CHAPTER VI
LOOKING AROUND
"HERE goes, fellows; now watch me make the jump!"
Toby had adjusted the big parachute to his satisfaction, before hecalled this out; and it seemed to have been attached to his back bymeans of some device of his own. When open it resembled a largeumbrella, only the ribs were made much more solid than the usual ones.
"It's lucky the ground's pretty soft down here, Toby!" called George;"because you're apt to get a swift knock when you land. Be sure and keepthat tongue of yours well inside your mouth, or you might bite it off."
"Seems to me you do your share of biting, George; you've always got someill-natured remark to make about everything I invent. Nothing venture,nothing gained, is my motto. And now I'll walk a little further out onthis limb, so as to get a better chance to jump; and then watch me saillike a thistle-down!"
"Careful, there, Toby!" shouted Elmer, as the scout up in the treestarted to move out further, looking very queer with that canopy overhis head, and his waving arms assisting him to keep his balance.
Hardly had the scout master given this warning than what he possiblyanticipated happened. There was an ominous crack, and the rotten limbstarted to drop earthward. So did Toby, though the parachute caught theair, and sustained his weight pretty fairly. How it would have been hadhe been thousands of feet up, instead of a paltry thirty-five, was aquestion that could not be answered.
The four boys saw the limb come crashing down, to break into fragmentswhen it landed. Strange to say the ring-tailed animal that hadaccompanied the rotten limb in its sudden descent did not appear to havesuffered any material damage from the drop; because it was seen to runaway as soon as the termination of the unexpected aerial voyage had beenreached.
As for Toby, he was certainly falling, but buoyed up by that stoutmaterial extended in the shape of a parachute, his descent was notnearly so rapid as it must otherwise have been.
He struck the ground with a resounding thump, and then fell over in aheap; though from the scrambling that ensued the others knew he couldnot have been hurt very much.
"How'd she go, Toby?" demanded Chatz, hurrying forward to assist thedaring air navigator, if it turned out he needed any help.
"Kinder hard slap it gave me when I hit terra firma," replied the other,whose lip was bleeding a little, showing that he must have bitten it;"but all that's going to be remedied easy enough. What she needs is alittle more canvas; ain't a big enough sail yet to hold me up. Butwhee! who'd ever expect that limb to snap off as sudden as that? Seewhat it means to be prepared, fellows? Scouts ain't the only ones thatought to do that same; for if anybody ever needed to be ready, the airpilot does. He never knows what's going to happen to him next."
"Well," the scout master remarked, "let's hope that's plenty for youto-day, Toby. We've stood and watched you make a record drop, and youcame through in pretty decent shape; but enough's as good as a feast.The next time things mightn't turn out as nice for you; and we don'twant to carry a scout with a broken leg home in our wagon to-day."
"But think of that little 'coon coming down with it all, and thenrunning away as if he didn't have a scratch to show for it?" Georgeobserved.
"He got off sound and unhurt, did he?" asked Toby; "I'm real glad ofthat, 'cause I wouldn't want him to be injured. I reckon that 'coon wasa mascot to me, and gave me good luck. But do we get ready to start homeso early in the afternoon, Elmer?"
Before any opinion could be advanced by the scout master, Chatz broke inhastily:
"I'm going to ask you a great favor, suh," he told Elmer; "and which Ihope you can grant without interfering at all with any plans you haveformed."
"What's that, Chatz?" asked the other; although from the quick look hecast in the quarter where lay the haunted house, it was easy to seethat he could give a pretty fair guess what it's nature would prove tobe.
"Why, suh, we may never get the chance again, and I've always wanted tosee what the inside of a haunted house looked like," Chatz went on tosay.
"Whee!" burst from the lips of Ted; while both George and Toby prickedup their ears, and began to show considerable interest.
"You mean that while we're up here, and have half an hour or so on ourhands," Elmer suggested, "we might as well take a look-in over there,and see if the rats and the owls are the only things living in theCartaret house."
"I'd like to very much, suh, believe me, I would," Chatz continued, withone of his winning smiles that were very difficult to resist.
"What do the rest say about that?" and as Elmer made this remark heturned to the other three scouts.
"I vote in the affirmative!" Toby immediately answered.
"Thame here," purred Ted.
"Oh! of course I'll join you in anything you hatch up, fellows," Georgetold them; "though I don't take any stock in all this nonsense aboutghosts and such. If you show me one, and I can pinch his arm, and feelthe bones in his hand, I might believe in the stuff; but you never can,and that's a fact. Still, I'd like to see what the inside of this oldCartaret house is like. I don't believe there's a single fellow inHickory Ridge that can boast he's been through it. Lead the way, then,Elmer, or Chatz. We'll follow you."
That was always the way with George. He would oblige a comrade everytime, but his chronic way of fault-finding, or unbelief, often took awaymuch of the pleasure his accommodating nature might have afforded.
They had bundled the cooking utensils together, ready to be placed inthe wagon when it was brought up; Toby also fastened his wonderfulparachute in as small a compass as possible, and laid it down alongsidethe other things.
"Wouldn't want to forget to take that along home for a king's ransom,"he stoutly declared, looking defiantly at George, because of course thatindividual was smiling in a fashion that smacked strongly ofincredulity.
After that the whole five of them headed toward the spot where they knewthe deserted house was to be found. Chatz was fairly quivering witheagerness, and there was a glow in his dark eyes that told how much heappreciated this chance to pry into the secret lodging place of areported ghost.
Everything was overgrown, and looked very wild. Elmer remarked that ifthere really were such things as hobgoblins in this world, theycertainly could look long and far without finding a more congenialneighborhood in which to reside; for the whole appearance of the placeseemed to smack of the supernatural. The breeze actually whined as itpassed through the bare branches of the untrimmed trees close to thehouse; and loose shutters and windows added to the creaky sounds bytheir rattling, every time a little gust happened to blow.
"Wow! this sure is spooky enough around here to suit me," Toby franklyadmitted, as they stood there, and looked about them.
The house itself had once been quite an extensive, and perhaps costlyaffair, with two wings, and a spacious hall in the center. That was longago, for now it was in the throes of dissolution, a mere wreck of itsformer self, and fit only for bats, owls, and rats. Doors hung on asingle hinge, and shutters had been torn off long ago by gales, leavingthe paneless windows gaping beyond. Moss streaked the rotten roof, andparts of the porch had given way under accumulated snow piles inprevious winters.
As Toby said it certainly was gloomy enough, and one did not need tohave a very vivid imagination to picture the tragic scenes that weresaid to have been enacted here many years ago, when the place was aregular Eden, with flower beds and outbuildings on all sides.
"Gives you the creeps, all right," admitted George.
"Now, for my part," Elmer remarked just then, "I kind of like thefeeling it makes pass over you. And as few people have visited here forthe last ten years, I'm glad you asked us to look around with you,Chatz. Let's go inside."
There was no trouble about finding a place of entrance, for there wereplenty of the same, some originally intended for this purpose, andothers the result of decay while the old mansion lay here year afteryear the sport of winds and storms, winter and summer.
They wandered around from room to room,
viewing the wreck of what hadonce been a very fine house.
"Looks to me like there might be some truth in that story about theJudge making this a regular prison for his young and pretty wife," Elmerannounced as his opinion, after they had been pretty well through thelower story, and were climbing the shaky stairs to the upper floor.
"Why, yes, there were actually bars across the windows in that lastroom!" declared Chatz; "it's just such a place as I've always had in mymind whenever I got to thinking about haunted houses. You could imagineanything might happen here. Right now, if it was midnight, we couldwatch and see if there was any truth in all those stories about theghost of the Judge's young wife storming around here, going through allthat terrible scene again. I'd give something to be able to learn if shedoes come back to visit the scenes where she was so unhappy."
"Here, you'll have uth all shaking like we had the ague, if you don'tstop that thort of talk," said Ted, apprehensively, and when he thoughtno one was looking, rubbing the back of his hand across his eyes, asthough something connected with the sad story of the old-time tragedyhad brought unbidden tears there.
"Well, perhaps you may have just such a chance, Chatz," said Elmer,suddenly, as though he had made his mind up.
"Tell me how," requested the Southern boy, trying to control theeagerness that burned within his soul when he heard this said.
"You remember that we'd about made up our minds to spend theThanksgiving holidays in camp somewhere, just to have another littleouting before winter dropped down on us?" Elmer went on.
"Yes, that's right, we did," muttered Toby, who was almost as muchinterested in the matter as Chatz.
"And where could we find a better place for spending those few days thanright here in the dense woods close to the Cartaret house? There'severything to be had that the heart of a camper might wish; and ifyou're a ghost hunter, why, here's a splendid field for youractivities."
"Elmer, will you do that much for me?" asked Chatz, earnestly.
"Much more, if the chance ever came along, and you know it, Chatz,"replied the scout master, warmly. "So, what do you say, shall weconsider that settled, boys?"
All of them held up a hand, which meant that they voted in theaffirmative.
"But," interposed the Great Objector, "we mustn't forget that therewill be several other fellows of our troop along with us on that littleouting; and p'raps they mightn't just fancy camping so close to a mouldyold ruin, where the owls and bats fly around nights, and lots of otherunpleasant things are apt to crop up."
"Oh! we know Lil Artha, Ty Collins, and Landy Smith well enough to beable to speak for them, too," Elmer ventured; "and the chances are whenthey hear what we're aiming to do they'll be as wild as Chatz here toinvestigate."
"We've got a big job cut out for us, I'm thinking, boys," falteredGeorge.
"Rats! who's afraid? Gimme two cents' worth of peanuts, please!"exclaimed Toby, who seemed to be in an unusually good humor, perhapsbecause of that successful parachute drop, looked forward to with anadmixture of hope and fear for a considerable time.
They passed through every part of the house that seemed worth while,even visiting the attic, where the rain had beaten in so many times,that some of the woodwork seemed very mouldy. They frightened an army ofbats up there, and there was a lively ducking of heads, with numerousattempts at knocking the flying creatures down with whatever the boyscould lay hands on.
Underneath lay the cellars, and determined to see it all the boystrooped down the rotten stairs, saving George, who declared he had hadquite enough of the exploration, and that after all he didn't believe inghosts, and therefore an old ruin with a tragic story back of it failedto impress him as worth much time.
When the others came out a little later, talking about what queerdungeons lay underground, some of which possibly had been constructed bythe rich judge to serve as wine cellars, they found George sitting athis ease, and watching the shadow on the stone face of an old andunreliable sun dial.
"I guess long ago that pretty young wife used to sit right where youare, George, and watch the shadow creep around to the hour mark," saidElmer, who must have had a pretty good touch of the romantic in hismake-up, to speak in this way.
"Mebbe," George retorted, as though falling back on his old principles,and not willing to believe anything unless shown.
"That finishes our visit to the Cartaret place, for this time, Chatz,"Elmer continued, turning to the Southern boy; "I hope you think it paidyou for the trouble."
"A dozen times over, suh, I assuah you; and I'll not soon forget yourkindness that made this interesting visit possible. Yes, and thatpromise to come up here again next week, when we're out for our littlevacation camping. I shall look forward to the same with the greatestpleasure, believe me, suh."
"Then we might as well get the horse up, and load our cargo?" Elmersuggested.
"Oh! did you see that?" shouted Toby, just then.
"What was it, and where did you see anything?" demanded George, alwayssuspecting that the others were playing practical jokes.
"Up at one of the windows there!" Toby went on, pointing, while his facefilled with excitement and a little touch of awe.
"What was it like?" asked Chatz, his interest aroused to fever heat.
"I only had a peek at it, because it disappeared, just like it might besmoke," Toby went on to explain; "but it was a white face, and if thereever was such a thing on this here earth as a ghost, I saw one then,sure I did, fellows!"
Elmer had his eyes glued on the face of the scout when he was makingthis astonishing assertion; and he knew that Toby, though a practicaljoker at times, was not trying to deceive them now; he had seen_something_ up there at that window, or believed he had, which amountedto the same thing; and yet they had just explored every bit of thatportion of the ruins without meeting a single soul!