A CHANGE OF BASE
"Talk to me about your ghastly specters, will you!" shouted a voice, as
heads began to be thrust out of the several tents.
"I told you he'd come again to warn us!" chattered Bluff between
rattling teeth.
"Oh! Please wait! My apparatus won't work! There, now!" And a sudden
flash announced that Will had finally succeeded in his heart's dearest
wish, and snapped off a picture of the terrible ghost of Oak Ridge.
The fierce illumination only added new terror to the flying feet of the
two men. They could be heard crashing through the forest, howling with
fear, and anger, as in the darkness they collided with sundry trees that
were unseen in their blind haste.
"It's gone!" announced Jerry.
"All right. I've caught my view, just the same. Frank! Where are you?"
whooped the exultant artist, capering around in his pajamas, as he
hugged his camera to his breast.
"Here," answered the sentry, appearing at that juncture.
"A pretty guard, you are, old boy, to let all those chaps creep up on
the camp while we slept in unconscious innocence," said Bluff, in
pretended indignation.
"Unconscious innocence is good! Tell me about that, will you? Take a
good look at Bluff, fellows. He's expecting to sprout wings soon."
"I was awake, and watching all the time, boys, believe me. I saw the
farmer as he crept up, followed by his man. He lifted his head and
looked into the camp, no doubt trying to figure which of the two tents
sheltered Jed. It was my intention to shoot into the air suddenly, and
then hold him up while the rest of you piled out to surround them; but
something I hadn't counted on took the chance out of my hands."
"Do you think they'll live through the experience?" asked Will.
"Meaning the two countrymen? Oh, I suppose so, if they don't dash out
their brains against the trees as they run," laughed Frank.
"What do you think of the ghost now, Frank?" asked Will eagerly.
"I'm still considering," returned the other, nodding his head sagely.
"But do you still hang to your opinion that it's some person playing a
part?"
"More than ever."
"And trying to scare us out of this region for some purpose or other?"
"Most undoubtedly," was Frank's immediate reply.
"And you don't think it could be that Peters crowd?" went on Bluff.
"They wouldn't be equal to a thing like this. As I said before, it is
the work of a clever schemer. The object is all that puzzles me," said
Frank.
"You watched the thing carry on pretty closely, I suppose?" ventured
Will.
"Had my eyes glued on it every second that it stood there, waving its
long arms in such a theatrical fashion. Now, I can remember reading once
how a man played ghost in a haunted house, and when he was caught it
turned out that he wanted to buy the place, and that was his way of
depressing the price."
"Talk to me about your bulls and bears, that way of knocking down prices
takes the cake!" ejaculated Jerry, greatly amused.
"Wall Street wasn't in it with that man; but I think they sent him to
jail for trespass or something," continued Frank.
"But there's no house up here, so that couldn't be his game," remarked
Bluff.
"Now I remember hearing my father tell about a man who carried on this
way once to scare people away from a certain locality. Come to find out
afterward, he was boring for oil, and believed he had made a
ten-strike," remarked Jerry.
"No oil around this section, that I ever heard of, so that explanation
fails to hold good," laughed Frank. "Next!"
"It's my turn now. I never heard of anything that might cover the
ground, but an idea came to me when I was thinking the old thing over,
and perhaps you fellows might care to hear it," said Bluff.
"Listen to the long-winded lawyer talk! Of course we want to hear.
That's what we're sitting around this blessed fire for, in our pajamas,
shivering to beat the band. Out with it, you!" exclaimed Jerry.
"Original things cut no figure with some people. They want to read about
all they learn, or have other persons tell them; but about this
brilliant thought of mine: It's mighty evident that whoever the ghost
is, he wants to be left alone. Now what kind of people dislike to have
strangers come prowling around their secrets? Why, down in Kentucky and
Tennessee it would be moonshiners. Up in the Maine forests, like as not
timber-grabbers. Here it might be counterfeiters."
"Hear! hear! Bluff has spoken the last word!" exclaimed Jerry excitedly.
"What do you think about it, Frank?"
Will, as he put the question, turned toward the one upon whom the rest
were accustomed to depend to settle all disputes.
"I don't know. The suggestion Bluff made might turn out to be the true
solution of the mystery. At any rate, it's barely possible, and worth
remembering. Later on we may be able to see light in this dark puddle,
and then know how near he came to hitting the bullseye," he replied
thoughtfully.
To him it appeared a serious matter, and one that should not be treated
with too much levity.
"Well, I'm sleepy again, in spite of all this excitement, and as my turn
comes last, I'm going to turn in. A bully old blanket feels good to me,
fellows," saying which, Jerry crawled under the khaki-colored canvas.
The others followed suit. It would do no good to continue the
conversation at such an unseasonable hour. All that was to be said
could hold over until breakfast time, when they would be able to look at
matters in a different light.
Frank sat out his watch, and then put Bluff on the job. In turn he
roused Jerry, who stood it out until the dawn began to light up the
east, when he started the fire into new life, put the coffee on to boil,
with cold water, as was their wont, and busied himself in doing various
things until the rest should appear.
Jed was the first to creep out and go down to the stream for a wash. It
might be noticed that the lad seemed unusually timid this morning.
Whether this sprang from his fear of the gruff farmer, or the wonderful
spectacle he had seen on the preceding night, Jerry could not say.
Over the breakfast they made merry in connection with the adventures
that had come their way since making camp.
"Everybody work!" called out Frank finally, as he started in to pack up.
They all seemed delighted at the prospect of a change of base, all but
poor old Peter, who wheezed worse than ever as he found himself hitched
up to that big load, and the fine prospect of a sturdy pull, uphill,
ahead of him.
"I'm just hungry for a sight of the water," announced Bluff.
"Ditto here. Camp don't seem just the same away from it," said Jerry.
"And the views one gets with a lake for a background! Nothing can
compare with them," observed the photographic fiend, sighing.
"Well, I hope none of us will be disappointed with Lake Surprise, that's
all," remarked Frank, as he lashed the canvas of his tent in a bundle
and placed it carefully in the wagon.
They were off by nine o'clock.
"Good-by to the old camp! Hurrah for the new one!" sang out Bluff, as he
turned to wave a pathetic hand toward the scene of their late location.
"Did you take some of the bear meat along with the hide?" asked Will.
"All we want, I guess. I forgot to bring a file, and my teeth need
attention before I tackle any more of that pemmican," groaned Jerry.
"Wait and see. The next time I expect to boil a chunk, and serve it that
way, as a bear stew. If I have any choice, I prefer a cub, myself; but
you fellows know that in this case it was a question whether we got the
bear or he got us; and since circumstances compelled me to shoot----"
"Keep some of that hot air for to-night, when you'll need it to blow up
your old rubber bag," called Jerry derisively.
"----why," went on Bluff composedly, paying no attention to the
interruption, "it would be a sin to waste all that good wholesome meat.
Hence these tears on the part of our envious friend."
"Envious friend is good--for you!" muttered Jerry; but all the same, he
stopped trying to plague the other, as though the shaft might have gone
home.
Soon they were climbing the hills that stretched along the foot of the
mountain range proper. Old Peter was put to it, at times, to draw the
load, and more than once Frank called to his comrades to put their husky
young shoulders to the wheels in order to help out.
Will wandered on as they descended the other slope, with the mountains
before them. He carried his beloved camera, of course, and no doubt
hoped to come across some charming picture that would add to the
pleasure of the boys when the season of cold and snow was upon them.
In this way he managed to get quite some distance ahead, for the wagon
was halted while Frank rebuilt the load, in danger of falling off with
the sharp descent.
Down at the bottom of the valley that lay between Oak Ridge and the
Sunset Mountains proper, Will came to a stream. It was a broad but
shallow one, and believing he could easily wade across, he pulled his
shoes off, tied them to his belt, and then turning his trousers up,
started in.
It had a soft, sandy bottom that felt very pleasing to his feet.
Half-way over Will stopped to look about him.
"Say, now, that would make a dandy picture, with the water lazily
swirling downstream, and the trees hanging over. I've a good notion to
try it," he said.
Standing there, he set to work. Perhaps he was more than usually
particular to get things just as he wanted them. Sometimes one can
overdo this good trait, and Will came to that conclusion when, upon
attempting to move on, he found to his surprise that his feet seemed
locked, as in a vise.
When he tried to lift one, his entire weight falling upon the other
seemed to push that one down several inches deeper.
"What does this mean? Why, the water is already up to my trousers! I
guess I'll have to hitch them up higher, or get wet."
He was not at all excited, as yet, for the danger that menaced him had
not come into his mind. He managed to accomplish the little task which
he had set out to do, but by that time he was in up to his knees, and
apparently still gradually going down, slowly but surely.
Now he could hardly move either foot, and as for pulling one of them out
of the sucking sand, it seemed utterly impossible.
Will looked up. There was a stout limb of a tree just above him. If he
could only get hold of that he might manage to draw himself out. Vainly
did he stretch up his hands, for they fell short fully a dozen inches of
touching the very nearest twigs of that friendly limb.
For the first time a cold chill began to chase up and down his spinal
column.
"What if the boys fail to come along for half an hour! At this rate I'd
be completely out of sight, and they'd never know what had become of
me!" he exclaimed, in new horror.
The surface of the stream looked so very innocent, no one would ever
suspect that such a terrible trap lay just beneath the slowly running
water.
"It's what they call quicksand--that's what!" he ejaculated, as he
looked down with distended eyes, and saw that line of water gradually
rising above his knees--slowly and almost imperceptibly, but as surely
as that the sun shone overhead.
Then Will grew frightened.
"Help! help! Frank! Jerry! Come quick!" he shouted at the top of his
voice; but only the echoes seemed to come back to taunt him.