CHAPTER XIV
TOLD AROUND THE CAMP FIRE
OF course Elmer was disappointed when his carefully laid plans all wentby the board, owing to that unfortunate sneeze, just at the worstpossible time.
As a matter of duty he ran forward to where that strange figure in whitehad been marching to and fro, but just as he fully expected there wasnot a single sign of the late presence.
So Elmer walked back to where his anxious chums were crouching, craningtheir necks in the endeavor to ascertain what was going on. He foundthem ready to ply him with questions; and Toby's first act was to freehimself from suspicion.
"George did it, Elmer!" he hastened to say; "with his silly littlesneeze. It sure gave us all a shock, and when I thought to look againthat bally ghost was gone."
"But how could I help it?" complained the guilty culprit. "I never hadthe least idea it was coming, when all at once it gripped me hard. Ifyou'd offered me half a million dollars right then not to sneeze, Icouldn't have earned thirty cents. It took me just as quick as that,"and he snapped his fingers to illustrate how impotent he had been in thegrasp of a necessity.
"I've been there myself, George," said Elmer, kindly, because he knewhow badly the other scout must feel on account of having upset all theirplans; "and just as you say, sometimes a sneeze comes so fast you can'tkeep it back if your life depended on it. Of course it was unfortunate,because in another minute I'd have been close enough to have done all Iwanted."
"But my stars! Elmer," exclaimed Lil Artha, in dismay, "you didn'texpect to jump that spooky thing all alone, I hope?"
Elmer laughed, which act proved to the distressed George that hisoffense could not set so heavily on the mind of the scout master afterall.
"Certainly not, Lil Artha," Elmer told the long-legged scout; "Iexpected to drop back, and get the rest of you before anything was done.But accidents will happen even in the best regulated scout troops, andthat was something nobody could help. Better luck next time."
"Then, suh, you don't mean to give up this ghost hunt?" asked Chatz,with a ring of exultation in his voice.
"Not if we have another chance to hook up with the mystery," repliedElmer.
"But tell us, weren't you close enough up to see whether it was a realghost or not?" demanded George, arousing to his old self again.
Chatz could be heard giving a little indignant snort. He was evidentlyunable to understand how any one could doubt after seeing what they had.Chatz, with all his leaning toward a belief in spirits, had neverbefore come so close to an object that had all the earmarks of a ghost;and he was correspondingly elated.
"I guess I was all of that," Elmer replied, quietly.
"And what do you think about it, Elmer?" continued George, persistently.
"We want to know!" added Toby, determined to get his word in somehow.
"There's a whole lot to tell," said Elmer, "and this isn't just theplace to begin the story. So let's get back to the camp, where we cansit around the fire for another half hour, while I enlighten you on somethings I happen to know."
What he said gave the others a new thrill. For the first time some ofthe scouts became aware that their leader had all along been inpossession of certain facts in connection with the strange appearance ofthis reputed ghost. One or two there were, notably Chatz Maxfield, whohad suspected something of the kind, owing to the queer way Elmer hadoften smiled while the others were disputing fiercely concerning thepossible identity of the specter.
"That sounds good to me, Elmer," announced Lil Artha, without a second'shesitation, "and for one I'm ready to skip out of this place. It's rawand spooky enough here to give us all pneumonia. Let's get alongside acheery old camp fire; and then you to spin the yarn. It wouldn'tsurprise me so much if I heard that you'd known the pedigree of ourghost all along, and was just holding back to see what fun you couldshake out of the situation."
"No, you're wrong there, Lil Artha!" declared the scout master,earnestly; "that isn't so. I began to have my suspicions, but up to nowhad found nothing to confirm them enough to warrant me telling what Iknew, or thought. But the time has come, because this thing has gone farenough. Lend me your little flash-light torch, Lil Artha. The rest ofyou wait here for me again, please."
As Elmer hurried away they noticed that he was making along the halldirectly toward the spot where they had recently seen the weird whiteobject that moved forward and back, again and again, with the regularityof clockwork.
"He's gone to see if he can find any footprints in the dust on thefloor?" suggested Ty Collins.
At that Chatz gave another grunt, as though to his superior mind it wasa very foolish remark; because ghosts never left any tracks behind them.But as he seemed to be in the minority, and knew it was hardly wise toinvite another verbal attack, Chatz chose to seal his lips and remaindumb. His triumph would come later on, when they were seated around theglowing fire, and Elmer chose to explain his views of the matter,gleaned at close range.
A short time passed thus. The scouts were keyed up to top-notch pitch,and the seconds dragged fearfully while they awaited the coming of theirleader. They could see him moving about, by means of the little glowcast by the hand electric torch he had borrowed from Lil Artha; whofelt that his fetching such a useful article along had vindicated hiswisdom. Scouts should look ahead, and prepare themselves for all sortsof possible needs. That was what they were learning to do day after day,as they strove to earn new honors, and reach a higher plane in the greatorganization.
Finally when the waiting scouts were beginning to sigh, and wish Elmerwould get through with his searching around, they heard him give thewell-known signal that was meant to call them to his side.
"All ready to go back to camp now, fellows," was all Elmer said as theyhastened to join him; for it was necessary to pass by that way inheading for the stairs.
Whether or not he had been successful in finding any traces of themysterious _thing_ they had been gaping at so long, Elmer did not bothertelling them just then. That would keep until he was ready to explainfully.
The camp, as we happen to know, was not far removed from the hauntedhouse that had gained such a bad name among the farmers of that sectionfor many years, on account of the sad story connected with its past; andin a short time they filed in before the two guardians of the stores,much to the satisfaction of Landy and Ted.
Of course the pair who had been left behind were eager to know what hadhappened to their more fortunate comrades who had gone on theghost-hunting expedition; and they started to bombard Toby and Lil Arthawith a series of questions that made the victims throw up their hands.
"Yes, we did see something, and that's right," admitted the latterscout.
"A tall white figure, too," broke in Chatz, who wanted to make sure thatnothing was omitted in the telling that ought to be narrated; "and itkept moving up and down again and again like an uneasy spirit. If youasked me I'd say it was the ghost of old Judge Cartaret, come back tovisit the scene of his crime!"
"Oh! gosh!" was all the staggered Landy could say, but it expressed thestate of his feelings exactly.
"Don't believe too much of what Chatz says till you hear what Elmer'sgot to tell us all," warned Toby. "You see, he went and crept up closeto that _aw_ful figure, and then George here, just like he wanted to trythings out, and see if it really was a ghost, had to give a whopper of asneeze; and when we looked again the thing had disappeared like smoke.But Elmer knows something, and he promised to tell us the real stuffwhen we got sitting around our bully fire here. So pull up, fellows, andlet him know we're all ready to listen."
"Take my word for it," Lil Artha told them, "I'm wild to hear what Elmerknows."
"What he _believes_, say, Lil Artha," corrected the scout master,pleasantly; "for I haven't been able to prove it to my satisfactionyet, though I hope to do that before we leave up here."
"That's all right, Elmer," said Toby, quickly; "your word's as good asyour bond, and when you _think_ a thing it's pretty sure to be it
!"
This remarkable confidence which his chums had in him always spurredElmer on to doing his level best. He felt that he could not afford tolose a shred of such sublime faith; and no doubt on many occasions thishad enabled him to gain his end when otherwise he might have consideredthe case hopeless, and abandoned all design of succeeding.
Accordingly the whole eight of them found places around the fire, whichhad of course been built up again until it was a cheery sight. Aroundmidnight at the extreme end of November the air is apt to be prettychilly during the small hours of the night, so that the boys couldhardly keep up too hot a blaze to satisfy their wants.
Naturally all of them had made sure that from where they sat they couldsee the face of Elmer. As he was the center of attraction it was boundto add more to their pleasure if they could watch him as he explained,and told his story of achievement.
The scout master looked around at that circle of eager boyish faces, andsmiled. He was very fond of every one there; after his own fashion eachscout had his good points, and Elmer knew them all, for had he not seenthem tested many a time?
"First of all, fellows," he remarked, "I'm going back to the other timewe were up here, and Toby declared he saw a white face at one of thewindows, which news gave us all such a queer feeling, because wecouldn't tell whether it was so or not. You remember after we left thehouse I went back again?"
"Yes, sure you did, Elmer; but you never said a word about findinganything!" George remarked.
"But he looked it," muttered Chatz, with increasing uneasiness.
"I went up to that window again, and hunted around to see if there wasany sign of footprints there," Elmer continued. "You know that in allthe years the house has been lying there deserted the dust has collectedeverywhere, though don't ask me where it could come from, because Idon't know. Sometimes rain would beat in through the broken windows, andlay it, but the wind coming later on set it free again. Anyway, therewas tracking dust there on that floor, and I found what I was lookingfor!"
Everybody was hanging on his words. Chatz gave a groan. He saw that adeath blow was being given to his cherished belief; for of course ifElmer had found _tracks_, the one who had made them could never havebeen a ghost.
No one else was sorry, apparently. Indeed, there was more or less actualrelief in the series of sighs that welled up, especially from George,who had secretly been getting a little shaky with regard to hisdisinclination to believe in the ability of spirits to return to thescene of their earthly troubles for divers purposes.
"You mean there was a track there; is that it, Elmer?" asked Toby.
"I found several of them, though our tramping around had almost coveredthe trail up," Elmer went on, steadily.
"But how could you tell them from the marks we left?" continued Toby.
At that Elmer laughed.
"Well, that was as easy as tumbling off a log, Toby," he replied. "Iguess even a tenderfoot could have told, because you see the strangetrack showed that the other party was _barefooted_!"
"Oh!" gasped George and Lil Artha in a breath; while Chatz did not say asingle word, only sat there with his eyes fixed on the beaming face ofthe scout master, and the light of a cruel disappointment in theirdepths.
"I tried to follow the trail," continued Elmer, "but that dust happenedto be limited in its scope, so that it was more than I could master, andI had to give it up. But of course the fact that a barefooted man hadbeen at that window where Toby said he saw a white face gave me lots tothink about, even if I did make up my mind not to say anything about myfind until I had more to tell."
When Elmer paused to get his breath Toby grinned as though greatlypleased.
"See!" he ejaculated, thrusting his chin out aggressively, "some of youother fellows thought I was seeing things that didn't exist, and youknocked me right hard about gettin' a pair of specs, because I neededthe same. But seems like it was you ought to go and visit the oculist. I_did_ see a face, and it was sure a white one in the bargain. But excuseme, Elmer, for keepin' the floor so long; that's out of my system now,and let's forget it. Please go on and tell us the rest, because I'm deadsure there's a lot more back of this."
"Well," the other scout observed, "of course, when we got home I wasbound to go around and ask a lot of questions about the old Cartaretplace up here; and everything else I could hit on. What I learned didn'tadd a great deal to my stock of knowledge until just by accident Ihappened to read a little item in an old number of the Stackhouse _News_that came to our house, and it set me to thinking out a theory. Thatarticle was about a family named Oxley that live near Stackhouse Ishould think. It seems that they have the misfortune to have a son whois crazy, because of some accident to his head several years ago. Hewasn't violent, and like some people they couldn't bear the thought ofhaving him shut up in an asylum; so they hired a keeper, and he waswatched at home. But it seems that he must have slipped away, for areport had gone out that he was missing, and the paper asked its readersto communicate with the family if by chance they came upon a dementedman, dressed in the white uniform of a Spanish officer; for it seems hehad been in Cuba during the war, and imagined himself a soldier again."
Elmer paused to let what he had said sink into the minds of his chums;and it could be easily seen from the way they exchanged knowing looksthat the full significance of the scout master's discovery had struckthem heavily.
"Elmer, you hit the right nail on the head when you guessed that!" criedToby.
"Dressed in white, too; that clinches the thing!" added Lil Artha.
"I'm afraid it does," sighed Chatz, in a disappointed tone, while Georgeonly said:
"Mebbe it does; but you can't always sometimes tell!"