THE GHOST.
"'Tis this way," the foreman began, as he shifted his pipe to the other
side of his mouth. "Yer father has a contract to deliver four million
fate of spruce to The Great Northern Star Company in Waterville, on or
before the twentieth of nixt May. We got a good crew here an' kin do the
job all right if things go well; but 'tis a man's size job let me tell
ye and if the logs ain't thar on the dot the contract's busted."
"But that's not what's worrying you," Bob declared as Tom paused. "Come
out with it. Where's the fly in the ointment?"
"Sure an' it's no fly at all at all: it's a ghost, that's what it is,"
and Bob's laugh died on his lips as he noted the serious look on the
foreman's face.
"What do you mean, ghost?" Jack broke in as Tom paused. "There ain't no
such animal," he laughed.
"Mebbe not: I dunno, but I saw it meself."
"When was it you saw it?" Bob asked.
"Jest last night right on the edge of the woods out thar."
"Did anyone else see it?"
"Only old Ike, and I bribed him to kape it to hisself. Of course I spect
it's a trick of Big Ben to scare our men away. He knows how
super--super, hang it all, what's thot word?"
"You mean superstitious," Bob supplied.
"Thot's it, and if the men git a notion this camp's haunted, it's likely
they'll all up and git."
"But why should Big Ben want to scare off our men?" Jack asked. "Hasn't
he got enough of his own?"
"'Tis not thot at all at all, but he bid against yer father on thot
contract an' lost out so I spect he wants him ter lose it. Sure an' 'tis
jest like him."
"What time was it when this ghost made its appearance?" Bob asked.
"Sure an' 'twas jest after supper, but, thank goodness, only me and Ike
had come out of the mess house. I made a dash fer it, but the blamed
thing jest up and vanished afore I got half way to it."
"What did it look like?"
"Sure an' it looked ter be about eight fate tall an' was all white an'
fire streaming from its two eyes. It sure was a sight all right all
right, so it was."
"But it didn't come tonight did it?" Jack asked.
"Not yet, an' I been kaping me eyes on the winder thar. Yer can see the
place where it was from here. We'll kape an eye open an' watch fer a bit
and mebby we'll see it."
But, although they watched until after nine o'clock, the ghost did not
put in an appearance.
"Sure an' it's of no use to watch iny longer," Tom said, as he knocked
the ashes from his pipe. "Unless it's a rale ghost he knows as how all
the byes are in bed by this time."
Neither of the boys slept much that night. It was not worry that kept
them awake, however. It was a far more tangible cause. In short it was
snoring on the part of many of the crew. The snoring varied in tone, as
Jack declared the next morning, "all the way from low A to high C." But
as they had had the same experience a number of times before, they knew
that they would soon get used to it.
Jean Larue had not been at supper the night of the fight, but he was on
hand for breakfast the next morning, apparently none the worse for his
beating. He had, however, a decidedly downcast look, as though he
realized, as no doubt he did, that the day of his authority over his
mates was past.
"If looks could kill, you'd be a dead man," Jack whispered to Bob as
they took their seats at the long table. "That Larue is certainly
looking daggers at you."
"Just so he doesn't do anything except look I should worry," Bob
grinned, as he helped himself to a couple of shredded wheat biscuits.
The camp was situated about a hundred rods from the lake and, at the
time, they were felling the spruce some two hundred rods north of the
camp. It was a sight which they never tired of, watching to see the
mighty monarchs of the woods yield little by little at first to the axe
and saw, and then, with a terrific crash, fall to earth. Then would come
the trimming off of the branches and sawing into the proper length,
after which the logs would be rolled onto the low but exceedingly strong
sleds and drawn by a span of horses to the lake. There they were piled
on the shore as closely as possible to the water and were ready to be
towed across the lake by steamers to the Kennebec River as soon as the
ice broke up in the spring. Formerly axes were used exclusively in
felling the trees, but lately large cross cut saws have to a large
extent superseded them. At the Golden camp the men were allowed to use
either as they desired.
As Jean Larue was passing the office that morning on his way to the
cuttings, Tom Bean called him in, and after he had closed the door, said
not unkindly:
"Jean, that boy licked you last night in a fair fight as ye well know,
and mind now, I don't want to be after hearing of him gettin' hurted by
accident, so to speak, cause if I do it's meself thot'll make ye prove
yer innocence. Mind now."
Jean stood in sulky silence while the boss was speaking, and as he
finished turned on his heel and left the room.
"Sure an' it's him thot's the ugly brute," the foreman muttered, shaking
his head.
The boys spent the day with the men getting acquainted, and by night
they were calling a good part of them by their first names and they were
Bob and Jack to them all. It had not been an idle day for them by any
means, as they had worked nearly as hard as any of the men, although
they had not exerted themselves for fear of lamed muscles.
"We've just got to lay that ghost if he shows up again," Bob declared,
as they were trudging back in the rapidly falling dusk. "He's apt to
stampede the whole works if the men once get a look at him. Of course
it's a put up job of Big Ben's but we've got to catch him with the goods
in order to prove anything."
That night Tom Bean and the two boys again watched the window of the
office but when nine o'clock came no ghost had appeared.
"I guess either he's a periodic ghost and we haven't got on to his
periods or else he got discouraged after his first appearance," Bob
declared as he stifled a yawn.
"I don't think a ten-inch gun would keep me awake tonight let alone a
few snores," Jack declared as they were walking slowly back to the bunk
house.
Jack's guess went for both of them, for they fell asleep almost as soon
as they struck their beds and neither woke until the cook blew the
rising horn at six o'clock.
After breakfast was over and most of the men had left the mess room, Tom
motioned to the boys to follow him to the office.
"I'm goin' ter take a look through thot tract and I thought mebby ye'd
keer to go along," he said, as soon as he had closed the door.
"We sure would," both boys eagerly accepted the invitation.
"All right thin: we'll wait a bit till the men have gone to their work.
I don't want them to know thot there's inything in the air. Nothin'
hinders the work so much as to have them fellers git an idea into their
heads thot something's goin' ter happen."
It was nearly eight o'clock before Tom announced that it was time to
start. It was a bitter cold morning. "Twenty-eight below," Jack declared
as he looked at the thermometer hanging just outside the office door.
"Jest wait till it gits down to forty an thin ye kin say as how it's
cold round the edges," and the boys laughed as Tom stood before them
fanning himself vigorously with his cap.
"It's a wonder you don't take off your mackinaw and go in your shirt
sleeves, Tom," Jack laughed as he stooped to fasten the thongs of his
snow-shoes.
The dry snow creaked as they started off. The snow in the woods was
about two feet deep and as it was light their snow-shoes sank several
inches making what Tom called, "heavy goin'."
"It was right here thot I saw thot critter the ither night," he
announced as he paused on the edge of the clearing.
"Did you look for tracks?" Bob asked.
"Sure an' thot would have bin of no use. Yer see there's a spring about
a hundred fate in the woods an the byes go thar fer water so the snow
was all tracked up here," Tom explained as they started on again.
Two or three inches of light snow had fallen during the early part of
the night so that no tracks were visible as they pushed their way
through the dense forest.
"Thot tract starts right here," Tom announced a few minutes later as he
stepped and pointed to a big spruce, in the trunk of which a deep gash
had been cut. "Thot cut marks the northwest boundry. 'Ain't it a crame
of a patch?'"
The boys readily agreed with him as they gazed in rapt admiration at the
mighty spruces which, growing closely together, reached up, straight as
an arrow, to a lofty height.
"It's the finest bit of spruce I iver saw an thot's sayin' sumpin'. An'
there's four hundred acres of it jest like thot," he added as he again
led the way.
"How far from the tract is Ben's camp?" Bob asked as they trudged along.
"Not morn fifty rods, but he's cuttin' on the ither side of his camp.
He's got some mighty good timber thar too, but it's not like this," Tom
replied.
They made nearly a complete circuit of the four hundred acre tract but
found no evidence of any cutting nor did they meet anyone. They got back
to camp just in time for dinner, with, as Jack declared, "some
appetite." The afternoon was spent with the crew and when quitting time
came they both were, as Bob declared, "dead tired."
They had nearly finished supper, when, suddenly the door of the mess
house burst open and a Frenchman by the name of Devaux, stumbled into
the room. His face was bloodless and he was shaking so that he could
hardly stand.
"Der devil, I see him!" he gasped hoarsely, as he leaned for support
against one of the bunks.
Several of the men sprang to their feet and crowded around him, all of
them asking him questions at the same time. Bob threw a quick glance at
Tom and he answered with a slow shake of the head.
"Out der by der woods," they heard the frightened man reply to the
questions which were being hurled at him, and the men made a rush for
the door.
Tom and the boys followed as quickly as possible, and as soon as they
were outside, looked eagerly toward the place which Tom had pointed out
to them that morning. But nothing unusual greeted their eyes. There was
no ghost visible.
"That Devaux, he drink too much der hooch," Bob heard one of the men say
as they trooped back into the building.
They found Devaux somewhat recovered but the man was still trembling.
Tom went up to him and took hold of his arm. "Looky here, son, you been
boozing." It was an accusation and not a question, and the Frenchman
immediately straightened up.
"That one beeg lie," he said firmly.
That settled the matter in Tom's mind in so far as the drinking was
concerned. No man in the outfit would dare to call Tom Bean a liar
unless he had a mighty good reason for it, and Tom was well aware of the
fact.
"You smell breath, you no believe," the man insisted.
"No, Devaux, yer word's all I want. If ye say as how ye ain't touched
any hooch, sure an' thot settles it, but," and he drew him to one side
so that no one should hear, "take me advice an' kape it ter yerself
about what yer thought yer sawed," and as Devaux nodded his head in
silent assent, he left the room, motioning for the boys to follow him.
"He saw it all right," Tom declared, as soon as they were by themselves
in the office. "But the byes won't take much stock in it I gess, seeing
as how Devaux is a kind of a joke with 'em, but, byes, we got ter git
busy an' put a stop ter thot thing or there'll be the dickins ter pay."
"Let's go see if we can find any tracks," Jack proposed.
"Sure an' we'll do thot same, but we'd best wait till after the men are
aslape. 'Twon't do ter let 'em know thot we're taking iny stock in what
the lad said."
The boys were quick to see the wisdom of his statement and so they
waited until ten o'clock, Jack deeply immersed in a book and the other
two playing checkers, a game of which they were both very fond.
"I gess 'tis safe enough now," Tom declared, as the clock on the wall
struck the hour.
There was no moon, but the night was clear and the stars, aided by the
whiteness of the snow, gave enough light for them to see some distance
ahead as they made their way to the place where Tom had seen the "ghost"
three nights before. Somewhat to their surprise they found the snow
unbroken save for the tracks which they themselves had made that
morning.
"'Tis mighty strange, so it is." Tom Bean rubbed his chin thoughtfully
as he stood facing the two boys. "Do yer spose there might be sich a
thing after all?" he asked slowly.
"Tom, you surprise me," Bob replied. "Of course there isn't."
"Well, I dunno, but will yez tell me how inything made of flesh an'
blood could git here an' lave no tracks at all at all?"
"That's what we've got to find out, and I have an idea. Come back to the
office and I'll tell you what it is." And Bob started to lead the way
back.
"It's like this," he began, as soon as they were once more seated in
front of the hot stove. "I'm going to try and get a picture of that
thing, whatever it is. You can't photograph a ghost you know," turning
with a smile to Tom, "and if I can do it it'll settle that part of it
anyway."
"I get you," Jack spoke up. "And right now's the time to fix it up. You
see, the show's over for the night and there'll be no one hanging
around, so let's get busy."
Among the other things which they had brought with them was a good
camera and a supply of flashlight cartridges. The latter for taking
pictures of animals at night. Tom seemed rather skeptical but offered no
objection as they set about putting their plan into execution. It took
them until nearly half past eleven o'clock before they had things
arranged to their liking, but when that time came the camera was hidden
in a nearby tree in such a way that, although not likely to be
discovered, the lens had a good view of the space where the "ghost" was
scheduled to appear. Wires hidden beneath the snow ran to the office and
were so arranged that, when connection was made, the current from six
dry cells would set off the flash powder and at the same time open the
lens.
"There now, I'm going to watch here every night till something happens,"
Bob declared, as he finished connecting up the cells.
It was nearly twelve o'clock when they turned in but in spite of the
lateness of the hour it was long before Bob slept. He well knew how much
depended on the success of his plan. If anything should happen to cause
a stampede among the men it would mean the loss of the contract as it
would be practically impossible to get others to take their places this
late in the season. As he lay thinking the matter over, he suddenly
raised himself on one elbow and listened.