18 The Last of the Ghost
The Hydes had slunk off and were lost in the darkness. The sheriff hadhandcuffed Peter Vancouver and now they were on their way to the localjail in Rideway. After putting the light out the colonel and the membersof the Ghost Patrol left the cabin and started over the trail to camp.
“I’m very glad we got there in time to prevent any serious injury tothat old man,” remarked the colonel, as they walked on. “Did you boyshave any trouble with that sheriff?”
“A little bit, sir,” Douglas replied. “He made a lot of noise when weexplained things to him. But he did come finally, though he talked somuch and made so much noise on the way up that Vench and I felt likerolling him in the mud!”
“I guess it was about time that somebody talked to him,” the colonelsaid. “The people around here are curious. They haven’t made any effortto run down this ghost and they take abuse from this great blusteringsheriff. But I guess this ghost angle of things is about over.”
“All that remains now is to catch Maul,” Jordan reminded him.
“Yes, and we’ll see to it that steps are taken to do that,” theheadmaster promised.
The sky was pitch black, and not a star in sight. A leaden skythreatened rain and the absence of the moon and the friendly stars madethe world below very dark indeed. Fortunately for them the cadets knewthe road fairly well, and they approached the camp through the busheswithout having altered their course enough to puzzle them.
“We will be hailed in about a moment,” said the colonel. They were closeto the outpost where the sentry was on duty, and they advanced boldly,waiting for the call.
But none came. They reached the line of patrol that the sentry wassupposed to make, but they did not run across the man who should havebeen patrolling. In bewilderment they stopped.
“This is very queer,” murmured the colonel. “What can have happened?”
Terry moved forward and struck his foot against something soft. Withoutloss of time he dropped to his knees, feeling before him with his hands.The sharp intake of his breath drew their attention.
“What is it?” the colonel asked, quickly.
“Here is the sentry, tied up tighter than a bundle,” was the startlingreply. “Something’s fishy around here.”
The others clustered around and a match was struck. They found CadetInnes, the sentry, lying on his back, bound around with coarse butstrong cord. He seemed to be all right otherwise, but perfectlyspeechless with a thick gag in his mouth. By the way his eyes snappedthey judged that he had plenty to say. When the grunts of surprise wereover they went to work and soon relieved him of the ropes and the gag.
“Be quiet, on your lives, men!” was his first word, after he had lickedhis dry lips. “The man who tied me up is in the camp, up to something.”
“Any idea who it was, Mr. Innes?” the colonel whispered.
“No, sir. A man all in black jumped me and did it in a hurry. Muzzled mewith one hand and took away my gun with the other. It happened beforethe Officer of the Guard got around, in fact he is due here now.”
“You say the man went toward the camp?” was the colonel’s next question.
“Yes, sir, and he carried a can of kerosene with him,” was the startlingreply. The others wasted not another minute, but jumped to their feet.
“Be very quiet as you approach the camp,” ordered the colonel, leadingthe way through the bushes toward the camp.
They approached silently and looked at the camp. It seemed deserted.Three fires showed up red before the tents, but the cadets were in theirbeds. On the other side of the camp the Officers of the Guard could beheard as he spoke shortly to a sentry. Otherwise there seemed to be nomovement or life in the place.
Don reached over and pulled the colonel’s arm. Close to the supplywagons a darker shadow showed, and the faint sound of liquid bubblingout of a can could be heard. All of the hidden watchers caught thesignificance of it at once and crouched down to wait until the manshould have come nearer them.
Then, something happened that changed their plans abruptly.
A match was struck. The flare of the tiny blaze showed a set, sternface. The man at the supply wagon bent forward with the match.
Cadet Vench was little. He was also fast and happened to be the nearestone to the stooping man. In three strides Vench left the shelter of thetrees, sprang into the air, and landed like a monkey on the back of theman, who had started to straighten up at the sound of Vench’s steps.They both went down, the match dropped on some oil-soaked cloth, and afierce blaze jumped up in a twinkling.
As Jim afterward said, he staked all on the size of his feet. He landedwith both shoes on the cloth, snuffed the blaze out with a singlestroke, and saved the supply wagons and the entire camp.
Now all was action. A sentry near by had fired the alarm. Vench and theunknown man were staging a furious wrestling match on the ground besidethe wagons as the others dashed up and came to his help. Someone threwmore fuel on the nearest fire, Major Rhodes ran up with his revolver inhand, and the whole camp, more or less dressed, came running after him.In the new light which the fire showed they saw Vench and the coloneldrag the man to his feet.
“Just got you in time,” said the colonel, holding the man in a tightgrip. “Am I right when I say your name is probably Maul?”
“Yes, my name is Jackson Maul,” was the reply, given in a deep voice. Hegazed in haughty silence around at the gaping cadets.
“I’ll ask you to spend the rest of the night with us in our guard tent,Mr. Maul,” said the colonel, his revolver in his hand. “I may as welltell you that your ghost game is up, and the ghost of the Ridge safe inthe county jail. I think you’ll find yourself in pretty heavy troublefor attempting to fire our camp.”
No reply was offered by the man who called himself Maul and they tookhim away, where a tent could serve as his place of imprisonment. MajorRhodes himself took the responsibility of watching him for the rest ofthe night. It was some time before the excited cadets went back to theirbeds. An examination showed them that the camp had been soaked in oil ata number of points, and had fire been applied to any of these placesthey would have been totally wiped out. It would have been a lucky thingif they had all escaped with their lives had the camp been fired.
On the following morning the man Maul was marched to Rideway and lockedin jail with the man he had paid to play ghost. The full story nowspread around the town and the Ridge people found out how they had beenterrorized for years by the last of the Maul family in his effort todrive the Hydes away. With this capture of the two men the mystery ofthe ghost of Rustling Ridge came to an end, and from that time forwardthe inhabitants had nothing more to fear after dark. In time the two menand the clerk Rose were all given prison terms for mischief withmalicious intent. The Hydes kept out of trouble from that time forwardand the loud sheriff of the Ridge became softer in his speech, at leastas long as the cadets were in the neighborhood. A number of the countynewspapers gave high praise to the cadets and to Benson, the nighttelephone operator, for public-spirited duty.
Soon after these events the colonel called Rowen into his tent. He hadbeen very much displeased with the conduct of the cadet, but as hereflected that things had now settled down, it would be wise to forgetthe whole thing, he felt sure. So he spoke mildly enough to the cadet,but he was surprised when the sulky one flared back at him.
“Never mind, Colonel Morrell, I don’t want to talk about anything!” wasthe astonishing statement. “I’m going home right away. Everything hasbeen pushed against me during this whole encampment and I’m sick of it!I don’t want anything more to do with the cadet corps!”
“Very well, Mr. Rowen,” returned the colonel, still mildly. “You sayeverything has been pushed against you. But you would not believeMercer’s word about the ghost starting the stampede. Now we have theword of the ghost himself that he started it and that Jim called out tohim. Then, against orders, you took
your revolver with you and shot itoff at an improper time. Under those circumstances, do you still feelthat you had everything against you on this camping trip?”
“I feel that I have had enough of this school and this trip,” saidRowen. “I guess I could have more fun with my own friends in a summercamp where a fellow didn’t have to do so much unnecessary work. I’mgoing home.”
Mr. Rowen did go home. No one was really sorry to see him go, for hissurly temper had never made him popular in any way.
From that time onward the summer slipped along without unusual incident.It was a delightful and happy vacation, full of swinging action andinvigorating fun, and when the time came to break camp all of the boyswere a little bit sorry.
“Back to school again,” said Don, as they struck tents.
“Yes, and our time is getting limited,” said Terry, seriously. “Wehaven’t a whole lot more time left to us in our school life.”
“Right you are,” Jim agreed. “Next year Don will be senior captain ofthe school.”
Before the morning was over the cadet battalion was marching toward theschool, leaving Rustling Ridge and its many exciting memories behindthem.