of the physical
+victory, could split the camp so as to spoil its effectiveness. It was
+imperative that he win the fight before him, not only for the good of
+the camp, but for the effect it would have on the minds of the boys.
+
+He looked across at Plum and saw that he was breathing heavily. Plum
+was not an outdoor boy in the strictest sense of the word and he did
+not play on any athletic team. He was just naturally strong and he
+did enjoy boxing, a subject he knew something about, as a dozen sore
+spots, combined with a split lip, led Ted to believe. But his wind was
+not good and his chest rose and fell in a way that looked painful.
+
+“My best bet is to make him run around after me this round and then
+finish him in the next,” thought Ted, as Buck called time again.
+
+Plum again charged and Ted side-stepped, leading him a chase around the
+ring. The boys had been rather silent the first two rounds but now,
+gripped with excitement, they called the names of their favorites, and
+Plum’s name was as prominent as Ted’s. Just as Plum had calculated his
+readiness to fight and his swagger had won the smaller boys to him and
+they were loudly shouting for his success.
+
+Ted found difficulty in keeping out of Plum’s way and his movements
+annoyed the other. “Come on, fight, and don’t run away!” roared Plum.
+“If you are scared, just quit! I’ve got you licked, anyway!”
+
+The speech was an unfortunate one, for in giving it the trouble-maker
+had raised his head and carelessly lowered his arms a bit. Most of the
+blows so far had been body blows, both boys keeping their faces well
+sheltered, but as Plum spoke Ted jabbed a blow at him which Plum was
+unable to guard against. It landed with a resounding smack against his
+cheek bone and his head jarred. As he hesitated in surprise Ted hooked
+one into his ribs.
+
+By this time Plum was on guard again and stung to fury he waded in
+while Ted retreated. Around the ring they went, Plum making a furious
+attack which was beginning to break down Ted’s guard. Just then Buck
+called time and Ted stepped back.
+
+Plum turned to Buck, his eyes furious and his face red. “I don’t care
+a hang about time!” he shouted. “I didn’t want to make this a boxing
+match, anyway, and I won’t make it one! I’m going to show Thorn that he
+can’t boss me and tell me he’ll thrash me and that’s what I’m going to
+do. Come on, you, put up your hands!”
+
+“Nothing doing!” snapped Buck, leaping into the circle and thrusting
+himself in between them. “You’re going to run this according to rules!”
+
+“Like fun I am! You get out of the way or I’ll take you on!”
+
+“With the greatest of pleasure!” promptly cried Buck, squaring off.
+
+“I’d just as soon give it to you as to him!” yelled Plum. This was a
+well calculated piece of acting, and the boys who stood for Plum felt
+him rise heroically in their eyes.
+
+Ted pushed Buck to one side. “This is my fight, Buck, old man. Put
+your watch away, because this is a fight to the finish!”
+
+Buck reluctantly allowed himself to be pushed out of the ring, at the
+same time pushing his watch back in his pocket. Then Ted advanced
+determinedly on Plum and the latter began a crouching advance on him.
+There was now no more boxing and no more dodging around. Plum was tired
+and his breath came heavily, while Ted was filled with quiet, steady
+purpose. He felt that there was but one thing to do, and that was to
+wade in and finish up the other boy as rapidly as possible. When they
+came together with a shock there was no more boxing and feinting, but
+they stormed in close and exchanged punches with determination.
+
+Here Ted found that he was equal at least of the other and they traded
+some jarring punches at close range. The breath of the heavier boy was
+growing shorter, while Ted was in no way distressed. With a mighty
+lunge Plum shot a stiff punch at Ted’s face, and the latter, drawing
+his head to one side, countered with a sharp one to Plum’s ribs. Plum
+grunted, turned, and Ted found his jaw unguarded for an instant. He
+found it a moment later with his left fist, and as Plum staggered Ted
+bored in for the finish.
+
+And it was the finish. Fighting blindly, Plum gave ground and lost his
+grip on his guard. In bewilderment he raised and lowered his hands and
+Ted, keenly alive to what was going on, punished him at will. A left to
+the jaw and another right to the cheek sent Plum down in a heap, while
+Ted stood panting, waiting for him to get up.
+
+But Plum was through and he knew it. Moaning feebly, he felt of his jaw
+and his face, which was beginning to swell. Unsteadily he got to his
+feet.
+
+“Ready for more?” Ted asked, quietly.
+
+“No, I’ve had enough,” Plum gasped, wiping a cut lip. “I’m—I’m going
+home.”
+
+Ted turned to the others around him. “Plum is going home. Are any of
+you fellows going with him?”
+
+There was no reply. They looked from Plum to Ted but no one spoke.
+Slowly Plum rolled down his sleeves, put on his coat and slung his pack
+on his shoulders.
+
+“Anybody going with me?” he asked, keeping his eyes away from Ted and
+Buck.
+
+No one spoke up and the boys who were ready to go looked foolishly at
+the ground. Ted spoke to them sharply.
+
+“This is the last call,” he said. “If any of you are going with Plum,
+go now! But if you don’t go with him, remember that you are to stay
+here, subject to the orders of Buck and myself, and we’re not leaving
+this spot until Labor Day unless something happens that we couldn’t
+stay to face. So if you want to leave, leave now.”
+
+Still no one moved and Plum put on his hat, his air one of sullen
+defiance. He looked around him sneeringly.
+
+“All right, you kids just stay here and hang around Thorn, if you want
+to!” he said. “But I’ll fix this camp! I’m going home and tell all over
+town what is happening, and I’ll bet your fathers and mothers will come
+running for you.”
+
+“You just go ahead and do that, Plum!” advised Buck. “When the parents
+come out here we’ll show them that we are still in camp and that you
+were the only one who got scared and ran home! You, the biggest boy in
+the camp, went home, because you were afraid to stay!”
+
+At once Plum saw his case. He could not possibly remain in camp after
+his thrashing from Ted and if he went back to town and told any stories
+the result would be as Buck had pictured it. He had lost all around and
+the knowledge was a bitter one.
+
+He turned and walked out of the camp without a word or a backward
+glance.
+
+They stood and watched him go in silence, the ring still unbroken.
+Then first one boy and then another of the ones who had packed to go
+with him, shed his knapsack and blanket, tossing them in the tents. The
+atmosphere seemed to have cleared magically.
+
+“Well, sir!” enthused Buck, slapping Ted on the back. “That was a
+bang-up fight! Now that he is gone things will be a little sweeter
+around here. He was the big disturbing element.”
+
+“Except the fellow who has been annoying us all this time,” reminded
+Ted.
+
+“Yes, that is so. If we could only get rid of him as you did of Plum.”
+
+“Maybe we can,” said Ted. “I have thought out a plan to trap that
+party.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BUCK’S SQUAD TAKES THE FIELD
+
+
+Ted refused at the time to reveal the details of his plan for trapping
+the person who was annoying them in their camp, but he promised that he
+would later on. Feeling that a good part of the morning had been wasted
+in the details of his fight with Plum, he preferred that they get
+things done around the camp. This was attended to and then he and Buck
+had two important matters to attend to.
+
+The first was that of seeking the tracks of the horse who had posed on
+the rock on the previous evening, with a view to tracing the animal in
+the hope of obtaining some clue as to its owner. They went to the rock
+and searched carefully around, moving away from it with eyes alert to
+pick up the mark of a hoof, but the ground around was too rocky to help
+them any. Some fifty feet away from it they found one print but that
+was all, and they finally gave it up as a bad job.
+
+“When that fellow brought the horse down to the rock he made a good job
+of it,” Ted admitted, mopping his forehead. “He didn’t mean that we
+were to find any hoof prints.”
+
+“But a horse is pretty heavy, and I should think he would be bound to
+leave marks,” murmured Buck.
+
+“Well, there is a way to do everything,” said Ted, with a grin. “I
+remember a trick I used to work on my father. I used to go swimming
+over in Tier’s Pond that summer you were away and the only way to get
+there without hoofing it was to take the horse and carriage, because I
+was small then and didn’t have the old car. But I knew if my dad saw
+the wheel prints and the hoof prints in the gravel, he’d know I had
+taken the carriage and the horse, which he didn’t want me to take, so
+I put a couple of blankets down and walked the horse across them, then
+went back and picked up the first one and put it down ahead of the
+horse’s hoofs, and in that way we got out of the drive without leaving
+a mark. When I came back at night I used to spread them out again and
+get in without so much as a trace showing. Maybe that is what our
+friend of last night did.”
+
+“I wouldn’t doubt it. He had everything carefully planned, and we’ll
+have to hustle some to catch up with him.”
+
+After lunch the two leaders went to the farmhouse and there Ted used
+the telephone to call Lawyer Calvert. When the president of the club
+got on the wire Ted told him the events of the past few days and
+narrated his reason for thrashing Plum. The lawyer listened without
+comment until he was finished.
+
+“You did just what was right, Thorn,” he told Ted. “That boy had it
+coming to him for a long time. When he gets in town I’ll see to it
+that he doesn’t spread any stories around among the parents. But are
+you sure that everything is all right? You don’t need any special
+protection?”
+
+“I don’t think so, Mr. Calvert,” replied Ted. “So far we have managed
+to stand it and I think that we’ll be able to face it to the end. I
+have some plans for setting a trap for the man, whoever he is, and
+I think we’ll fix him so that he’ll stay away. If things should get
+serious I would let you know, and if necessary abandon the camp, but
+I’m pretty sure that it won’t come to that.”
+
+“All right, just as you say. You are in complete charge and I rely on
+you. If you need any more money with which to buy provisions, call me
+and I’ll see to it that you get it.”
+
+Ted promised to do so and with that the conversation came to an end.
+The farmer and his wife had listened openly to the conversation on
+Ted’s part, and they quite frankly let him see it in their subsequent
+words.
+
+“Sho, you boys havin’ a little trouble down to your camp, ain’t you?”
+the farmer said, as Ted joined Buck in the kitchen of the house.
+
+“Yes, but we’ll get at the bottom of it pretty soon,” affirmed Ted. “By
+the way, if you should hear from any one around that they know anything
+about it, you might let me know.”
+
+“I’ll sure do that,” promised the farmer. “Anybody ought to be ashamed
+to go botherin’ you while you ain’t doing nothing but enjoyin’ yourself
+campin’.”
+
+“I’d be scared to death to stay down there at night,” the farmer’s wife
+shook her head.
+
+The next move on Ted’s part was strange even to Buck. They went to
+Montvery and there Ted bought ten cheap flashlights.
+
+“What is the idea?” Buck demanded. “We have lanterns in the camp and we
+don’t really need flashlights. A few of us have them already and there
+is plenty of oil for the lamps.”
+
+“I know, but I want every boy to have a flashlight. It is part of the
+plan which I will unfold when we get back to camp.”
+
+When they arrived at the camp they found the boys in swimming, with
+their clothing piled in plain sight on the bank of Bear Creek. “We
+didn’t trust this place,” Drummer confided. “We were afraid if we left
+the clothes in the tent somebody would walk off with ’em or make them
+vanish or something!”
+
+When they were all out and dressed Ted called them in a knot around
+him. They stood away from the tents and the tress, out in the open
+space.
+
+“I want to tell you what I have in mind out here where no one could
+possibly be listening,” he began. “So many funny things happen around
+here that I’m afraid to talk for fear that my words will be overheard.
+What I wanted to tell you is this: Up until now this pest has been
+scaring us and running away, laughing up his sleeve—if he has a sleeve!
+We don’t know enough about him to know how he does dress, unless he’s
+a fake Black Rider all the time. Every time he has bothered us we sit
+here looking dazed and let him get away from us. Now, my idea is this:
+to create two distinct squads, a camp squad and a chasing squad. We’ll
+settle after awhile who is to be who, but for the time being we’ll see
+what each one is to do.”
+
+“This afternoon I bought flashlights for those who haven’t any and from
+now on, as soon as it gets dark, we’ll wear ’em on our belts. Don’t
+leave them in your tents for a single minute! We have lanterns in the
+tents, but by the time we get the lanterns lighted and started off,
+the would-be terror could get a good start and we’d never nail him.
+Because the chasing squad is to form and run after the man the minute
+there is a suspicious sound around the camp!”
+
+There was a stir of expectancy and the boys looked a bit startled but
+more pleased than anything else. Ted went on: “Buck will be the head of
+the chasing squad and I’ll take care of the camp squad. The reason I
+don’t want every one to go running out and chasing up the mountain is
+because I don’t think the camp should ever be left alone. The chasing
+squad will be composed of the fastest runners, and also the biggest
+fellows, just in case you have to use any force on anyone, though it
+isn’t likely that a bunch of boys such as we are could ever handle a
+grown man, but if we can get a line on the direction he runs in we’ll
+begin to learn something.”
+
+“You get the point, don’t you? As soon as there is any unusual noise,
+Buck’s squad forms and runs in that direction. The rest of us stay in
+camp and guard it against surprise. I’ve got another thought in regard
+to trapping a visitor, but this one will do for now. From this time on
+we’ll be doing something besides sitting still and just listening and
+looking scared. Now, lets pick squads.”
+
+The biggest and oldest boys, seven in number, were immediately picked
+for Buck’s squad and the rest were reserved for the camp watch. Some of
+the boys were disappointed because they couldn’t run with the active
+group, but Ted was determined to make his two sections effective. There
+was a lot of chattering on the subject and the leader was compelled to
+warn them to keep things quiet.
+
+“Think they will be eager for action when the time comes?” Buck asked.
+
+“I guess they will. They know that a bunch of them will be in action
+and that makes a difference. I think it will work out.”
+
+The flashlights were passed out and from that time on the boys carried
+them on their belts and longed for action. But two nights sped by
+without anything unusual happening and they began to think that
+everything was over, when the third evening brought action suddenly.
+
+They were sitting around the campfire when there was a sliding sound
+back of them and a tiny avalanche of dirt and stones rolled down behind
+the tents. There was a crashing noise as though someone had landed
+in the bushes, and then, as they peered in a startled manner toward
+the rear of the camp they saw a figure bolt into the shrubs near the
+springs.
+
+“There he goes! Go after him!” shouted Ted, and Buck frantically pulled
+at his flashlight. The other boys followed his lead as he darted off,
+and in an instant the peaceful camp was demoralized. The eight boys on
+the chasing squad were running across the camp toward the springs and
+the others who were to remain in camp were urging them on at the top of
+their lungs.
+
+Drummer joined Buck and they came to the bottom of the rise, pushing
+their way up it with their lights turned on. They could hear the sound
+of the running man in front of them, and it was evident that he had
+thrown all caution to the wind in an endeavor to get away from them. On
+flat ground Drummer would not have been able to keep up with his chief,
+but his sturdy legs were good for climbing and he was able to remain
+pretty close to Buck’s side. Back of them the other boys ran along,
+forgetting nervousness in the excitement of the chase.
+
+The camp lay far behind them now and they noted that the man was taking
+a course off in the direction which Farmer Crane had told them was the
+way to Hogs’ Hollow. If this was the man from that region he would
+speedily lose them, for it was evident that he knew the country and at
+the first opportunity he would conceal himself and let them hunt for
+him at will. But just now he seemed to be putting all of his strength
+and skill into his running. He had no light and must have been very
+familiar with the surrounding country.
+
+He was drawing ahead of them now and the noise of his running footsteps
+was growing dimmer. The country became wilder and rocks protruded
+jagged heads above the mountain soil. The woods had given way to open
+country thickly sprinkled with bushes and before they had run many
+yards further they came across a narrow road that was little more than
+a wagon track. Drummer and Buck were becoming winded and the other boys
+had dropped out of the swift running, though they were still advancing.
+
+A stone wall, long and low, loomed up before them and beyond a set of
+stones which seemed more orderly than the ones they had encountered
+thus far in their run, attracted their attention. The flashlights
+revealed the fact that they were grave stones and they had arrived at a
+little country graveyard. They stopped to get breath.
+
+“Ow, that was a tough run!” gasped Drummer, leaning on the wall.
+
+“You bet it was!” agreed Buck, as two other boys came up. “I think he
+went across this graveyard.”
+
+“I don’t hear him,” said Bob, listening intently.
+
+All sounds of the pursued had ceased and the night was silent except
+for the murmur of the voices of the other boys, who now came up and
+joined them. Buck and Drummer had made enough noise in their running to
+serve as a permanent guide for the others.
+
+“Maybe he ran right across it and is still going,” said Charlie,
+nodding toward the quiet graveyard.
+
+“I don’t know, but I’m going in and see if he is hiding behind a
+stone,” announced Buck.
+
+His followers looked startled and uneasy and he noted the look. “You
+fellows stay here and I’ll just take a quick look,” he said, stepping
+over the wall. “Put your lights out.”
+
+“I’ll go with you,” declared Drummer, lifting one foot over the wall.
+
+“No, you stay here with the boys. There aren’t many stones in the
+yard and it will only take me a moment. I’ll be right back, so keep
+absolutely quiet.”
+
+With that Buck began his search, looking behind the stones by the light
+from his flash. The graveyard was a little longer than he had been able
+to make out from the rays of his light, and he kept moving away from
+the boys in the road. Back of every stone he flashed the light, but
+found nothing.
+
+He was now at the far end of the country cemetery and one large
+monumental stone alone remained. He stepped toward it, pressing the
+button on the flashlight, for he allowed it to go out after each flash.
+As he did so he stepped around the big stone and instantly sensed the
+presence of someone in the darker shadow behind the shaft.
+
+But before he could step back or press on his light a strong arm was
+thrown around him and a rough, horny hand was clapped over his mouth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+AN UNEASY CAMP
+
+
+The boys who had remained in the camp stood watching and listening as
+the field squad rushed off on the trail of the man who had slipped
+down into their camp. Small as the boys were, every one of them wished
+earnestly that he had been included in the party delegated to do the
+active work, and it was with some envy that they saw their more favored
+comrades run out of the circle of light and enter the black belt of the
+woods.
+
+But Ted had no intention of allowing them to stand around and watch.
+There were things to do and he knew that action would relieve them of
+some of their stored up feelings.
+
+“All right, fellows,” he called to them. “Let’s get on the job and
+build big fires. We don’t know what time the other boys will get back,
+and when they do we want to have the fires going briskly. Get your axes
+and we’ll snap to it.”
+
+“There is a pile of wood near the fire now,” pointed out one boy.
+
+“Yes, but that wood is going on right now,” replied Ted, piling the
+pieces of cut wood on the red fires. “We will have to hustle and cut up
+a big supply so that Buck and the boys will have a guide when they come
+back. Light the lanterns and we’ll get busy.”
+
+The lanterns were lighted and they plunged into the fringe of the
+woods. The sound of several axes rang out as their owners began to
+chop the wood for the fire supply. The lanterns were placed on the
+ground and made a neat ring near them and in the circle of this ring
+they chopped off dead limbs and split logs. As soon as the wood was
+collected they carried it back and piled it beside the fires.
+
+Both fires were now going at their best and the light cast from them
+lighted up the camp from all angles. Some of the boys would have
+stopped with their first load, but Ted knew that they might have to
+wait a long time before their companions returned, so he kept them at
+the task. The pile grew and grew until it towered above their heads,
+and in this way fully an hour went by. At last Ted felt that they had
+enough.
+
+“All right, that will be enough,” he called.
+
+The work was not yet all over, for the wood which had been dragged in
+required to be split into convenient lengths, although some of the big
+logs were piled on entire. While the work went on they kept looking up
+toward the mountain, but no sound reached them and they speculated on
+the fact.
+
+“They must have had to run a long way,” said Alfred, as he split wood.
+
+“I guess they went clear over the mountain,” nodded Ted. “It may be
+that they are trailing the man.”
+
+“You don’t suppose that anyone has hurt them, do you?” another boy
+asked, anxiously.
+
+“I hardly think so,” smiled Ted. “One man, no matter how strong he is,
+would have a big job in front of him if he tried to run off with that
+bunch of fellows. I guess they’ll be back pretty soon.”
+
+But the time dragged on and the boys became silent, glancing restlessly
+up the mountain side. Ted, looking at his watch, saw that it was eleven
+o’clock.
+
+“A good two hours since they went away,” he thought, somewhat
+anxiously. “Oh, well, I suppose time seems longer when you are waiting
+for something than it does if you aren’t. If we only knew what was
+going on we’d feel better.”
+
+He tried to keep the conversation brisk but the boys would not react.
+They were visibly oppressed, and they showed in their dogged silence
+that they were uneasy. Although none of them believed for a moment in
+anything ghostly, they found the vague stories of the camp a distinct
+hindrance to their peace of mind and the feeling of depression was
+heavy upon all of them. Ted wondered if there was not something that
+they might do to ward off the feelings which gripped them off, and he
+was thinking busily along this line when a sound reached their ears.
+
+It was a low-pitched moaning and it seemed to come from a point above
+their camp, in the pine thicket which covered the knoll there.
+
+They looked in the direction of the sound, their blood chilling under
+its influence. It was weird and mournful, and the icy shivers ran up
+and down the spine of more than one of the young boys. Ted was not in a
+comfortable state of mind himself, but he knew that something had to be
+done about it. He leaped to his feet.
+
+“Come on, we’ve got to see if anyone is hurt up there!” he called,
+reaching for his lantern. The other boys followed him closely and he
+passed around the tents and ran rapidly up the incline toward the pine
+clump. The groaning had ceased as soon as they had started for the
+place from which the disturbing sounds had come.
+
+They arrived in the grove in a group, the lanterns flashing generous
+beams around them, but there was no one to be seen. Thinking that
+someone might be concealed in the bushes they thrust their lights in
+there and looked closely, but there was no sign of a living person, and
+as only a living being could produce the sound which had startled them
+so profoundly, they half expected to see someone who had been injured
+in some manner. But although they searched the grove they could not
+find a trace of anyone.
+
+“That’s funny,” commented Ted, now more annoyed than frightened. “The
+groans came from here, didn’t they?”
+
+“Sure they did,” was the ready response.
+
+“Well, the groaner has moved somewhere else,” said Ted, half angry and
+half jokingly. “We won’t even be able to find any footprints, because
+there is such a carpet of pine needles that a print wouldn’t show.
+Confound this whole business, I——”
+
+From across the camp, and on the other side of Bear Creek, came the
+groaning sound again. The boys stirred and looked anxiously at Ted.
+
+The hot blood surged into his face and he would have liked nothing
+better than to have come to instant physical encounter with the
+groaner. While he waited to control his hot anger the groans came
+in long drawn out wails that, under the circumstances, chilled their
+blood. Besides being angry Ted was also puzzled.
+
+“Buck and his squad chased that fellow up the mountain,” he said aloud.
+“I wonder if he could have slipped around them and come back? Maybe he
+just wanted to lead them off on a chase.” Abruptly he turned to the
+boys. “Come on back to the camp.”
+
+They followed him in silence back to the camp and as soon as they
+entered the circle of light cast by the fires the groaning ceased. A
+weighty silence succeeded.
+
+“Fellows,” Ted addressed them, in a low tone. “There isn’t any use of
+us running all around trying to find out who this practical joker is.
+He’ll just run us ragged, so let’s retire into the center tent and stay
+there until Buck and his squad gets back. We can watch everything that
+goes on from the flap of the tent and by keeping under cover we’ll make
+the chap who is so fond of tricks either show himself or shut up!”
+
+They all crowded under the canvas of the second tent, glad for the
+shelter, frail as it was. From their position some of the boys could
+look out and watch the other tents and all of them could watch the
+fire. Ted did not go into the tent at once, but took a lantern and
+made sure that his flashlight was at his side.
+
+“You fellows stay here and keep a sharp lookout,” he directed. “I’m
+going down to see if there is any way for anyone to cross the creek.”
+
+“Going all by yourself?” a boy asked, his eyes staring in awe.
+
+“Yes, but I’ll be right back,” nodded Ted. “See you later.”
+
+He walked off, leaving them to chatter in a hushed way among
+themselves, and going at once to the creek, took his course along it
+and away from the camp. He knew that there was a shaky old wood bridge
+down the creek at some yards from the camp, and while he had told the
+boys that he was going only that far, Ted secretly determined to cross
+and have a look at the rather marshy ground on the other side of the
+curving stream. He was almost certain that he would find nothing, but
+he wanted to look nevertheless.
+
+“But I mustn’t allow anything to happen to me,” he thought, anxiously.
+“These boys would be leaderless at least until Buck got back, and
+there is no telling what might happen to them. I mustn’t be gone long,
+either.”
+
+He came to the bridge, which he had found one day in his wanderings,
+and he crossed it, his footsteps sounding hollow and damp as his shoes
+pressed the rotted boards. On the other side he stepped ashore into a
+slippery species of soil that gently oozed water as his foot struck and
+sank slightly into it. The bushes here were thick and he was compelled
+to force his way through them. Before going beyond the bridge he
+lowered his lantern and looked at the soft earth and at once perceived
+something which excited his closest attention.
+
+There was the imprint in the dirt of a large shoe.
+
+The shoe was evidently a good one and showed no sign of wear, while the
+heel of it was quite new and left impressions which proclaimed it to be
+a rubber one with regulation holes and a trade mark which was too faint
+to be of more than passing value to him. But the sight of the print
+alone caused him to rejoice that at last there was a clear record.
+
+“Now, I’ll just see where this print leads to,” he thought and started
+off. A moment later he halted as another thought came to him.
+
+“The prints don’t return. Suppose the man is hiding in the bushes, just
+waiting for me!”
+
+The reflection made his skin creep and for a moment he fought a growing
+desire to turn and go back. But after an instant of indecision he
+fought it off. “I’ll have to chance it and go on. I won’t go far from
+camp, and if I do see anyone, I can fight it out or run like a streak.
+I won’t cross the bridge, either, I’ll cut right across the ground and
+jump into the creek and swim it. Don’t know if I’m foolish or not, but
+here goes!”
+
+With every sense on the alert he walked forward, eyes straining, ears
+pitched for a sound, ready to retreat at a moment’s notice. It was no
+easy task to follow the footprints and look around him at the same
+time, but he managed to do it as he advanced. At a point opposite the
+camp he came to a complete halt and marked the spot where the man had
+evidently stood when he delivered the groans, for there the soft ground
+was foot-printed lavishly. From that spot the man had gone off down the
+stream away from the camp until he had come to the creek at a point
+where rocks protruded so far above the stream that he had found it easy
+to walk across and take to the woods alongside of the camp. Ted noted
+that the ford was out of sight of the tents and while they were going
+into the tents the man had evidently crossed the low part of the stream
+and had entered the woods at a point not far from where Buck and his
+squad had entered it.
+
+“After he finished his groaning he must have decided that he had scared
+us enough,” mused Ted, as he stood there peering around. “Confound
+him, if I ever get my hands on him, I’ll knock his head off, provided
+I’m big enough! What anyone should take all the trouble to try and
+scare a bunch of fellows out of camp for is more than I can figure out!”
+
+He crossed the stream at the point where the mysterious man had crossed
+and made his way back toward the camp, coming up alongside of the
+fires, in plain sight of the anxiously waiting boys. They were greatly
+astonished to see him come from the opposite direction from that in
+which he had started.
+
+He opened his mouth to call out a cheery greeting to them and then his
+mouth remained open, no sound issuing from it for the moment. In the
+pine grove above them he detected a spurt of fire, and the next instant
+a dry bush burst into crackling flame. He awoke from his temporary
+muteness.
+
+“Come on boys, on the jump!” he shouted. “Grab all the pails you can
+get hold of! The woods are on fire!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+DRUMMER SAVES HIS CHIEF
+
+
+It was with a sinking heart and a quick flash of chilling fear that
+Buck felt himself in the grasp of the unknown man back of the cemetery
+monument. The attack had come so quickly that, added to the mystery and
+uncanniness of the place and hour, his mind whirled for the moment. The
+hand over his mouth was rough and horny, calloused apparently by hard
+labor, and the arm which encircled his body and pinned his own arms to
+his sides was a strong and sinewy one, the thin but whip-like cords of
+which he could feel even through his clothing.
+
+His fingers still rested on the button of his flashlight and the
+thought occurred to him to light it. But as though reading his thought
+the strange individual swung down a long, lean hand and swept it from
+his grasp. Buck might have used his light for a weapon had he thought
+about it, but just now his thoughts and impressions were too confused
+to allow for anything constructive.
+
+Still keeping his hand over Buck’s mouth and his thin arm around his
+body with a grip of steel, the man peered out around the tall stone to
+see if anyone was following the leader. He could see the group of boys
+merely as shadows a little darker than the sky, for at the point where
+they were standing there was no woods background and as the cemetery
+was high on a ridge of the mountain the boys were outlined like uneasy
+shadows against a black sky. Seeming to derive comfort from the fact
+that Buck was all alone, the man started to drag him off.
+
+But in this period of time Buck had recovered his presence of mind. The
+man who had him was very little taller than he was, his body was thin
+and he seemed to be nearer middle age than young. All in all, Buck was
+huskier, but for all that, the man who held him had muscles of steel.
+There was no doubt that he was a native mountain character and he was
+ready for any emergency. Buck wished fervently that he could get his
+mouth free and also gain the use of his arms. He felt that with the use
+of his arms he could match himself up favorably with the man who held
+him.
+
+Just as the man began to drag him off, Buck began a frantic attempt to
+break away. He jerked his head back in an effort to free his mouth, but
+the man immediately dug his long fingers into Buck’s cheeks. The pain
+infuriated the boy and he increased his struggles. He fought to free
+his arms, exerting all of his strength to do so.
+
+The attempt was futile. Like a winding whip the thin arm tightened even
+more closely until the wind was almost forced from his body. Then Buck
+began a foot attack.
+
+This nearly succeeded, for the man was not prepared for it. Buck gave
+his nearest foot a kick that made the man grunt with pain, and for a
+moment it looked as though he was going to go over. But he recovered
+his ground and once more began his dragging process. Fighting stoutly
+but vainly, Buck was dragged along.
+
+They moved away from the big stone toward the far wall, the captor
+finding his progress a hard one, due to the energetic squirming of
+Buck. The boy expected a fierce warning any minute from the man and
+perhaps a blow to silence him, but the mountaineer was depending on his
+strength alone to carry Buck off and not so much as a single word came
+from him. Half dragging and half carrying Buck, he made his way to the
+wall furtherest away from the boys. The grass in the cemetery was soft
+and wet and Buck’s fighting progress made no sound.
+
+They arrived at last at the wall and the man heaved Buck up and over
+like a sack of wheat and jumped with him over the low barrier. They
+were in the open field, with a few apple trees around and the deep
+woods a few scant yards away. Toward this dense wall of the thicker
+trees the determined man began to drag Buck, who by this time had
+succeeded in prying open his fingers so as to breathe between them.
+
+Something unexpected happened. There was a swish near them which
+puzzled them both. The captor stopped in some bewilderment and then
+something hard struck him on the side of the temple, causing him to
+grunt and hesitate in his progress.
+
+Back at the wall the boys had watched Buck’s progress as he went from
+stone to stone with his flashlight and they had remained quiet while he
+had worked his way deeper and deeper into the quiet graveyard. Drummer
+felt somewhat grieved that his leader had not taken him along but he
+kept the fact to himself. Buck’s light was seen once far down in the
+cemetery, close to a towering monument, and it was seen no more. Time
+dragged on heavily.
+
+Impatiently, the boys waited at the wall, standing close together in
+the darkness. The quietness of the lonely country, the association
+of the graveyard and the uncertainty of the whole enterprise made
+them want to give up the affair and return to the camp. They thought
+somewhat wistfully of the warm campfires and their friends below, and
+they were anxious to get back. Before long they became restless and
+nervous.
+
+“Confound it, wish he’d come back!” grumbled a boy.
+
+“He’ll be right back,” reassured Drummer, secretly uneasy.
+
+For the past few seconds Drummer had been smelling something that
+appealed to him. There must be an apple orchard nearby he decided,
+and where there was an orchard there must surely be apples. That
+particular brand of fruit was a great favorite with the stout boy, and
+after peering around for a moment or two he decided that the orchard
+must be at the end of the graveyard wall. He began to edge off in that
+direction.
+
+“Where you going?” Bob whispered.
+
+“To see if I can pick up an apple,” was the answer, as Drummer moved
+off.
+
+Under the circumstances no one else was interested in apples and
+Drummer went alone. At the end of the wall he instinctively reached for
+his flashlight which he had hung on his belt, and then he realized that
+he could not use it.
+
+“Better not,” he decided. “I might give our position away, and Buck
+would be mad. I’ll hunt around in the dark and I guess I can find some
+on the ground.”
+
+The apple trees were now before him and he stopped under the first
+tree, looking up. There were apples on the tree he was able to make
+out, but all of them were beyond his reach. He had no intention of
+climbing the tree at that time, though he made up his mind to visit the
+old orchard at some later time and help himself to the apples on the
+tree.
+
+He reached down, wishing for the added help of his light but deeming
+it prudent not to employ it. There were apples on the ground and his
+groping fingers found four of them without any trouble. There were
+others nearby, but he straightened up with a big one in his hand and
+carefully felt along the surface of it.
+
+“Got to be careful about eating them in the dark,” he reflected. “Don’t
+want to go eating any worms! This one feels all right.”
+
+He raised his head, and against the break between the woods and the
+sky, saw something that for the moment chilled his blood.
+
+A man who looked for the moment like a goblin or some horrible creature
+from another world, was apparently half-carrying and half-dragging a
+big sack of meal after him as he crept toward the woods. But the sack
+struggled and moved and in that instant Drummer’s eyes were opened
+fully.
+
+He remembered the last flash of Buck’s flashlight and the long silence
+from the graveyard. It was plain at once that the man they had been
+chasing was carrying off his chief and for a brief second the stout boy
+was on the verge of yelling at the top of his lungs. One hand dropped
+toward his flashlight and then he remembered the apple in his hand. It
+was hard and Drummer was a fairly good shot.
+
+Trembling with excitement, he threw it toward the two figures before
+him. It went wide of the mark, it seemed to the boy and he stooped down
+and hastily gathered up the apples at his feet. Calming down somewhat,
+he began to throw them with more care, and a grunt told him that his
+second apple had struck someone. He hoped it had not hit Buck, but he
+kept on hurling apples.
+
+There was a fierce struggle before him and just as his fingers closed
+over his flashlight, his last apple having been exhausted, he heard
+Buck’s voice.
+
+“He got away!”
+
+Drummer snapped on his flashlight and in the beams of it he saw the man
+running across the orchard toward the woods. Buck was three or four
+yards behind him, but the man was increasing his speed at every stride
+and it looked hopeless. Drummer joined in the chase.
+
+When the apple had struck the man on the head he had hesitated,
+bewildered, and in that instant Buck renewed his passionate attempt to
+break loose. This time he succeeded in freeing his mouth and one arm,
+which he attempted to wind around the man who had for so long held him
+a captive. Two more apples swished past them at top speed and the man
+now changed his tactics. He no longer desired to hold Buck, but seemed
+more than anxious to get away. He loosed his hold on Buck and wrestled
+with him in a short, fierce match, finally breaking Buck’s hold and
+turning to flee. The last apple hurled by Drummer struck the man in the
+back and he made off like a flash toward the woods. It was then that
+Buck shouted and took up the chase, somewhat winded from his recent
+battle.
+
+The man gained the woods well ahead of him and wound his way in and
+out among the trees, too anxious to get away to slow up for a lack of
+light. Buck had no light and Drummer’s flashlight was too far back of
+him to be of any use. He could hear the boys chattering as they took
+up the chase, but on the edge of the woods Buck halted, realizing the
+futility of it.
+
+He was winded and dissatisfied and the man who had plunged into the
+woods knew them so well that to follow him would be a pure waste
+of time. Drummer caught up with him, puffing with the exertion and
+excitement.
+
+“Go-going to chase him?” panted the hero of the apple bombardment.
+
+“No use,” declared Buck, as the others came up, lights all turned on.
+“We’d never get him in these woods. He knows them too well. You can’t
+even hear him, now.”
+
+They stood there listening, but nothing but unbroken silence came
+from the depths of the forest. The rest of the boys did not desire to
+press the matter if Buck did not, and they stood there for some time,
+listening with awe to Buck’s story of his adventure. Many were the
+exclamations that followed it.
+
+“Boy, you certainly did me a service when you began to peg those
+apples!” Buck told Drummer, laughing. “That artillery fire halted his
+advance and gave me my turn at the game. You certainly used your head!”
+
+“Well, that’s just once when my appetite came in handy,” grinned the
+fat boy.
+
+“It surely did! Next time anyone comes around bothering the camp we’ll
+just send you out with a basket of apples and we can sleep in peace
+all night! Well, come on back to the graveyard, I want to get my
+flashlight.”
+
+They all climbed over the low wall and went back to the spot where
+Buck had been captured by the man behind the monument and there on the
+ground they found his flashlight. Beside it, resting against the base
+of the stone, they found a battered lantern.
+
+“I wondered what had become of his lantern,” said Buck, picking up the
+battered object. “Just an ordinary old farm lantern, which doesn’t tell
+us much, but we’ll take it back to camp with us.”
+
+“I won’t be sorry to get back to camp,” said Charlie.
+
+“Pretty soft for the fellows in camp!” remarked Drummer. “Just sitting
+around the fires waiting for us!”
+
+“Let’s get back to the camp,” suggested Buck. “They’ll be waiting up
+for us and worrying.”
+
+In a body they set out for the camp, feeling better now that everything
+had turned out well, although they were sorry that the man had gotten
+away. “If we had gotten him we would have solved the problem of our
+camp,” said Buck. “But we’ll keep after him until we do get him.”
+
+“Think he’ll come around the camp any more?” Drummer asked.
+
+“Not for a while, anyway. I can’t say whether he’ll come around again
+or not because I don’t know what his object can be. But if he doesn’t,
+we’ll go out and hunt him up, because it is high time that he was
+brought down.”
+
+They had run further away from the camp than they had thought and it
+took them a long time to reach the top of the mountain where they could
+look down on the camp. The two fires were burning brightly but no one
+was in sight. This puzzled them and they halted, studying the situation.
+
+“Funny, I wonder where they are?” muttered Buck.
+
+“Look, somebody crossing the brook with a lantern!” cried Bob, pointing.
+
+They saw a lone figure crossing the stones of the brook below the spot
+where the creek was deep enough to swim and Buck was sure that the
+figure was Ted. They were so high up and far away that they were unable
+to tell accurately, but it looked to be the figure of the camp leader.
+He entered the circle of light near the fire, the lantern swinging by
+his side.
+
+Then something else claimed the attention of the boys on top of the
+mountain. A flicker of light came to them from the top of the ridge
+back of the springs and then a bush flamed. They saw the camp boys come
+running out of their tents and look toward the fire, then scurry off
+toward the truck at the edge of the camp.
+
+Buck wasted no more time. “Come on, fellows!” he called, as he started
+off. “The woods are burning! We’ve got to help the camp squad!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A VISIT TO HOGS’ HOLLOW
+
+
+The words which Ted shouted to the boys in the tent struck them dumb
+for a moment, but to their ears was borne the sound of the snapping and
+crackling. They rushed out of the tent into the open space of the camp,
+to see the dry pine grove above them glowing with fire.
+
+Ted was running toward the truck for pails and the boys, awakening
+to the seriousness of the situation, followed him. Some of them made
+a hurried trip to the cooking supplies which were piled near the
+fireplaces, snatching up the pots and pans. Ted pulled out all of
+the pails which were in the truck and handed them around as fast as
+possible.
+
+“Get water from the spring and go to it!” he cried, passing out the
+last pail. Then, seizing one which he had reserved for himself, Ted ran
+up the slope, stopped at the spring to dip out a supply of water, and
+then went on to the thicket where the fire blazed.
+
+The pine grove had been a dry place with an accumulation of dry leaves
+and dead bushes and the whole thicket was now a raging furnace. The
+month had been dry and except for the big storm which had so thoroughly
+soaked them the boys had not experienced any adverse weather. The
+woods, as a consequence, was in a receptive mood for a fire, and Ted’s
+heart misgave him as he saw the blaze before him.
+
+“If this gets going full blast in the woods, people will say that we
+started it, and there will be the dickens to pay!” he groaned inwardly,
+as he threw the water from his pail onto the fire. “Oh, I do wish that
+Buck and his squad was here to help us!”
+
+Boys who had not been able to supply themselves with pails had seized
+anything handy with which to beat at the edges of the fire and they
+fought stoutly to beat it to submission. The smoke was choking and the
+heat thrown off was blistering. Ted, having emptied his pail, raced
+down to the spring, to find another problem confronting them.
+
+The two springs had been drained down to mere trickles. A half dozen
+pails of water from each had effectively emptied them and Ted did not
+dare wait for the basins to fill up. There was but one thing to do.
+
+“Fill your pails at the creek!” he cried, and dashed off down the slope
+to Bear Creek. Here he dipped his bucket into the black water and ran
+back up the hill with it, splashing it on the fire.
+
+“Good glory, we’ll never beat it at this rate, and we simply have to!”
+was his despairing thought.
+
+He remembered the large extra piece of canvas in the truck, and
+abandoning his pail he ran down the hill and procured the material.
+Just as he was about to charge back up the slope there was heard the
+sound of running footsteps and Buck’s squad, nearly played out from
+their hurried descent, arrived in the camp.
+
+“Buck!” shouted Ted, joyously. “You just got here in time!”
+
+“I guess so!” was the panted reply. “Here, let me have an end of that
+canvas and we’ll try and smother some of the fire.”
+
+The boys who had just arrived in camp procured flat pans, shovels and
+anything else that came to hand and joined the almost exhausted boys
+at the pine grove. Ted and Buck carried the canvas up and each of them
+took an end. This large section of material, when raised and lowered by
+the two boys, snuffed out long, ragged edges of flame, and by working
+busily they soon had the fire under control. But their work was by no
+means ended as yet. There were dozens of individual spurts of fire
+still to be put out and to these they gave their attention. Two dead
+trees were beginning to blaze and the two camp leaders quickly put them
+out, so that the fire would not be noted by anyone living nearby. At
+the present time they desired no publicity.
+
+The last glimmer of fire had been put out and the smoked and blackened
+boys stood silent for a moment, panting heavily. The night had been
+indeed a strenuous one, and the chasing squad in particular was worn
+out completely. Their long dash after the mountain man, their speedy
+return, and the exertions around the pine grove, had been as much as
+they could bear. Some of the smaller boys were shaking decidedly, now
+that danger was over, but the trembling was the result of excitement
+and exhaustion.
+
+“Me for the spring!” exclaimed Drummer, and a rush was immediately made
+for the cool, fresh water. The basins had not yet filled but there was
+enough for everybody and they drank and drank and drank.
+
+“How’d that patch of pine get on fire?” Buck asked Ted, waiting for all
+of the smaller boys to quench their thirst before caring for his own
+parched throat.
+
+“I haven’t the slightest idea,” Ted shook his head. “But it was
+deliberately fired!”
+
+“By whom?”
+
+“I don’t know,” was Ted’s reply. “But we have been annoyed by some one
+groaning around all the time you were gone!”
+
+“I can’t figure that,” said Buck. “We chased our man, and he captured
+me for about five minutes. If you say that you were bothered, then
+there is more than one prowler.”
+
+“Let’s get our drinks and then swap stories down at the fire,”
+suggested Ted, dipping a tin cup into the cool spring water as Buck did
+the same.
+
+Gathering around the fire with fire-fighting implements still in their
+hands they looked like a band of Black Riders themselves, for their
+clothing had become burned and their hands and faces were black. Buck
+related his adventures and then Ted told of the groans and his search
+across the brook.
+
+“Well, all I can see is that there are two of these fellows,” declared
+Buck, when Ted had finished his story. “I’m beginning to wonder if that
+one fellow didn’t purposely lead us a merry chase just so that his
+companion could fire the woods. You know, if the woods had burned, the
+authorities around here would be hot against us for having done it.”
+
+“I know that well enough,” nodded Ted. “That’s why I just knew that we
+had to get that fire out. I guess that things have become so serious
+that we’ll have to get in touch with Mr. Calvert and have some real
+action taken. Next thing we know somebody will be getting hurt or
+kidnapped or something. Yes, it looks as though there are two of these
+fellows.”
+
+“I think that one of them is that Jerry Jackson, from Hogs’ Hollow,”
+said Buck.
+
+“What makes you think that?”
+
+“The fellow that we chased ran in that direction and I’m sure that he
+is the one. I suppose he has a companion and they work together. Tell
+you what let’s do, let’s go over to Hogs’ Hollow tomorrow and call on
+Mr. Jackson.”
+
+“All right, we’ll do it,” agreed Ted. “For some reason he doesn’t want
+us to camp here, and if we find him at home we’ll try and learn why he
+doesn’t want us.”
+
+The boys were shaky with fatigue and Ted ordered them to bed at once,
+while he and Buck took lanterns and looked once more over the ground
+which had been burned, hoping to find some kind of a clue. But they
+were unable to learn anything from the burned, down-trodden soil.
+
+“Nothing to be learned here,” decided Ted, as they went back to camp.
+“We’ll see what we can find out at Hogs’ Hollow tomorrow.”
+
+That night the boys slept like logs, and had anyone been minded to run
+away with the tents, trucks or fires themselves, no one would have
+known anything about it until daybreak at least, and most of them not
+until much later in the day. It was almost noontime before the whole
+camp was awake and crowding around for something to eat.
+
+“If anyone had run away with the whole camp last night, I wouldn’t have
+known it,” smiled Ted.
+
+“Shows what a bum general he is,” said Buck. “He should have known
+that we would all be half-dead and that he could have worked anything
+he wanted to while we slept so soundly. But we’re glad he is a bum
+general!”
+
+As soon as camp was cleaned up they began to make plans for a visit
+to Hogs’ Hollow. It was finally decided that only Ted and Buck would
+go, and that all of the boys would remain behind to protect the camp.
+With Charlie, Bob and Drummer to counsel and lead the younger boys they
+felt reasonably safe, and after talking it over with those who were to
+remain in the camp the two older boys started off.
+
+“I’m pretty sure that nothing will happen in broad daylight,” was Ted’s
+final word to them.
+
+“I guess not,” Bob had smiled. “We’ve got Drummer with us, and even if
+we haven’t any apples for him, to peg, maybe he can use potatoes just
+as well!”
+
+Walking swiftly and heading in the general direction which Farmer Crane
+had told them to take toward Hogs’ Hollow, they quickly covered the
+ground followed last night by Buck’s squad and arrived at the cemetery.
+Passing around the walls of the country graveyard they entered the
+woods at a point close to where the man had escaped on the previous
+night and at once found themselves in a tangle of forest much denser
+and wilder than that which surrounded their own camp. The graveyard
+itself was on the top of the mountain and as soon as they entered the
+dark and cool woods they began to go down into a valley.
+
+“Notice how the soil gets soft as soon as we begin to go down?” asked
+Buck.
+
+“Yes, and I suppose the bottom of the valley is quite marshy. I guess
+that is why they call it Hogs’ Hollow.”
+
+Ted’s guess was a correct one. At the bottom of the valley they struck
+a low, marshy expanse of ground that kept them busy avoiding muck
+holes. Tall bunches of weeds and marsh grass grew in profusion and
+there was a decidedly damp smell in the air.
+
+“Cheerful place!” grunted Buck.
+
+“Yes, not! This must be Hogs’ Hollow. Only the animal for whom it is
+named would enjoy this place. Now, all we have to do is to find the
+shack that this man Jackson lives in.”
+
+This was not an easy thing to do, for the hollow was blanketed and
+screened by so many bushes and clumps of small trees that they could
+not see far before them. They had spent a good three-quarters of an
+hour wandering around when Ted sighted the object of their search
+before him on a higher strip of ground.
+
+“There it is! There’s the shack we’re looking for!”
+
+A rude hut, constructed of picked-up boards and roofed with sections of
+tree bark, loomed up before them on a tongue of land which was slightly
+drier than the surrounding territory. The hut was a large and rambling
+affair, with a window on each side and a door which sagged on leather
+hinges. A rusted stove pipe thrust its way up through the bark roof,
+but no smoke came from it. There was no sign of life around the place
+and they debated the wisdom of walking boldly up to it.
+
+“We might as well,” decided Ted. “We’re here to have a talk with
+this Jerry Jackson and we might as well plunge right into it. No use
+sneaking around, because we have to make the break sometime or other.”
+
+So they approached the hut openly, eyes and ears alert for anything
+unexpected, but there was no sign or movement of any kind. Ted peered
+into a window and found that the place was empty.
+
+“He isn’t at home,” he said. “Let’s see if we can’t get in.”
+
+The sagging front door was unlocked and with some degree of caution
+the two boys entered the place, but it was indeed empty of life and
+they looked around them with interest. The furnishings of the hut
+were as rude as the outside and they consisted of a discolored table,
+a rickety-looking rocking chair and a firmer-looking straight one, a
+rusted stove, a disordered bunk, and various odds and ends. But the
+object on the table caught and held their eyes and they examined it
+closely.
+
+It was a long white cloth garment which the dweller in Hogs’ Hollow
+was working upon, for a needle still stuck into the cloth and a spool
+of white thread stood beside it. There was a hood to the thing and a
+cloth mask for the face, a mask which was punctured with eye holes and
+a slit where the mouth should be. The two boys looked at it silently
+and then exchanged glances.
+
+“A ghost suit, as sure as you are a foot high!” Buck voiced the
+thought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE WATCHING POST
+
+
+Ted nodded as he looked the suit over. It was a coarse white sheet and
+the dweller in the hut was taking some pains on the construction of it.
+But there was no doubt as to its proposed use.
+
+“Yes, sir, it’s a ghost uniform, if there is such a thing!” smiled Ted.
+“And I guess I have an idea where he intends to wear it!”
+
+“He isn’t going to a masquerade, I’ll bet on that!” grinned Buck.
+“If I’m not mistaken he’ll turn up pretty soon at our camp with this
+nightgown on!”
+
+“When he does, we’ll take it off!” promised Ted, grimly.
+
+“Shall we wait for him to come home and then nab him?” Buck asked.
+
+“No the sight of this ghost costume has made me change my mind, and if
+you agree to my plan, we’ll work this thing out another way. Let’s get
+out of here before he returns and wait around camp until he does show
+up in this sheet affair. Then, when we grab him, we’ll have him just
+where we want him. If we accuse him of anything now he can easily back
+out by saying that he doesn’t know anything about it, but if we catch
+him around the camp in this suit we will have him just where he’ll find
+it impossible to escape.”
+
+“That is all right as far as it goes, but how are we going to know just
+what night he does visit the camp? We don’t want a chase such as we had
+the other night.”
+
+“No, but I have a plan for a trap. However, let’s get out of here first
+and we’ll discuss it on the way back. Now I’m particularly anxious that
+he doesn’t catch us in here or know that we have been here.”
+
+“All right. We haven’t disturbed anything, have we?”
+
+Ted looked around thoughtfully and then shook his head. “I guess not.
+We didn’t touch anything and I’m glad we didn’t even touch the suit.
+By the way, while we are here, let’s see if there is any sign of that
+skeleton that was in the bushes back of the camp.”
+
+They hunted hastily around for the skeleton, looking in every corner
+and into a small closet space off of the main room, but there was no
+sign of the object which had so startled them. Satisfied that they
+could not find anything, which would add to their store of knowledge
+concerning the man, and anxious to get out of Hogs’ Hollow as soon as
+possible, they left the hut, arranging the door as they had found it,
+and struck at once off into the swampland toward the higher ground. No
+words were exchanged between them until they had quitted the hollow
+and had arrived at higher ground, where they started off side by side
+toward the camp.
+
+“What is your idea about trapping the fellow when he comes ghosting?”
+asked Buck, as they skirted the cemetery and started along the rough
+road.
+
+“Now that we have a fairly good idea that he’ll visit us, we’ll prepare
+for him,” explained Ted. “I guess that after the surprise attack on him
+the other night he won’t come any too near the camp in his white sheet,
+though he must be going to show himself, or why bother with a sheet at
+all? He may plan to reveal himself on a rock as he did with the black
+horse that time, but whichever way he plans it, I guess we can be sure
+that he is coming sooner or later. Now, if we’re going to be in the
+camp we won’t have much chance to cope with him, but we won’t be in
+camp!”
+
+“Won’t be in the camp!” Buck echoed. “Where will we be?”
+
+“We’ll be outside of camp and hidden in a clump of bushes, watching
+the camp to see what happens. You know our tents back up against the
+hill where the springs are and that will be an advantage. My idea is
+for us to lift the backs of the tents, creep out and along the slope
+until we reach that bunch of maples on the east side of the camp. Those
+trees are pretty close together and there is a fine screen of bushes,
+where we can lie in wait and watch the camp.”
+
+“Oh, I see! Then if he gets to fooling around back of the camp we can
+see him better than we could if we were down in the camp.”
+
+“Yes, and not only that, but I think the sight of an empty camp will
+lure him on. If he has no evil intentions toward the camp I think that
+sheer curiosity will draw him into it. Then, from our watching post on
+the hill we can figure out a plan to swoop down on him and surround
+him. How does that sound to you?”
+
+“All right,” approved Buck, enthusiastically. “But we’ll have to be
+regular Indians to crawl from the tents to the maples!”
+
+“That is all right, we’ll be able to do it. Of course, if he ever sees
+us at it, everything is over, but we’ll just have to be so careful that
+he won’t see us. If anyone is to do the seeing, we’re the ones to do
+it. I’d like to catch him red-handed prowling around the camp and then
+we’ll have a clear case against him.”
+
+“Yes. But don’t forget that he must have a helper. Things have happened
+in such a way that he can’t possibly be doing them all by himself.”
+
+“I realize that, and I don’t know whether they’ll work in pairs or not,
+but I think if we can get him we’ll have no trouble in getting his
+friend, whoever he is. We’ll concentrate on getting him and that will
+probably clear up the atmosphere quite a bit.”
+
+They arrived at the camp, to find the other boys anxiously awaiting
+them, though they had not been idle. Preparations had been made for
+supper and everything was ready to put on the fire when they got back.
+The boys were at first disappointed because they had not brought a
+prisoner back with them, but Ted soon explained his plan to them and
+they fell in with it whole-heartedly.
+
+“That will mean we’ll be sleeping out in the open for a few nights at
+least,” Ted told them. “You see, when we crawl out there we’re not
+going to just sit there for a few hours and then go back into the
+tents. It is pretty likely that this fellow will try his next piece
+of funny work in the middle of the night, and when he does we’ll want
+to be out of the camp and a whole lot nearer to him than he thinks
+for. If he tries anything more like setting the woods afire we’ll be
+right on top of him before he can get very far, and in order to do so
+we’ll want to camp out and away from the tents. So tonight when it gets
+dark we’ll let the fires die down a bit and then we’ll go to our tents
+as though we intended to turn in early. From in the tents we’ll slip
+out the back one by one, each with his own blanket, and we’ll make an
+outdoor camp in the maple grove.”
+
+“Won’t it be cold outdoors?” a boy asked.
+
+“No, it won’t be. It is warm nights, as you know, and it won’t hurt us
+a bit to sleep outside. Of course, if a storm comes up we’ll crawl back
+and wait until a better night comes along.”
+
+After supper that night they allowed the fires to die away to a mass
+of red embers and then one by one drifted into their tents. As soon as
+they entered the shelters they rolled up their blankets, strapped them
+on their shoulders and one by one raised the back wall of the tents and
+slipped out into the darkness back of the tents.
+
+Here the blackness was intense and they found that crawling was not
+necessary. Keeping well to the darkness and out of the feeble light
+from the fires they stole one by one to the grove of maples and there
+assembled, until all of them were in the place. This grove was of
+ample size to hold them all and after some low-pitched conversation,
+which Ted and Buck took care to keep down and discourage, they spread
+out their blankets and made their first attempt at outdoor sleeping.
+
+Some of them went to sleep at once, while others, finding sleeping
+under the stars a distinct novelty, lay awake for some little time. But
+all of them were getting used to the camp life by this time and it was
+not long before all of them slept soundly.
+
+Morning came without anything having happened and they awoke in some
+disappointment. Ted saw that he had omitted some important part of his
+scheme.
+
+“We should have had them sneak back in camp and come out of their
+tents, just as though they had slept there all night,” he told Buck.
+“If anyone is watching the camp and sees us come out of here, they’ll
+catch on to the plan at once. I never thought of that part.”
+
+“Tomorrow morning we’ll have to wake up just before dawn and sneak
+back, to finish our sleep in the tents,” nodded Buck. “I’ll tell you
+what we do know. Suppose we go off into the woods a short distance and
+then enter the camp from a direction back of the springs? Then, if
+anyone should be watching and sees us come in, they’ll think we took
+an overnight hike and are just getting in.”
+
+“Providing they didn’t see us going into the tent for the apparent
+purpose of going to sleep there,” reminded Ted. “But we’ll do it that
+way and trust to luck.”
+
+They moved off into the woods and approached the camp from a different
+direction from the maple clump.
+
+The day passed pleasantly enough, the boys enjoying the camp life and
+the swimming. That evening, as they finished their suppers, a beautiful
+full moon made its appearance in the sky.
+
+“Going to have a fine old moon to sleep under tonight,” remarked
+Drummer.
+
+The act of retiring to the tents and stealing off to the maple grove
+was again performed and once in the grove they sat on their blankets
+and talked in low tones. The night was so fine that no one actually
+wanted to go to sleep, though it was now the usual time.
+
+“Well, we might as well turn in,” yawned Ted, beginning to unbutton his
+shirt. The others reluctantly followed his example and soon most of
+them had slipped in under the blankets. Ted took a final look down at
+the camp.
+
+The fires were low, almost out, in fact. The brilliant moon lighted
+up the camp like a silvery lantern and the entire landscape, done
+in silver and black, was hauntingly beautiful. Ted felt a flash of
+annoyance at the train of circumstances which was compelling them to
+spend the night away from their tents.
+
+“Too bad we have to fool around with those fellows,” he grumbled,
+inwardly. “This would be a beautiful night to lie in the tents and look
+out at things. I wish—”
+
+He broke off in his thoughts and bent forward, his eyes narrowed. Then
+he snapped his fingers softly and hissed. The boys sat up in their
+blankets.
+
+“What’s up?” Buck whispered, quickly.
+
+“Get up, but don’t make any noise, on your lives!” was the thrilling
+reply, in a carefully guarded tone. “There is a figure all in white in
+the trees close to the creek!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+GHOST MEETS GHOST
+
+
+There was only the faintest stir as the boys followed Buck’s lead in
+tossing their blankets aside and joined Ted at the bushes. Following
+the direction which he had indicated, they found that what he had said
+was the truth. Close beside a tall tree, on the bank of the creek,
+stood a figure shrouded entirely in white.
+
+The figure was motionless at the time, intently regarding the silent
+camp before him. From the direction in which his coming lay the boys
+guessed that he had come up on the far side of Bear Creek and had
+crossed over the stones at the spot where Ted had previously crossed
+them. The sight of the almost dead fires and the strange silence of the
+camp was giving the would-be ghost food for thought, though he must
+have expected that the boys would be asleep at the time of his coming.
+For two or three minutes, a space of time which to the boys seemed
+an age, he stood looking across the cleared space before the tents
+and then he began to work his way nearer to the empty camp shelters,
+keeping always close to the trees which skirted them.
+
+What his intentions were they could not guess. He carried nothing in
+his hands and from all appearances he was about to confine his efforts
+at simply scaring them.
+
+“Look there!” suddenly gasped Drummer.
+
+They saw that he was looking off in the opposite direction and back of
+the tents, but for the moment could not make out what he had seen.
+
+“What is it?” Ted whispered.
+
+“Another ghost!” was the answer. “Look, back there in the bushes near
+the pine grove where the fire was. By golly, there are two ghosts!”
+
+Now they saw what had struck the fat boy’s eyes. It was another figure
+dressed much in the manner of the one near the front of the tents, and
+it was crouching in the thicket back of the tents. As they watched it
+too moved forward.
+
+“That is all right,” Buck said. “We’ve known all along that there have
+been two of them working together. While we chased one of them, the
+other set the woods on fire. They are both up to the same trick, and
+now we’ll have to make up our minds how we’ll capture them.”
+
+“I guess we had better divide into the same squads that we had
+before,” said Ted. “Buck, suppose your squad tries to catch the one
+coming from the back of the tent and my squad will try and run down the
+fellow sneaking along the trees in front. But let’s see what they are
+up to first.”
+
+“I suppose they think they’re going to appear at the door of a tent and
+holler ‘Boo!’ to scare us!” grumbled Buck.
+
+Those of the boys who had slipped off their shoes now hastily put them
+on again, happy and a bit nervous at the prospect of the coming action.
+All of them still watched the two creeping figures below as they drew
+nearer the tents.
+
+“I guess they are going to meet in front of the tents and exchange
+signals,” commented Buck, noting that the two men were drawing together.
+
+And at that moment they did meet, but the boys were surprised by the
+result.
+
+The ghost from the back of the tents stepped out into the full glow of
+the moon and they saw that his costume was slightly different than the
+one which the ghost in the front of the camp wore. There was no hood on
+the top of the second spirit’s costume, but he had a cloth wound around
+his head. At the same time the other ghost stepped from the shelter of
+the last tree and came face to face with the brother apparition.
+
+But there was no exchange of signals, no friendly whispering of
+details. For a moment the two ghosts stood staring at each other,
+seeming to shrink within their shrouds and then the ghost from the
+creek tossed his arms wildly to the sky, and uttering a wild yelp, fled
+at top speed toward the creek from which it had come. The second ghost
+stood perfectly still for a moment and then shot forward, hot on the
+trail of the other one.
+
+While the astonished boys watched with bulging eyes and open mouths
+the first ghost reached the creek and jumped wildly for the stones
+upon which he had crossed. He missed the first one and plunged forward
+on his knees into a half foot of water, to the accompaniment of a
+tremendous thrashing and splashing. The second ghost reached the edge
+of the creek just as the first ghost regained his feet and made a
+sweeping clutch at his shroud. There was a ripping sound and the ghost
+uniform split from top to bottom, but the ghost himself did not stop
+going. Without a backward glance he ran across the rocks and took to
+the woods. His pursuer, disdaining the rocks, waded stormily in the
+brook and took up the chase on the other side.
+
+And now the boys in the maple grove gave way to peals of laughter
+which were surely heard by the two running ghosts. For a moment they
+had been paralyzed by the strange spectacle below them, and then the
+humor had struck them as the first ghost streaked his way across the
+camp pursued by the irate second sheeted figure. The fall into the
+creek and the subsequent splashing chase caused them to laugh so hard
+that they were weak. In their ghostly readings and thoughts they had
+regarded spirits, ghosts and goblins as dignified creatures, and the
+sight of two of them running a frantic race appealed to their senses of
+humor.
+
+Both ghosts had disappeared from sight as they hurried down into the
+camp and went as far as the creek, chatting and laughing over the
+unexpected turn of events. The rate of speed employed by both night
+prowlers made them forget any thought that they may have had in regard
+to chasing after them and they simply hastened to the brook to see
+if they could hear or see anything more of the two ghosts who had
+generously provided them with an evening’s entertainment, but all was
+profoundly quiet.
+
+“Oh, boy, that was the best thing I’ve seen in a long time!” laughed
+Ted, brushing the tears out of his eyes. “The way that first ghost lit
+out for the woods was a sight I wouldn’t have wanted to miss!”
+
+“And the other fellow snatching his night shirt off of him was another
+high spot!” chuckled Buck. “But that little drama knocks our theory
+into a cocked hat.”
+
+“You mean about these fellows working together?” questioned Ted.
+
+“Sure. We thought that they were partners, but each one of them must
+have something in mind and they have been working alternately on us.
+Certainly if they knew each other they wouldn’t have acted like that
+when their ghosts met each other!”
+
+“They certainly did shrink up at the first sight of each other!”
+grinned Drummer.
+
+“I guess you are right about the fact that they don’t know each other,”
+Ted agreed. “But if that second fellow ever gets his hands on the first
+ghost they’ll know each other!”
+
+“That was a case of professional jealousy!” said Buck. “I have a
+feeling that we’ll never be bothered with them again.”
+
+“That is hard to tell,” was Ted’s opinion. “We’ll have to await events
+and see.”
+
+They watched the woods for a long time, hoping to see some trace of the
+figures in white, but they were unrewarded. Long after their usual hour
+they remained around the replenished fires, talking and laughing over
+the ghost chase.
+
+“Well, we’re still a long way from knowing what they are hanging
+around here for,” Buck said as they finally turned in.
+
+On the following day Buck and Ted again left the camp in charge of the
+older boys and went for a hike over the mountains. They wanted to see
+if there was any trace of the flight and also to pay a visit to the hut
+in Hogs’ Hollow and question Jerry Jackson point blank.
+
+“For all the fun we had out of them, they still have got to take the
+responsibility for firing the woods,” Ted said.
+
+“Yes, but now we don’t know which one of ’em did it! The first thing we
+have to do is to find out who did what.”
+
+“The quickest way to do that is to locate this Jerry Jackson and see
+what he knows about it all,” said Ted.
+
+“Sure. I’m pretty sure that the ghost who crossed the creek was Jerry
+Jackson.”
+
+“So am I, because he fled in the direction of the hollow. We’ll soon
+find out.”
+
+But in this Ted was mistaken. When they reached the crude hut of the
+swamp dweller one glance inside the place showed them that he had
+abandoned his home, probably for good. Everything except the bare
+furniture was out of the shack and it looked bleak and forlorn.
+
+“Skipped out!” cried Buck, looking around.
+
+“Yes, gone completely, and I guess we’ll never find him again. I’ll
+bet he is making for new country right now. Well, that means that we
+are rid of one ghost and all we have to do is to keep a sharp watch out
+for the other.”
+
+There was nothing more to be learned at the shack in Hogs’ Hollow, so
+the two boys left the place and returned to the top of the mountain.
+Here they wandered along looking for any signs which might be clues to
+the doings of the past few weeks, and they passed above and beyond the
+camp. They kept up their exploration until the sun began to set and
+dusk crept in from the east.
+
+“We might as well go back,” suggested Ted. “We’ve seen a lot of
+mountain country but we haven’t learned anything.”
+
+“All right. By the way, there is the cabin of that unsociable gentleman
+down there.”
+
+Buck pointed to the cabin with the barbed wire fence and as they
+glanced down at it the front door of the cabin was opened and the tall
+man who resided there came out. To their astonishment he took a board
+which was lying beside the door, and placing it across the door, drove
+several nails into it. For the first time they noticed that the boards
+were on the windows and that the cabin was being closed up.
+
+“Hello, he is leaving us!” muttered Ted.
+
+“Seems so. He has on a long coat and a cap. Guess he doesn’t intend to
+come back this season.”
+
+The man went to the small shed in the rear of the yard and opened the
+doors, leading out a black horse. He then pulled from the other side of
+the shed a small two-seater carriage and proceeded to harness the horse
+to it. When this was done he nailed a board across the door of the shed
+and then carelessly threw the hammer over the fence into the woods.
+
+“Pretty free with his hardware!” said Buck.
+
+The man climbed into the seat of the carriage, spoke sharply to the
+horse and then rolled out of the yard as the horse started off. He
+turned the horse’s head toward the cities and they gathered speed as
+they went. Ted grasped Buck’s arm.
+
+“Take particular notice of that horse!” he cried. “It’s a black one!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+A GAME OF NICKY NIGHT
+
+
+Buck nodded at once. “It was just beginning to dawn upon me,” he said.
+“Something about the horse was attracting my attention and for a while
+I wasn’t able to gather what it was. Now I see what it is. There goes
+our Black Rider!”
+
+“Or else his horse. It looks remarkably like the horse on the rock.
+Well, if that is the ghost who chased the Hogs’ Hollow ghost away from
+our camp, what can be his game? Both of them must have distinct ideas,
+because I don’t think there can be any connection between Jerry Jackson
+and that man!”
+
+“When you ask me questions, ask me something that I’ll have half a
+chance to answer!” grumbled Buck. “But look at that man go! He doesn’t
+look as though he is just going away for a short time. Looks as though
+there was a good reason for leaving, as though some one is hard on his
+trail.”
+
+“He probably has his own ideas and we’ll never find out what the answer
+is,” said Ted. “But I’m pretty sure that the fooling around our camp
+is over with.”
+
+“I agree with you there,” nodded Buck, as they started back toward
+the camp. “This man seems to be leaving us for good and I’m pretty
+sure that Jerry Jackson will be too scared to come around again. But I
+certainly would like to know what they were after.”
+
+“So would I, and if we ever run across Jackson we’ll try and make him
+tell us. But as for the other one, he’s gone and we’ll never learn
+anything from him.”
+
+When they arrived in the camp they were joyously received and their
+recital of events was eagerly listened to. At the statement that events
+of an unusual nature were over with there was a mingled feeling of
+relief and dissatisfaction.
+
+“Hurrah, now we can enjoy ourselves and sleep in peace at night!”
+whooped Bob, tossing his hat high.
+
+“Yes, but think of not knowing what those fellows were running around
+for!” growled Drummer. “That spoils everything.”
+
+“Why?” demanded Bob. “Do we have to know why they were playing ghost?”
+
+“Of course we should,” retorted Drummer. “When we get home we’ll want
+to tell people about it and there won’t be any fun in ending up by
+saying that we don’t know what it was all about. More than likely
+folks will think we dreamed it.”
+
+“We all had the same dream, then,” returned Bob. “But it would be a lot
+more satisfactory to know the rest of it.”
+
+“When we go for fresh supplies of food we’ll try and find out if
+anything is known of the whereabouts of Jerry Jackson,” promised Ted.
+
+“If you don’t find anything out can we go scouting around the country
+and try to find him?” a boy asked, eagerly.
+
+Ted smiled. “No, I guess we won’t go as far as that. If he ever comes
+near the camp again we will make every effort to capture him, but I
+think that if we go roaming around the mountains just with the purpose
+of finding him, we will only be wasting our time and perhaps stirring
+up trouble. From the looks of his hut over there in the hollow I’d say
+that he had decided to leave this part of the country for good.”
+
+That night there was a fine bright campfire meeting and the time
+between supper and bed time was enjoyed without fear of unexpected
+happenings. They talked and sang and told ghost stories, none of which
+satisfied them as had the ending of the one which they had witnessed
+from the maple grove.
+
+“No ghost story will ever mean anything to me again unless one ghost
+chases the other across the camp and pulls his nightie off!” laughed
+Buck.
+
+At the recollection there was a hearty laugh and Ted saw that the
+unexpected ending of the series of mysterious events which had taken
+place around the camp had cheered and brightened them. He noted that
+there was a great deal of difference in the boys. At the start of their
+trip some of them had been frightened, uneasy, panicky, but now they
+had changed. All of them had broadened and looked brighter and manlier
+than when they had started out. Little Tom Clayton had developed into a
+sturdy, self-reliant boy and his too-doting mother was about to receive
+a surprise when her formerly pale, angelic-looking boy returned from
+the camp. Ted knew that Mr. Clayton would be more than pleased.
+
+“It has certainly done them a world of good,” he thought, as they
+turned in that night. “The whole trip has been a success, and I hope
+the trustees of the club will be satisfied. Too bad we can’t make a
+full report on the meddling ghosts, but we’ll have to let that go, I
+suppose.”
+
+On the following day he and Buck took a trip to the farmer’s house and
+there they related to the farmer and his wife the recent adventures
+which they had had. The good couple were astonished.
+
+“I could have sworn it was Jerry Jackson, after I got thinkin’ it
+over,” declared Farmer Crane. “So he has cut loose and run away, eh? I
+guess you’ll see no more o’ him. But you can’t guess what he would be
+pesterin’ you for, eh?”
+
+“No, we can’t see why he should try scaring us out,” Buck answered, as
+Ted shook his head. “Mr. Crane, I wish you could have seen him leg it
+for the other ghost, when the second party got after him!”
+
+The farmer roared heartily. “After you fellers go, so you won’t be
+annoyed by curious folks, I’m goin’ to tell that one around,” he
+declared. “Too many people ’round here thinks this Black Riders’ camp
+is a haunted spot, but maybe after I tell ’em that one ghost up and run
+the other out of your camp and pulled his shirt off’n him, they’ll get
+a little sense into their heads. What you think about that, Ma?”
+
+His wife shook her head. “Some of ’em you could tell anything to, and
+they’d still believe that the place was alive with spooks!” she said,
+wisely.
+
+“If you ever hear anything from Jerry Jackson, let us know,” Ted
+requested, as they were leaving.
+
+“I surer than the dickens will!” was the reply. “If he ever comes
+around here I’ll make him speak up.”
+
+They left the farmer and returned to camp with a fresh supply of food,
+talking over camp plans for the balance of the summer. They had now but
+a week and a half until it would be time to return home.
+
+“In all this excitement the time has slipped by like magic,” remarked
+Ted.
+
+“Yes, Labor Day is almost here. Time hasn’t lingered any, I’ll say
+that. But now that things have settled down we ought to enjoy every
+minute of the remaining time. Not that I haven’t enjoyed it up to the
+present time, but we won’t have to go running over the mountains every
+once in awhile and sleeping out in the woods. Have you enjoyed the job
+of managing a big camp?”
+
+“Of helping to manage it, you mean,” corrected Ted. “I know that you’ve
+stood back and allowed me to run most things, but don’t forget that you
+are a partner in this. Yes, I’ve enjoyed it and I’ve learned a lot from
+it.”
+
+The rest of the week passed away without incident, the boys enjoying
+it keenly. Now that there was no eternal watch to be kept they felt a
+lifting of a weight and from that time on they were able to give their
+whole attention to their sports and instruction. The two leaders taught
+them many useful things about camp life, especially in the matter of
+conscientious neatness, and by this time every boy could swim more or
+less efficiently. At night the campfire talks were enjoyed and long,
+health-giving sleeps rounded off their activities.
+
+More than once the boys spoke of their enjoyment of the mountain chase
+game, so much so that Ted spoke to Buck about it.
+
+“What do you think of starting a game of Nicky Night after supper?”
+
+“Fine! I haven’t played it in years! Let’s do it.”
+
+Few of the boys had ever played Nicky Night, a game that was going out
+of date when Ted and Buck were smaller. To the eager listening group
+Ted explained it.
+
+“Just as in the mountain chase, you go out in groups of two,” he told
+them. “Only, in this game there is no use of lanterns. In groups of
+twos we’ll follow you. Now, here is the idea: the fellows who go out
+first split up in twos and drift off up the mountains, and when they
+have found what they think is good ground for hiding, they start
+yelling as loud as possible, “Nicky Night!” “Nicky Night!” Those in
+the camp immediately set out after them and as the pursuing squad gets
+nearer the “Nicky Night” yellers sink their voices, disguise them in
+every way, and try to throw them off the track. The two who are after
+the “Nicky Nights” must touch them before they are prisoners, even
+if you have to climb a tree or hang over a cliff to do it! The Nicky
+Nights will stay out until the pursuers have to give up, and then they
+come in. If more Nicky Nights get in than are captured, they win the
+game. You can run away or climb trees or do anything you want to, but
+the skill in the game is to throw the others off of the track by the
+use of a disguised voice.”
+
+The boys were keen to try the new game and the sides were made up as
+at the time of the mountain chase game. Now that Plum had left the
+camp there was one short, and to make things even one boy volunteered
+to remain in camp and take care of the fires. It had been agreed that
+Ted’s group would take to the mountains this time, and they soon left
+the camp in a group, to split up and spread out as they progressed.
+
+Fifteen minutes after they had left the camp the first blood-stirring
+cry floated down from the mountains. “Nicky Night!” came in a disguised
+voice, and “Nicky Night!” was repeated by another voice at some
+distance from it.
+
+Buck’s squad took the field at once, and he went off with Drummer in
+the direction of one of the voices. The other groups started off on the
+trails of other Nicky Nights. As Buck and Drummer progressed up the
+side of the mountains they heard the voice before them, high-pitched
+and weird.
+
+“That sounds like Ted,” decided Buck, as they made their way forward.
+“We’ll run him down, in spite of his disguised voice. Good thing there
+is a generous slice of moon tonight, or we’d have a tough time finding
+our way.”
+
+The Nicky Nights before them heard them coming and immediately began
+a retreat, for the voice was next heard further off. On both sides of
+them they could hear other cries of “Nicky Night” and a few seconds
+later a cry of triumph, “We’ve got you!” One set of Nickys had been
+captured. The pair before Buck and Drummer still retreated.
+
+“They’ll probably take to a tree pretty soon and allow us to go under
+them,” said Buck. “That’s the thing we have to look out for. There,
+what did I tell you! That ‘Nicky Night’ came from the air!”
+
+The last “Nicky Night” had indeed come from the air, a weak and
+treacherous cry, and they pushed on until they came to an open space.
+Here they found the house which some of the boys had been in and where
+Ted had seen the man with the lantern roaming around.
+
+“Hello, here is that old house with all the furnishings,” exclaimed
+Buck.
+
+“Yes, and the Nicky Nights are hiding up there in the cupola on the
+porch roof!” cried Drummer excitedly. “I just saw something move up
+there. Come on and get them!”
+
+“I don’t know how to get into that tower room from the house,” said
+Buck.
+
+“We won’t get in through the house. Let’s climb the front porch,”
+replied Drummer.
+
+“All right. But there must be a door from the main part of the house
+into that cupola, and they may escape.”
+
+“Never mind, we’ll chase them through the house,” said the sturdy fat
+boy.
+
+Buck stepped onto the low porch, quickly “shinned” his way up the
+supporting roof support, and reached the low front porch roof. Drummer
+followed him with remarkable agility and they swiftly crossed the roof
+and looked into the little octagon cupola.
+
+The moonlight sent a half light into the place and for a single instant
+they thought that the place was empty. Then, as they became accustomed
+to the place, they saw a lone figure crouching along the wall, trying
+to conceal itself in the darker shadows of the little tower. The boys
+drew in sharp breaths and their skins prickled as the man rose from his
+place of concealment. He knew that he had been observed and his hand
+fumbled for the knob of the door which opened into the main house.
+
+Buck had a flash of inspiration. He jumped over the low sill into the
+cupola.
+
+“No you don’t, Jerry Jackson!” he cried.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+MYSTERIES ARE CLEARED UP
+
+
+The man who stood before them, seeking to open the door leading into
+the house was indeed the lone dweller from Hogs’ Hollow. He had heard
+the two approaching boys and had hidden himself in the cupola of the
+abandoned house, not dreaming for a moment that they would enter the
+place. He had heard the scratching made by them as they climbed the
+porch and their appearance at the open front of the little tower took
+him by surprise. For a single moment his little eyes gleamed with an
+impulse of violence, but Buck looked fairly husky and Drummer, though
+short, was stocky. The man spoke up in a high voice.
+
+“What you fellers want? I ain’t done nothing to you!”
+
+“You are Jerry Jackson, aren’t you?” Buck asked, striking a match and
+looking closely at the tall, stooped old man. Jackson was past middle
+age and his hair was a tangled gray mass which hung far below the line
+which would have been marked by a collar had he possessed one. His
+clothing was ragged beyond description.
+
+“Yes, I’m Jerry Jackson, but you got nothing against me,” was the
+whining reply. The old man held something behind him all the time with
+his left hand and Buck had an uneasy feeling that it might be something
+in the nature of a weapon. He kept his eyes narrowly on the man as he
+continued to question him.
+
+“You say we haven’t anything on you, eh? How about scaring us, cutting
+down our tents, posing on a rock with a horse, and setting fire to the
+woods!”
+
+The man stirred indignantly. “I never did set on no horse or set the
+woods on fire!” he cried, vehemently. “I’ll tell you all I ever done to
+your camp. I walked through it with a lantern the first night you got
+there, and I blew that conch shell to scare you. I was the one who cut
+the ropes on your tents, because you had to go and chase me all over
+the mountain, durn yore hides! While you fellers was gettin’ a soakin’
+I slipped down and cut the ropes. Then you chased me another night when
+I was hangin’ around yore camp, the night I tried to tote off one ’o
+you, and somebody pegged apples at me! But I never used no horse or set
+fire to anything.”
+
+“You paid another visit to the camp, the time the ghost chased you,”
+reminded Buck.
+
+“Yes, and if anybody set yore camp on fire, that feller must have done
+it, ’cause I didn’t.”
+
+“Did you hang a skeleton in the woods?” Buck asked.
+
+“Don’t know nothin’ about no skeleton,” was the dogged reply.
+
+“All right, I guess I can see your part in it all,” replied Buck. “Now,
+Jerry Jackson, why did you do it? What was the idea of trying to scare
+us out of a camp that was our own?”
+
+The man looked uneasy and cast about him with restless eyes. He shifted
+his foot and looked down.
+
+“I dunno, I must have been crazy,” was the answer.
+
+“That won’t do, my friend!” Buck cried, sharply. “You are going to
+speak up and tell the truth or we will hand you right over to the
+authorities! Out with it now!”
+
+“Well, I didn’t want you boys around here because I was lookin’ for
+some money that was supposed to be hid in this house,” replied the man,
+fearing to keep the truth back. “A crazy feller named Bainbridge lived
+here and he died a short time ago. I heard that there was some money
+in the house and I been lookin’ for it. Just when I was goin’ good you
+boys had to come snoopin’ around. ‘I’ll get rid of ’em,’ I sez, ‘I’ll
+play ghost and scare ’em back to town.’ So I tried it, but you fellows
+wouldn’t go.”
+
+“No, you are right there. Was that why you lowered a lantern down a
+chimney on a rope one night?”
+
+“Yes. How’d you know——”
+
+“My friend saw you. Is that where you found the money at the bottom of
+the chimney?”
+
+“Yes, there it was—Here! Hold on! I didn’t find any money!”
+
+Buck smiled grimly at the tone of alarm. He had observed in the
+semi-gloom the end of a tin box back of the man.
+
+“Yes you did, Jackson. You are holding a tin box back of you and there
+is money in it. But you needn’t worry, we won’t touch it. All I want
+you to do is to go back to camp with us and tell your story to our camp
+leader.”
+
+“If I do, you won’t take my money or have me arrested?” eagerly asked
+the old man.
+
+Buck made the promise and the three of them left the house by the
+stairway and took up the journey to the camp. Both boys were on the
+alert lest the man give them the slip and remained close to his side,
+but he made no attempt to get away and they reached the camp after a
+silent trip. All of the other boys were in and anxiously awaiting
+them. Ted hurried forward.
+
+“We were just beginning to worry about you two,” he said. “Your side
+won this time, Buck, and you two are the only squad that didn’t get
+your men. Who is this with you?”
+
+“Jerry Jackson, the ghost—or one of the ghosts—of Black Riders’ Camp!”
+was the triumphant response.
+
+His words produced a decided stir and the boys crowded around the
+unhappy mountaineer. At Buck’s command the man related all to Ted.
+
+“Don’t take my money away from me, boys,” he whined, in conclusion.
+“I ain’t never had none, and I had to work pretty hard to find this.
+Bainbridge is dead and there ain’t much in the box.”
+
+“We don’t want your money, Jerry,” replied Ted, feeling sorry for the
+grasping, miserable old wretch. “I just wanted to know why you kept us
+on the jump. If you were the one who set the woods on fire I wouldn’t
+be disposed to be nice about it, but the worst thing you did was to cut
+the tent ropes, and we had that coming, after a fashion, for chasing
+you all over the mountains. Just remember this: if you ever bother us
+again when we come here, we’ll turn you over to the police speedily, I
+promise you.”
+
+Jackson promised never to come near the camp again, and then he melted
+away in the darkness, hugging the tin box to him. Late into the night
+the boys talked it over.
+
+“That explains half of it,” remarked Ted. “But it doesn’t explain the
+skeleton, the Black Rider, the groans or the fire. Looks like we’ll
+never get the story of that.”
+
+But the explanations came from an unexpected source. On the Sunday
+before Labor Day Mr. Calvert appeared in the camp, where he was
+joyfully welcomed by the boys. He had dinner with them and then
+unfolded some information that had them listening eagerly.
+
+“You fellows are quite famous,” he smiled at them. “Did you know that
+you chased a notorious forger and counterfeiter out of this region?”
+
+“No! How was that?” Ted asked.
+
+“Did you ever hear of a Dr. Hemple?”
+
+There was a swift exchange of looks. “The name on the skeleton!” was
+the general cry.
+
+“Yes,” nodded the lawyer. “This Dr. Hemple is a very clever bank note
+engraver and some time ago he began to counterfeit money and he forged
+his name to checks in the bargain. While the police of several cities
+were looking for him he used to retreat up here to a log cabin he has
+somewhere around and only a few days ago he was captured. Among his
+confessions was a statement that he had hoped to make this region his
+headquarters, but that a camp of boys had refused to be scared out and
+he couldn’t have men coming and going with a boys’ camp near here. So
+he left the place and was later caught.”
+
+“I remembered the troubles you had had at the camp and I went to see
+this Dr. Hemple. He told me of the skeleton and about groaning in
+the bushes and of setting the woods on fire. Oh, I know that you are
+wondering about the Black Rider part of it, too! He heard that Ted was
+going to tell the story and that gave him an idea. He muffled the feet
+of his horse and led him out on a rock—that one over there?—and then
+put some illuminating powder on the top of the rock, which he touched
+off. He hoped you’d think he was a dread spirit of the place, but you
+refused to be scared away. But what is his story of another ghost? He
+says he masked one night to try and scare you away as a ghost, but he
+claims that there was another ghost around.” The lawyer looked puzzled
+as the boys broke into peals of hearty laughter, and Ted told him the
+story.
+
+The lawyer enjoyed it thoroughly. “Well, you certainly have had a
+wonderful summer of fun and adventure,” he remarked, and later he
+spoke privately to Ted and Buck. “You boys have done a fine piece of
+work here. All of these boys look in the pink of good health, and as
+for that little Clayton lad, his mother and father won’t know him.
+He has developed physically and he bears himself like a little man,
+in contrast to his former timid way. I am proud of the way you have
+handled these boys and the other trustees are going to be, too.”
+
+“Thank you,” acknowledged Ted and Buck, pleased with Mr. Calvert’s
+praise.
+
+On Labor Day they enjoyed their last few hours of camp life and as soon
+as the big truck arrived they pulled the supply truck up to the road
+and the boys took their places in the big vehicle. This time Drummer
+was in charge of the boys and Buck rode in the front seat with Ted.
+With a final cheer for the camp of the Black Riders the trucks started
+down the road and back toward the city.
+
+“Well, I’m mighty sorry to leave the camp,” remarked Buck, as they
+rolled slowly along. “I’ve seldom had a better or more exciting time in
+my life.”
+
+“Nor I,” agreed his chum, with enthusiasm. “Black Riders’ Camp will
+always have a soft place in my heart.”
+
+The boys in the truck seemed to feel the same way. The country road
+rang with their cheer for the recent camping trip.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Notes
+
+  pg  26 Changed: high up in the mountans
+              to: high up in the mountains
+
+  pg  28 Changed: stood on camparatively level ground
+              to: stood on comparatively level ground
+
+  pg  40 Changed: migh be very bad for Ted
+              to: might be very bad for Ted
+
+  pg  79 Changed: Some farmer around her must have owned it
+              to: Some farmer around here must have owned it
+
+  pg  84 Changed: something that excited their curiousity
+              to: something that excited their curiosity
+
+  pg  86 Changed: blanching the faces of he boys
+              to: blanching the faces of the boys
+
+  pg 116 Changed: At the sharp exlamation in his tone
+              to: At the sharp exclamation in his tone
+
+  pg 116 Changed: Then lantern was coming toward them
+              to: The lantern was coming toward them
+
+  pg 136 Changed: on the right or the lef side
+              to: on the right or the left side
+
+  pg 158 Changed: who immmediately struck an attitude of defense
+              to: who immediately struck an attitude of defense
+
+  pg 165 Changed: For a moment after Ted made his announce-
+              to: For a moment after Ted made his announcement
+
+  pg 166 Changed: But as it so happend
+              to: But as it so happened
+
+  pg 185 Changed: You bet is was
+              to: You bet it was
+
+  pg 191 Changed: a distinct hinderance to their peace
+              to: a distinct hindrance to their peace
+
+  pg 197 Changed: come from the opposit direction
+              to: come from the opposite direction
+
+  pg 217 Changed: maybe he can use po-toes
+              to: maybe he can use potatoes
+
+  pg 226 Changed: I’ll tell you what we’ll do know
+              to: I’ll tell you what we do know
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75217 ***