LOOKING AROUND
"HERE goes, fellows; now watch me make the jump!"
Toby had adjusted the big parachute to his satisfaction, before he
called this out; and it seemed to have been attached to his back by
means of some device of his own. When open it resembled a large
umbrella, only the ribs were made much more solid than the usual ones.
"It's lucky the ground's pretty soft down here, Toby!" called George;
"because you're apt to get a swift knock when you land. Be sure and keep
that tongue of yours well inside your mouth, or you might bite it off."
"Seems to me you do your share of biting, George; you've always got some
ill-natured remark to make about everything I invent. Nothing venture,
nothing gained, is my motto. And now I'll walk a little further out on
this limb, so as to get a better chance to jump; and then watch me sail
like a thistle-down!"
"Careful, there, Toby!" shouted Elmer, as the scout up in the tree
started to move out further, looking very queer with that canopy over
his head, and his waving arms assisting him to keep his balance.
Hardly had the scout master given this warning than what he possibly
anticipated happened. There was an ominous crack, and the rotten limb
started to drop earthward. So did Toby, though the parachute caught the
air, and sustained his weight pretty fairly. How it would have been had
he been thousands of feet up, instead of a paltry thirty-five, was a
question that could not be answered.
The four boys saw the limb come crashing down, to break into fragments
when it landed. Strange to say the ring-tailed animal that had
accompanied the rotten limb in its sudden descent did not appear to have
suffered any material damage from the drop; because it was seen to run
away as soon as the termination of the unexpected aerial voyage had been
reached.
As for Toby, he was certainly falling, but buoyed up by that stout
material extended in the shape of a parachute, his descent was not
nearly so rapid as it must otherwise have been.
He struck the ground with a resounding thump, and then fell over in a
heap; though from the scrambling that ensued the others knew he could
not have been hurt very much.
"How'd she go, Toby?" demanded Chatz, hurrying forward to assist the
daring air navigator, if it turned out he needed any help.
"Kinder hard slap it gave me when I hit terra firma," replied the other,
whose lip was bleeding a little, showing that he must have bitten it;
"but all that's going to be remedied easy enough. What she needs is a
little more canvas; ain't a big enough sail yet to hold me up. But
whee! who'd ever expect that limb to snap off as sudden as that? See
what it means to be prepared, fellows? Scouts ain't the only ones that
ought to do that same; for if anybody ever needed to be ready, the air
pilot does. He never knows what's going to happen to him next."
"Well," the scout master remarked, "let's hope that's plenty for you
to-day, Toby. We've stood and watched you make a record drop, and you
came through in pretty decent shape; but enough's as good as a feast.
The next time things mightn't turn out as nice for you; and we don't
want to carry a scout with a broken leg home in our wagon to-day."
"But think of that little 'coon coming down with it all, and then
running away as if he didn't have a scratch to show for it?" George
observed.
"He got off sound and unhurt, did he?" asked Toby; "I'm real glad of
that, 'cause I wouldn't want him to be injured. I reckon that 'coon was
a mascot to me, and gave me good luck. But do we get ready to start home
so early in the afternoon, Elmer?"
Before any opinion could be advanced by the scout master, Chatz broke in
hastily:
"I'm going to ask you a great favor, suh," he told Elmer; "and which I
hope you can grant without interfering at all with any plans you have
formed."
"What's that, Chatz?" asked the other; although from the quick look he
cast in the quarter where lay the haunted house, it was easy to see
that he could give a pretty fair guess what it's nature would prove to
be.
"Why, suh, we may never get the chance again, and I've always wanted to
see what the inside of a haunted house looked like," Chatz went on to
say.
"Whee!" burst from the lips of Ted; while both George and Toby pricked
up their ears, and began to show considerable interest.
"You mean that while we're up here, and have half an hour or so on our
hands," Elmer suggested, "we might as well take a look-in over there,
and see if the rats and the owls are the only things living in the
Cartaret house."
"I'd like to very much, suh, believe me, I would," Chatz continued, with
one of his winning smiles that were very difficult to resist.
"What do the rest say about that?" and as Elmer made this remark he
turned to the other three scouts.
"I vote in the affirmative!" Toby immediately answered.
"Thame here," purred Ted.
"Oh! of course I'll join you in anything you hatch up, fellows," George
told them; "though I don't take any stock in all this nonsense about
ghosts and such. If you show me one, and I can pinch his arm, and feel
the bones in his hand, I might believe in the stuff; but you never can,
and that's a fact. Still, I'd like to see what the inside of this old
Cartaret house is like. I don't believe there's a single fellow in
Hickory Ridge that can boast he's been through it. Lead the way, then,
Elmer, or Chatz. We'll follow you."
That was always the way with George. He would oblige a comrade every
time, but his chronic way of fault-finding, or unbelief, often took away
much of the pleasure his accommodating nature might have afforded.
They had bundled the cooking utensils together, ready to be placed in
the wagon when it was brought up; Toby also fastened his wonderful
parachute in as small a compass as possible, and laid it down alongside
the other things.
"Wouldn't want to forget to take that along home for a king's ransom,"
he stoutly declared, looking defiantly at George, because of course that
individual was smiling in a fashion that smacked strongly of
incredulity.
After that the whole five of them headed toward the spot where they knew
the deserted house was to be found. Chatz was fairly quivering with
eagerness, and there was a glow in his dark eyes that told how much he
appreciated this chance to pry into the secret lodging place of a
reported ghost.
Everything was overgrown, and looked very wild. Elmer remarked that if
there really were such things as hobgoblins in this world, they
certainly could look long and far without finding a more congenial
neighborhood in which to reside; for the whole appearance of the place
seemed to smack of the supernatural. The breeze actually whined as it
passed through the bare branches of the untrimmed trees close to the
house; and loose shutters and windows added to the creaky sounds by
their rattling, every time a little gust happened to blow.
"Wow! this sure is spooky enough around here to suit me," Toby frankly
admitted, as they stood there, and looked about them.
The house itself had once been quite an extensive, and perhaps costly
affair, with two wings, and a spacious hall in the center. That was long
ago, for now it was in the throes of dissolution, a mere wreck of its
former self, and fit only for bats, owls, and rats. Doors hung on a
single hinge, and shutters had been torn off long ago by gales, leaving
the paneless windows gaping beyond. Moss streaked the rotten roof, and
parts of the porch had given way under accumulated snow piles in
previous winters.
As Toby said it certainly was gloomy enough, and one did not need to
have a very vivid imagination to picture the tragic scenes that were
said to have been enacted here many years ago, when the place was a
regular Eden, with flower beds and outbuildings on all sides.
"Gives you the creeps, all right," admitted George.
"Now, for my part," Elmer remarked just then, "I kind of like the
feeling it makes pass over you. And as few people have visited here for
the last ten years, I'm glad you asked us to look around with you,
Chatz. Let's go inside."
There was no trouble about finding a place of entrance, for there were
plenty of the same, some originally intended for this purpose, and
others the result of decay while the old mansion lay here year after
year the sport of winds and storms, winter and summer.
They wandered around from room to room, viewing the wreck of what had
once been a very fine house.
"Looks to me like there might be some truth in that story about the
Judge making this a regular prison for his young and pretty wife," Elmer
announced as his opinion, after they had been pretty well through the
lower story, and were climbing the shaky stairs to the upper floor.
"Why, yes, there were actually bars across the windows in that last
room!" declared Chatz; "it's just such a place as I've always had in my
mind whenever I got to thinking about haunted houses. You could imagine
anything might happen here. Right now, if it was midnight, we could
watch and see if there was any truth in all those stories about the
ghost of the Judge's young wife storming around here, going through all
that terrible scene again. I'd give something to be able to learn if she
does come back to visit the scenes where she was so unhappy."
"Here, you'll have uth all shaking like we had the ague, if you don't
stop that thort of talk," said Ted, apprehensively, and when he thought
no one was looking, rubbing the back of his hand across his eyes, as
though something connected with the sad story of the old-time tragedy
had brought unbidden tears there.
"Well, perhaps you may have just such a chance, Chatz," said Elmer,
suddenly, as though he had made his mind up.
"Tell me how," requested the Southern boy, trying to control the
eagerness that burned within his soul when he heard this said.
"You remember that we'd about made up our minds to spend the
Thanksgiving holidays in camp somewhere, just to have another little
outing before winter dropped down on us?" Elmer went on.
"Yes, that's right, we did," muttered Toby, who was almost as much
interested in the matter as Chatz.
"And where could we find a better place for spending those few days than
right here in the dense woods close to the Cartaret house? There's
everything to be had that the heart of a camper might wish; and if
you're a ghost hunter, why, here's a splendid field for your
activities."
"Elmer, will you do that much for me?" asked Chatz, earnestly.
"Much more, if the chance ever came along, and you know it, Chatz,"
replied the scout master, warmly. "So, what do you say, shall we
consider that settled, boys?"
All of them held up a hand, which meant that they voted in the
affirmative.
"But," interposed the Great Objector, "we mustn't forget that there
will be several other fellows of our troop along with us on that little
outing; and p'raps they mightn't just fancy camping so close to a mouldy
old ruin, where the owls and bats fly around nights, and lots of other
unpleasant things are apt to crop up."
"Oh! we know Lil Artha, Ty Collins, and Landy Smith well enough to be
able to speak for them, too," Elmer ventured; "and the chances are when
they hear what we're aiming to do they'll be as wild as Chatz here to
investigate."
"We've got a big job cut out for us, I'm thinking, boys," faltered
George.
"Rats! who's afraid? Gimme two cents' worth of peanuts, please!"
exclaimed Toby, who seemed to be in an unusually good humor, perhaps
because of that successful parachute drop, looked forward to with an
admixture of hope and fear for a considerable time.
They passed through every part of the house that seemed worth while,
even visiting the attic, where the rain had beaten in so many times,
that some of the woodwork seemed very mouldy. They frightened an army of
bats up there, and there was a lively ducking of heads, with numerous
attempts at knocking the flying creatures down with whatever the boys
could lay hands on.
Underneath lay the cellars, and determined to see it all the boys
trooped down the rotten stairs, saving George, who declared he had had
quite enough of the exploration, and that after all he didn't believe in
ghosts, and therefore an old ruin with a tragic story back of it failed
to impress him as worth much time.
When the others came out a little later, talking about what queer
dungeons lay underground, some of which possibly had been constructed by
the rich judge to serve as wine cellars, they found George sitting at
his ease, and watching the shadow on the stone face of an old and
unreliable sun dial.
"I guess long ago that pretty young wife used to sit right where you
are, George, and watch the shadow creep around to the hour mark," said
Elmer, who must have had a pretty good touch of the romantic in his
make-up, to speak in this way.
"Mebbe," George retorted, as though falling back on his old principles,
and not willing to believe anything unless shown.
"That finishes our visit to the Cartaret place, for this time, Chatz,"
Elmer continued, turning to the Southern boy; "I hope you think it paid
you for the trouble."
"A dozen times over, suh, I assuah you; and I'll not soon forget your
kindness that made this interesting visit possible. Yes, and that
promise to come up here again next week, when we're out for our little
vacation camping. I shall look forward to the same with the greatest
pleasure, believe me, suh."
"Then we might as well get the horse up, and load our cargo?" Elmer
suggested.
"Oh! did you see that?" shouted Toby, just then.
"What was it, and where did you see anything?" demanded George, always
suspecting that the others were playing practical jokes.
"Up at one of the windows there!" Toby went on, pointing, while his face
filled with excitement and a little touch of awe.
"What was it like?" asked Chatz, his interest aroused to fever heat.
"I only had a peek at it, because it disappeared, just like it might be
smoke," Toby went on to explain; "but it was a white face, and if there
ever was such a thing on this here earth as a ghost, I saw one then,
sure I did, fellows!"
Elmer had his eyes glued on the face of the scout when he was making
this astonishing assertion; and he knew that Toby, though a practical
joker at times, was not trying to deceive them now; he had seen
_something_ up there at that window, or believed he had, which amounted
to the same thing; and yet they had just explored every bit of that
portion of the ruins without meeting a single soul!