A RUN FOR HOME.
"Yes, sir," repeated Silas, after he had taken another brief look at
his surroundings, to make sure that there was no mistake about it;
"we're abreast of our wood-pile at this blessed minute, 'cause why--you
see that leaning hickory up there on the top of the bluff? Well, I shot
a squirrel off'n there about three weeks ago, and that there tree is
only a quarter of a mile from the wood-pile. I wish you wouldn't look
so scared-like, Dannie. The best part of this mean job is over now, and
we ain't seen nothing to be afeard of yet. Look around, and see if you
can find anything of that rope. If you can, there's the cave. Go ahead,
Dannie, and when you feel yourself getting trembly all over, just say,
'breech-loading bird-guns and j'inted fish-poles,' and that'll put
pluck into you."
Silas rattled on in this way simply to gain time, and Dan knew it; but
before he could make any reply, the performance of the previous day,
which had proved so trying to Tom Hallet's nerves and Bob Emerson's,
was repeated for their benefit, followed by a new and startling
variation. First, a dismal howl arose on the air, and the echoes took
it up and threw it from one cliff to the other, until it seemed to the
terrified Dan that every tree and hush within the range of his vision
concealed some awful thing that was howling at him with all its might.
Gradually the sound grew into a scream; and at the same moment there
arose above the bushes, not more than thirty yards in advance of
him, a grotesque figure, clad all in white. Its head was concealed
by something that looked like a night-cap; but its face was visible,
and it was as white as chalk--all except the places where its eyes,
nose and mouth were, or ought to have been, and they were as black as
ink. It held its arms stiffly by its sides, and when the scream was
at its loudest, it made a sudden dart forward as if it were on the
point of jumping over the bushes, to take vengeance upon the daring
fortune-hunters.
"Oh, my soul!" groaned Silas; and his legs refusing to support him any
longer, he sat down among the rocks and covered his eyes with his hand.
But Dan was made of sterner stuff. For a moment or two he stared at the
figure with eyes that seemed ready to start from their sockets, and
then his gun came quickly to his shoulder, and two loads of shot went
straight for the ghost's head.
This aroused his father, who was not a second behind him; but the
four charges had no more effect upon the spectre than so many blank
cartridges.
When the smoke cleared away, there he stood, and his actions seemed to
indicate that he was about to assume the offensive. He began growing
before their eyes; and when he had risen in the air until his height
overtopped that of the tallest man they had ever seen, Dan, who did
not care to wait until he had lengthened himself all out, uttered a
yell that was almost as loud and unearthly as those that came from the
direction of the cave, and turned and took to his heels.
He quickly gave his father the place of danger--the rear--and when
Silas, lumbering along behind, and stumbling over rocks and barking his
shins at almost every step, reached the first bend in the stream, Dan
was nowhere in sight.
Knowing that it would be of no earthly use to call to him to come back,
Silas took one quick glance behind him to make sure that the spectre
was not coming in pursuit, and then darted into the bushes which
fringed the base of the cliff, and climbed slowly and laboriously to
the top.
He was a long time in reaching it, for his terror seemed to have robbed
him of all his strength and agility, while it had just the opposite
effect upon Dan, whom he found at last; sitting on a log near the
wood-pile.
"Well, we know now for certain that the money's there, don't we?" said
Silas, as soon as he could speak.
"Yes; and we know that the hant's there too," replied Dan. "If I'd
known that he was such a looking feller as that, you can bet your
bottom dollar that I wouldn't have gone nigh him. He didn't have them
white clothes on yesterday. You needn't set down, thinking that I'm
going to wait for you, 'cause I'm going straight home."
Tired and weak as he was, Silas was obliged to go, too, for he hadn't
the courage to stay there alone until he was rested. He wasn't very
steady on his legs, and by no means as sure-footed as he usually
was; but he managed to keep along with Dan, who, as fast as his wind
came back to him, increased his pace, first to a slow trot, then to
a fast trot, and finally to a dead run, every fresh burst of speed
calling forth a corresponding exertion on the part of his father, who,
struggling gamely to keep up, was so nearly exhausted by the violence
of his efforts that he was often on the point of falling in his tracks.
[Illustration: A RUN FOR HOME]
This was the way they were moving when Mrs. Morgan discovered them
approaching the house. She was greatly astonished when she saw the
nervous haste with which they closed and locked the door, and witnessed
their frantic but unsuccessful attempts to recharge their guns, and she
was frightened when she caught a glimpse of their faces; but with all
her questioning, she could not get a word out of them.
They stared stupidly at her, as they rocked about in their chairs, but
did not seem to possess the power of speech.
"Our tongues were stiffer'n a couple of boards, and we couldn't nary
one of us open our heads," was the way in which Dan wound up his story.
"At first I thought the hant had put some kind of a spell or 'nother on
to us; but it went away after a while, and now we can both talk as well
as we ever could. I reckon you won't go back, will you, Joey?"
To Dan's utter amazement, the young game-warden replied with the
greatest promptness:
"Of course I shall go back. What would Mr. Warren think of me if I
should throw up my situation before I had fairly entered upon its
duties? I haven't seen anything to get frightened at."
"But I have," exclaimed Dan.
"I don't doubt it in the least," answered Joe, who had a theory of his
own regarding the strange things that had happened in the gorge. "If
I don't bother the 'hant' I don't see why he should take the trouble
to climb out of his cave to bother me. I don't want the treasure he is
guarding. I never expect to get a dollar that I don't work for; and,
Dan, if you and father would make up your minds to the same thing, and
quit your foolish wishing and go to work in dead earnest, you would be
better off six months from now. I wouldn't go near those woods again if
I were in your place."
"You're right I won't," said Dan, earnestly. "I want my new gun and
fish-pole awful bad, and I do despise to have to give 'em up; but I'll
wait till that there hant dies or goes away, before I try that gulf
again, I bet you. Be you going back to your shanty now?"
Joe said he was.
"Well, mebbe it's best so," continued Dan, reflectively. "You have got
to earn all the money that comes into the family this winter, ain't
you?"
"I suppose I shall earn all I get," said Joe, who saw very plainly what
his brother was driving at, "and I know that you and father will earn
every red cent you get."
"It sorter bothers me to see how we are going to do it," replied Dan.
"Don't it you?"
"Not at all. Earn it as you did last winter--cut wood."
"Why, that would take us up there clost to the gulf," cried Dan,
looking up in amazement. "And didn't I just tell you that I wasn't
going there no more?"
"Now, Dan, that's only an excuse on your part. You know very well that
Mr. Warren and Mr. Hallet are not the only ones who will want cord-wood
this winter. I don't blame you for keeping away from the gorge; but you
can find plenty to do elsewhere, if you are not too lazy to look for
it. Well, good-by."
"What a teetotally mean, stingy feller, that Joe of our'n is!"
soliloquized Dan, gazing after his brother, who was walking toward the
cabin with a light and springy step. "He ain't a going to go halvers
with me and pap, is he? I wish in my soul that the hant would run him
outen the mounting this very night."
The young game-warden carried a very bright and smiling face into his
mother's presence, and Mrs. Morgan felt immensely relieved the moment
she looked at it. Instead of locking the door, as Dan and his father
always did whenever they wished to hold a secret interview with each
other, Joe sat down on the threshold so that he could talk to his
mother and keep watch of Dan at the same time.
The latter was inclined to be "snooping," and it would be just like
him, Joe thought, to slip up and crouch under the open window, so that
he could hear every word he uttered. Dan had an idea of doing that very
thing; but he straightway abandoned it when he looked up and saw his
brother sitting at ease in the open door.
"Now, mother," said the latter, cheerfully, "throw your fears to the
winds. I've got at the bottom of the whole matter, and know there's
nothing to be afraid of."
Then he went on to repeat the story to which he had just listened, but
he did not take up so much time with the narration as Dan did, because
he used fewer words.
"Dan was so badly frightened that he didn't know whether he stood on
his head or his heels," said Joe, in conclusion. "But it is an ill wind
that blows nobody good, and this is the best thing that could have
happened for me. I told you this morning that if father and Dan didn't
behave and let my birds alone, I would find means to make them, but I
guess the ghost has taken that most unpleasant job off my hands, and I
should really like to thank him for it."
"Then you think there is some one hidden in the gulf?" said Mrs. Morgan.
"I am sure of it; and the reason that father and Dan did not do any
damage with their four charges of bird-shot was, because they sent
them into a dummy. If they had held a little lower, and fired into the
bushes, there might have been another story to tell."
"Have you any idea who the man is?"
"Not the slightest; but--but--well I don't care who he is, or why he is
hiding there, if he will only make it his business to drive away every
market-shooter who goes into those woods."
It had been right on the point of Joe's tongue to say that he would
know all about the mysterious party who was hiding in the gorges before
he came home again; but he didn't say it.
His mother was smiling now, and he did not want to bring the old
expression of fear and anxiety back to her face. He was none the less
determined, however, to sift the matter to the bottom.
"I will see Tom and Bob to-morrow," he went on. "By the way, you didn't
know that they are Mr. Hallet's game-wardens, did you? Neither did I,
until this morning. I couldn't have better fellows for company, could
I? You see, mother, the place where all these things happened is on the
dividing line that runs between Mr. Warren's woods and Mr. Hallet's,
and as the ghost will help Tom and Bob quite as much as he will me, I
want to know what they think about letting him stay there."
There was another reason why Joe was anxious to have an interview with
Mr. Hallet's game-wardens, but he did not think it best to say anything
to his mother about it.