CHAPTER X
THE "TOTE" ROAD IN THE FOREST
"Wake up there, lazybones!"
Frank opened his eyes. The sun was actually shining in through the frontof his tent, much to his mortification and surprise.
"That's about the first time I've ever been caught napping," he remarkedto Will, who was now ding-donging a big spoon on the bottom of afrying-pan, to indicate that breakfast was ready.
Frank had been up the greater part of the night, on guard. He hadassumed most of the care of the camp himself, only dropping down whenthe hour was getting on toward dawn.
The others, knowing this, had been careful not to arouse him, but hadgone on with the duties of the morning.
"It's good of you, boys, to let me sleep so long. I guess I must haveneeded it, too. Count me in before you've been at it five minutes," andso saying he slipped through the woods to a little brook near by, wherethey could hear him splashing about at a great rate.
When breakfast was done they began to consider what the duties of theday were to be. They had come up here into the mountains not to hunt,for the close season was on all edible game, but to knock around andhave a good time generally. Incidentally, of course, they expected tolook into that ghost story, and endeavor to learn just how much truthlay back of it.
Already considerable progress had been made, Frank thought.
He had prodded the boys who were in the camp at the time the spectershowed up, and upon putting their stories together, came to theconclusion that the ghost must have appeared on the east side of theplace.
Hither Frank hied himself immediately after he had finished eating.Dropping down on his hands and knees, he commenced to examine the groundwith all the care of a red trailer of the plains and forest.
"Find anything?" asked Jerry, joining him.
Neither of the other chums would even so much as look. They had had anexperience, and were quite content to let it rest at that. The absenteesmight take it into their heads to continue the treatment, if theywished. Perhaps they might not feel quite so ambitious after one chanceto look at that grim white figure.
"Nothing to boast of. You see the ground is rather hard here, and a manmight stand all around without making much of an impression. Still, itseems to me as if that might be the imprint of a shoe, and this, too."
He pointed as he spoke, and Jerry bent lower to look.
"I think you're right. Somebody stepped there, that's sure. Whether lastnight, or a week of Sundays ago, I wouldn't care to say," he admitted.
"Well, you ought to be able to place it better than that, for if youstop to think, you must remember that it rained just three days back."
"Correct! And that would have washed the footprint out completely, eh?But if we only had a hound here, used to following a human trail,wouldn't it be the easy thing to run down Mr. Ghost?" chuckled Jerry.
"It certainly would; but we happen to have nothing of the kind. I knowof a couple of dogs able to do it. Colonel Halpin brought them up fromthe South. Don't you remember early last spring they were borrowed bythe wardens of the penitentiary to track an escaped convict? They gothim, too," remarked Frank.
"Yes, one of them; the other got clean away. I heard he walked in water,and in that way broke the trail."
"Well, the fellow who told me said the convict had some red pepper alongwith him. When he found the dogs were on his track he scattered thisaround. The poor beasts almost choked to death, and were not fit toscent a thing for days. That was a clever rascal, all right," saidFrank.
"I declare I'm almost tempted to say he deserved to get away; but if wecan't follow the tracks of Mr. Ghost I suppose we'll have to just waituntil he chooses to pay us another visit, eh, Frank?"
"That's the only remedy; and if what I suspect is true, I imagine we'llbe apt to see something of him again soon. We're not wanted in thisregion, and he means to let us know it frequently."
"Do you think it can be a crazy man's freak?" queried Jerry.
"Honestly, I don't. There is a motive back of this thing, but I'll befrank with you, and say that as yet I don't catch it. Perhaps the ideamay flash in on me at any time. I have several suspicions, but nothingto prove that they can hold water."
Presently, therefore, the two searchers wandered back to where Will andBluff sat talking with the fugitive bound boy.
Bluff looked up at them with a grin.
"S'pose you've got it all fixed now, and can tell us the name andantecedents of our ghost? It's mighty kind of you to go to all thattrouble," he gurgled.
Neither of the others answered, for, indeed, what could they say?
"If you want to save that bearskin, I'll show you how to take it off,Bluff," remarked Frank later on.
"Well, now, I would, the worst kind. Even if some of the hairs do comeout it will make a dandy rug. When you're ready, tell me what to do,"replied the other.
So they busied themselves in that way. Will was developing his firstroll of films in the tank, which could be used as well in daylight as atnight, or in a dark-room. Jerry wandered off, with his gun over his arm,not looking for game, but with the intention of protecting himselfagainst any possible danger. As for Jed, filled to repletion, he seemedquite a different boy from the fear-haunted chap of the previous night.
Jerry was a curious boy, always seeking to learn the why and whereforeof everything that happened. He did not believe in the ghost stories,and only wished he could run across something to prove the fact.
It was with this faint hope springing up in his heart that he saunteredout of the camp and into the great forest that stretched far away towardthe lake, on the borders of which Centerville and Newtonport lay.
Looking back of him, he could see the Sunset Mountains very near, thesides covered with the same dense forest growth.
"Let's see, what have I got to look out for?" he was saying to himself,as he upraised a finger with each count: "The ghost, for one; thoseApaches of Pet Peters, for two; that fine, hearty old gentleman, FarmerDobson, for three. Well, a fellow would need to have three pairs of eyesto keep watch of all those perils at once. Perhaps there is another bearnear by, the mate of the one Frank and Bluff knocked over. Well, I'mwilling, if she only shows up."
So he was talking to himself as he wandered on. He did not mean to govery far away from the camp, at the time he started, but somehow it wasso easy to just keep walking on. The day was fine, and he felt liketaking exercise.
Jerry did not forget to keep his eyes about him all the while. It wouldnot be pleasant to have those hovering plagues, the boys from town,drop down on his head from some tree, and he did not hanker after theexperience.
Somehow his thoughts ranged back to Jed. Jerry was very much interestedin the fortunes of the little bound boy, and had determined that hisfather, as well as the lawyer parent of Bluff, should do something torelieve him from his distress.
"I wonder what there is about that little gold locket that makes oldDobson want to get it in his possession so much? It must be proof ofsomething; and surely there must be money in it for the possessor, ifone only knew how to go about it. That's what we don't know, and Dobsondoes. But Frank will think it out. Nothing gets past him for long, now."
Frank was far from guessing the secret, as yet, for just at that veryparticular minute he sat in camp looking slyly at the very locket Jerryreferred to, and trying to figure out how such a thing as Jed's mother'spicture could be valuable to her cousin, the old skinflint farmer.
Jerry, having gone as far as he dared, was now beginning to hedge; thatis, he had turned to the left, showing that he meant to return to thecamp, but by a different route from the one already taken.
Since in another day or so they meant to change their camping-ground,and pass on to the shores of Surprise Lake, among the mountains, hethought he might as well see as much of this territory as possible.
Although he had taken his gun along, Jerry really did not believe hewould see anything of a character to make him glad he had carried it.Still, if thos
e followers of Pet Peters were hovering around they wouldfight shy of him on seeing that he carried a weapon.
He changed the tenor of his thoughts to Andy, and began to wonder whatit could have been that brought him up into that lonely country, wherethere were no farms.
He was aroused from his reflections by a sound that startled him. Thiswas undoubtedly the bellow of a bull, if Jerry knew what that was, andhe believed he did. Looking up, he saw something that startled him.
Down the "tote" road, which he happened to be following, something wasrushing toward him with lowered head, stopping occasionally to shake hishorns and give a renewed bellow as of rage.
What he had heard Farmer Dobson say on the preceding night flashedthrough his mind, and Jerry knew that he was now looking upon themissing prize bull. He could not remember of having lost any bullhimself, but the animal was heading his way, and evidently meant to makehis immediate acquaintance.