A SCHEME THAT WENT WRONG
For a brief interval after Nat had so triumphantly announced his grand
scheme for frightening Old Deacon Nocker the other boys were still.
Apparently, every one was digesting the idea, and coming to some sort
of a mental decision. Dan Fenwick was the first to voice his views.
“It strikes me as a cracking good prank, Nat!” he exclaimed, “and I’m
voting to help you carry the same out.”
“Count me in for one of your old sheets, Nat!” cried Peg,
enthusiastically.
“Dick, what do you say?” asked Leslie Capes, a little anxiously, as
though he rather hoped the other would veto the whole business by
declaring it was too silly, or too full of danger.
If this was Leslie’s expectation, he was doomed to disappointment, for
Dick immediately came out with a full endorsement of Nat’s proposal.
“I go you, Nat,” he said, presently; “the scheme is worth trying out.
Of course, if any fellow chooses to stand back and miss the fun, he’s
at liberty to do it; but I’ll borrow one of your old sheets; and I’ll
do my level best to throw my voice so as to make it sound like it came
up from the grave.”
“Then we’re all in on the game, if you say so, Dick,” declared Andy
Hale.
“Ditto here!” echoed Elmer, feeling that the die was now cast; and no
one had ever called him a quitter.
“How about you, Leslie?” asked Nat, sneeringly, for he had noticed that
the other seemed uneasy when the great scheme was first broached.
“Who, me?” replied the Capes boy, scornfully. “Did any one ever know me
to back down when my chums were in for a lark? I speak for another of
the sheets, Nat.”
“There, the clock struck the half hour,” interrupted Dick, “and if we
want to be on deck at exactly midnight, we’d better get a hustle on.”
“Come along fellows, we’ll chase out along the road here to the Brandon
place, and climb the fence there. Say, I prowled around today and got
my bearings all right.”
It was not a great distance to the vacant Brandon place, and the seven
mischief-loving boys scrambled over the old fence with the greatest of
ease. Nat did not seem really to need any lantern to show him the way,
so well had he stamped the lay of the grounds on his memory.
Arriving at the dividing fence he showed the others where he had taken
pains to pull off some boards, allowing a free passage to the adjoining
grounds of the rich old storekeeper, who seemed to have such a poor
opinion of all boys after his complete failure to bring his own son up
by strict methods.
“Look there, I can see lights in his house!” whispered Elmer.
“Oh! that’s nothing unusual!” declared Dick; “they say the old man is
awake all hours of the night, making up his accounts and reading. He
puts on a bold front, but I reckon when he heard that his boy died away
out West it hit him harder than he’ll ever own up.”
“Still he’s as hard as nails,” grunted Dan. “My folks say he had a
letter from the girl his son Amos married, telling him that she and her
little boy were awful poor; and the old skinflint had the nerve to get
Lawyer Bodgkin here to write that if she sent the kid on he’d agree
to stand for his education, but that he’d never set eyes on the woman
who’d married Amos, thinking she’d fall into all the old man’s money.”
“But she never did send the child, you notice,” said Leslie. “Which
proves that she cared more for him than Old Jed’s miser gold.”
“Stop jabbering there, you fellers,” muttered Nat, with a touch of his
ordinary bullying authority, for he was used to lording it over Dit
Hennesy and several other boys.
“Yes,” Dick went on to say, “let’s creep up close to the house, and
find out if we can get in through some window he’s forgotten to fasten.
Quiet now, everybody.”
They wriggled their way through the new leafless undergrowth with
considerable skill, and soon reached the side of the large building.
Then a hasty search was made, which resulted in the discovery that one
window fastening had been overlooked by Old Jed when going his rounds
earlier in the evening.
Dick soon had the window raised without making any noise. Perhaps the
hearts of several of those boys beat faster than customary as they
crawled in through the aperture. They knew they were doing something
that bordered on the lawless, for to break in and enter a house, even
in pursuit of Hallowe’en fun, was an act that no court would sanction
or forgive, no matter how lenient the judge might be.
What made it seem more realistic was the fact that Nat had come
prepared to show them the way, for he carried a small electric
flashlight, which, by constantly keeping in action, he could use to
advantage.
“Whee! this makes me feel queer,” whispered Andy in the ear of Elmer,
as they started to pick their way across the room, avoiding such
obstacles as chairs and tables.
“Wonder if this is the way a burglar always feels,” the other answered,
in such a low tone that it could not have been heard three feet away.
Dick turned on them, and shook his head as if to intimate that even
such communications were out of order. Then he started to get his sheet
fixed, Nat having previously torn places in each covering so that they
could be used for peep holes.
By the time four of them had rigged themselves out in these ridiculous
costumes, the parlor of Deacon Nocker’s big house looked as though it
might be the assembling place for the whole ghost tribe.
After glancing about to make sure all was ready, Nat gave Dick the
signal agreed upon. From that time forward he wanted Dick to take the
lead, since it was up to the other to do what speaking was required.
They could see that there was a light in the library, for a line under
the connecting door betrayed this fact. The window being open, every
one plainly heard the not far-distant town clock begin to strike the
witching hour of midnight.
Hardly had the last solemn clang died away when a deep groan arose,
Dick being the one to start the ball rolling. He waited to ascertain
what the effect might be before repeating the performance.
Evidently, Deacon Nocker had heard the groan, for they caught the
sound of his chair falling over in his haste to jump to his feet. The
question now was whether he would be afraid to look in on them as they
hoped. But all doubt on that score was quickly dissipated, for the old
man suddenly threw the door wide open, and then started back at sight
of what he saw beyond.
The four who were covered with the sheets all pointed straight at the
owner of the house, just as they had read supposed-to-be ghosts always
did. Elmer, Dan and Andy, not possessing any ghostly apparel, had
hidden themselves behind sundry articles of bulky furniture, whence
they peered out as best they might in the endeavor to see all the “fun.”
At first sight it appeared as though Deacon Nocker was a badly
frightened man, especially when a mysterious and solemn voice sounding
very creepy, and coming from overhead, was heard.
“Be warned, rash mortal,” it said. “We have come from the land of
spirits to tell you to mend your ways before it is too late. Love your
neighbors, and do good. If they smite you on one cheek turn the other.
Help the poor and needy when the cold winds of winter begin to blow.
Your time on earth is short, and you will have no other chance. Listen,
ponder, and act!”
Considering that Dick had such a short time in which to think up what
he ought to say when pointing his hand at the old deacon this was not
so bad. Some of his companions considered it highly entertaining;
indeed, Elmer, or was it Andy, safe in his place of concealment, even
ventured to chuckle. This sound may have given the alarmed old man the
first suspicion that his ghostly visitors were something more than they
seemed to be in that half-darkened room.
They heard him utter a snarl. Then he reached in with one hand, there
was a sudden “click” and the parlor was flooded with light, for the
deacon had turned the electric switch!
Of course in that dazzling glow the nature of the precious “fake” was
readily exposed. The boys saw the deacon stare angrily at them, and
then whirling around rush back into his library as though for something
with which to assail these unbidden guests.
“Cut for it, fellows; he’s gone for his gun!” exclaimed Nat, excitedly,
at the same moment throwing his sheet aside and heading directly for
the open window, through which he plunged headlong.
The others, seized with a panic after the collapse of Nat’s grand
scheme, also jumped for the only exit. Some went through about as
speedily as Nat had done, while others attempted climbing down a little
more carefully.
By great good luck every one managed to get outside the house before
Old Jed appeared in the open window of the lighted parlor, carrying a
rusty double-barrel shotgun in his hands. He was very angry it seemed,
because of the fright to which he had been subjected, for without
hesitation, he fired both barrels of his weapon, though aiming a bit
high.
Seven panic-stricken boys plunged through a wilderness of bushes,
colliding with sundry trees which they failed to notice, and reaching
the fence by the road at various angles. Here there were exhibited all
sorts of speedy “high and lofty vaulting,” as the circus posters term
it, some of the fellows even landing on all fours in the dust of the
road.
A short time afterwards a number of them collected on the sand lot to
compare experiences. Several were nursing bumps they had received from
a too close and intimate acquaintance with the trees in Deacon Nocker’s
front yard. Dan was holding his handkerchief to his nose, and the
sanguinary hue of the aforementioned article would indicate that he had
come to grief in his mad flight.
Still they would not have been real boys if they had not seen the
humorous side of their late adventure. Even Dan chuckled between dips
with his handkerchief, though Dick made him throw his head back, and
breathe evenly so as to try to stop the flow of blood.
“Where’s Nat?” demanded Leslie, half angrily.
“Oh! you won’t see Nat around again,” asserted Andy, confidently. “I
know him too well to expect that. He’s about home by this time, for his
kind always runs away, to let others shoulder the blame.”
“What’s bothering me,” admitted Elmer, ruefully, “is whether Old Jed
recognized any of us. When he flashed that light he must have seen me
staring out at him from behind that sofa.”
“And I’m afraid I dropped my cap somewhere,” said Dick, uneasily. “The
worst thing about it is I was silly enough to write my name inside.”
“Whew! that may mean a whole lot of trouble for the crowd, Dick!”
exclaimed Leslie. “But just remember that what happens to one must
concern all. We’re every bit as guilty as you are; and if Old Jed
starts to give you any trouble we’ll all own up and take the penalty.”
“That’s mighty good of you to say that, Leslie,” declared Dick. “But
perhaps after all the deacon will remember it was Hallowe’en. He must
have been a boy himself once, and ought to forgive such pranks. But
let’s get home now, fellows, and forget our troubles. Come on, Dan, if
you’re through shedding your gore. So-long all the rest of you.”