THE COLORED MAN'S GHOST
The travelers found the town where Tommy's friend lived such a pleasant
place that they spent several days there. It was a thriving place, and
the auto was a source of endless wonder to most of the inhabitants, who
had never seen one.
Had the boys wished they could have made considerable money taking
parties out in the car for short trips, but they knew they had a long
journey before them and they wished to save the machine all they could.
It needed some repairs which were made by the local blacksmith, and then
the travelers were ready to move forward again.
"I don't know how to thank you for all you did for me," said Tommy, as
the boys were leaving. "You saved my life. Maybe I will have a chance to
do you a good turn some day. If I have, you can bet I'll do it."
"We know you will, Tommy," said Jerry. "Well, good-by. I hope we see you
again."
"Same here!" exclaimed Bob and Ned.
They did not know how soon they were to meet their friend again, nor in
what a peculiar manner he was able to aid them in return for what they
had done for him.
For several days the auto skimmed along through a somewhat lonely
country. The roads were not very good and a number of times progress was
so slow that only a few miles were made between sunrise and sunset. Now
and then the travelers would come to a lonely cabin, where they could
replenish their food supply or get a night's lodging. But, in the main,
they had to depend on their own resources.
Occasionally they would reach a little settlement, where their arrival
never failed to produce as much excitement as a fire and circus
combined. Every day brought them nearer their gold mine, concerning
which they were very anxious, as they had heard nothing further from Jim
Nestor.
"The mine may have been taken away from him for all we know," chafed
Jerry as he fretted at the delay caused by bad roads.
"We'll hope for the best," said Ned. "No use crossing a bridge until you
come to it."
The travelers were well up among the lower mountains now, though
compared with the heights they had still to scale the range was one
of mere hills. One evening just at dusk, after a particularly hard
day of travel, during which the auto had broken down several times,
necessitating minor repairs, the Motor Boys came to a place where two
roads divided.
"I wonder which we had better take?" asked Bob, who was at the wheel.
"The right," said Jerry.
"The left," advised Ned.
"Toss up a cent," suggested the professor. "Make it heads right and
tails left."
They did so. The coin came down heads up, and Bob turned the machine
to the right. It had not proceeded far on this road when, about a mile
ahead, the travelers saw a couple of log cabins.
"Well, there's shelter for to-night, at all events," Jerry remarked,
"and, I hope, supper as well. I'm getting a little tired of bacon and
coffee."
They found one of the cabins occupied by a negro, his wife, and seven
children, the oldest a boy of sixteen and the youngest a little girl,
just able to toddle.
"Good evening," greeted the professor, "can we get supper and lodging
anywhere about here?"
"I reckon I kin fix yo' up on th' eatin' question, boss," remarked the
darkey as he stood in the cabin door as the auto drew up, "but I 'clare
t' goodness I can't find no room t' stable that there rip-snortin' beast
ye got."
"We don't expect you to take the auto in," spoke Jerry. "If you give us
beds for ourselves, or even a room to sleep in we'll pay for it and glad
to do it."
"Land sakes, I'd like t' 'blige yo', deed 'n I would boss," went on the
negro, "but my cabin am jest crowded t' th' doah wif me an' my fambily.
Yo' am welcome t' suthin' t' eat, but land a' massy whar I'se goin' t'
have yo' sleep hab got me cogitatin'."
"What's the matter with that other cabin?" asked Ned.
"What other cabin?" asked the negro, not turning to look in the
direction of the second shack, about a quarter of a mile down the road.
"That one," went on Ned, pointing to it. "There may be room in it."
"Oh I reckon there's room enough," replied the colored man, "only--well
to tell you th' truff, boss, it ain't exackly healthy t' sleep in that
cabin, er even t' talk about it. 'Scuse me but I don't want even t' look
at it."
"Why not?"
The colored man seemed to hesitate. He fidgeted and seemed ready to go
back into his house.
"Why not?" asked Ned again.
"Kase it's--it's got ghosts an' it's hanted!" exclaimed the negro, "an'
it ain't safe fer any one to go near it, let alone sleep in it."
"Nonsense," remarked the professor. "There are no such things as ghosts."
"Yo' wouldn't say so if yo' went to that there cabin after dark,"
persisted the colored man. "'Tain't safe t' talk about it, so yo'll
please 'scuse me."
"But what sort of a ghost is it?" asked Jerry.
"It's big an' it's white, an' it rattles chains an' groans sumthin'
turrible," said the negro.
"Did you ever see it?" asked Ned.
"Did I ever see it, boss? Couse I done see it. Only t'other night it
near skeered me to deff."
"How long has it been there?" asked Bob.
"'Bout a week I reckon," replied the negro. "Ever since Rastus Johnson
moved away from th' cabin."
"I guess we'll take a chance with the ghost for the sake of spending a
night under shelter," said Jerry. "Meanwhile we can get supper here."
And a fine supper they had. Mrs. Jones, wife of the colored man, proved
an excellent cook. She fried some chicken, made some corn bread, and
that, with preserves and some good coffee, made up a meal which the
travelers voted one of the finest they had eaten in many months.
"Can we get breakfast here, also?" asked Jerry when supper was finished.
"If yo' am alive," replied Jones solemnly.
"If we're alive? What do you mean?"
"Well I reckon ef yo' sleeps in that hanted cabin, there won't be any of
yo' left t' want a meal in th' mo'nin'," explained Jones. "It's takin'
yo'uns' lives in yo' hands t' go nigh it suah yo' is boahn!"
All they could say did not induce the man to change his mind. He was
plainly afraid of the cabin and the "ghost."
But the travelers were determined not to let a little thing like that
interfere with a chance to sleep under shelter. Accordingly they covered
the auto with the tarpaulin provided for that purpose, and moved their
blankets into the deserted cabin, which was fairly clean and in good
condition. One of the big oil lamps gave sufficient light.
The cabin contained only two rooms, one on the ground floor, and the
other above it, reached by a movable ladder.
"I think we had better sleep upstairs," said Jerry. "The door doesn't
fasten very securely, and besides I think it will be drier there."
So they mounted the ladder, spread their blankets out on the floor, and
were all soon fast asleep. None of them expected to be disturbed, for
they laid the story of the ghost to an overwrought imagination of the
colored man.
So it was with a sudden feeling of terror that Jerry was awakened in the
middle of the night by hearing a deep groan, seeming to come from the
room below.
He sat up, rubbing his eyes to further awaken himself, and then he
became aware that Bob was also sitting up. He could see because of the
moonlight streaming in through a window.
"Did you hear anything?" asked Jerry.
"I thought so," answered Bob.
"I thought I did," put in Ned, who, it seems had been awakened at the
same time the others were.
Once more there sounded an unmistakable groan. It came from the ground
floor, and was so loud, penetrating and, in spite of the would-be
bravery of the boys, so awful coming out of the darkness, that they
shuddered.
"What's that?" asked the professor, who also, this time, was roused from
his slumbers.
Before either of the boys could answer the groan was repeated and this
time it was followed by the unmistakable clanking of chains.
"The colored man's ghost!" whispered Bob.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the professor, but, no sooner had he spoken than
there came another weird noise, and the chains rattled louder than ever.
"Light the lantern," whispered Jerry. "We must see what it is. Perhaps
it's only some one playing a joke."
"Let me take a look before you make a light," suggested the professor.
"I can look down the ladder hole."
Softly he crawled over to the opening and peered down. As he did so the
noises were repeated. The professor uttered an exclamation.
"It bears the other descriptive marks of the creature the negro told
about," he said, crawling back to where the boys were huddled together.
"It is big and white and it seems to be trying to climb up the ladder."
"Wait until I get my revolver," whispered Jerry. "We'll soon see if it's
a ghost or not."
"Don't fire," cautioned the professor. "It may be some one trying to
scare us, but we have no right to fire at any one."
"I'll give 'em a warning, at any rate," said the lad. He went to the
opening and called down:
"Tell us who you are or I'll shoot, do you hear?"
A groan and the clanking of chains was the only answer. This was
followed by a violent agitation and shaking of the ladder.
"Bang!" went Jerry's revolver. He had fired into the air.
Succeeding the report there was a silence. This was broken by a further
clanking of chains. Then came a crash, and when the echo of this died
away the sound of feet running away could be heard.
"Pretty solid footsteps for a ghost," commented Ned.
"Look! Look!" cried Bob, pointing out of the window.
There, running down the moon-lit road the boys saw a big white mule, to
the neck of which was fastened a chain that rattled with every step.
"There's the ghost," said the professor. "I thought I recognized the
voice as that of a quadruped with which I was familiar. The animal has
probably broken loose from the field and came here in search of food."
"Well it certainly scared me all right," admitted Bob. The others did
not commit themselves, but there was no doubt but that they had several
heart-flutters.
"I wonder what that crash was?" asked Ned.
The professor glanced down the hole leading to the first floor.
"The ghost made it by kicking our ladder away," the scientist replied.
"I wonder how we can get down."
But the boys did not worry about this, being too sleepy. Soon they were
all snoring again, and did not awaken until the sun was streaming in the
window.