TWO BOYS GET A TUMBLE
"I'd give a cent to know just where we are!" Jule declared, as he
stood on the deck of the _Rambler_, waiting for Case's call to
breakfast, the advance odors of which were creeping out of the cabin,
where Mose and Teddy Bear lay on a rug together, evidently the very
best of friends!
"Give me the coin, then," Alex. exclaimed. "We are about ten or
fifteen miles below Hickman, Kentucky, and we are on the Missouri
side; and there's a loop of river which runs north a long way and
comes back again. Some day the Mississippi will cut through the neck
of land, and then there'll be another large island, with houses set
back from the river a long distance! Give me the cent!"
Jule gravely passed the coin over to Alex., who as gravely pocketed
it, and drew Jule to a seat beside himself on the gunwale of the boat.
Captain Joe came up to the boys as they sat there and wagged his tail,
his nose pointing toward the deserted old house at the end of the
bayou.
"Do you see what the bulldog wants?" Alex. asked, in a moment.
"He wants a run on shore," replied Jule. "He wants to get off the boat
and do stunts on the grass. I'm with him in that, too!"
"He's pointing to the old house!" Alex. suggested, with a grin.
"Good idea!" winked Jule. "Suppose we go over to the ranch and see
what sort of a place it is? We'll just sneak off after breakfast and
be back in an hour."
"Right," agreed Alex. "We may find a buried treasure! Or plunder from
the Rock Island warehouse may be hidden in some dusty attic! What?
That sounds like a story of John Paul Jones, out of a book!"
"I reckon all we'll find will be rats," the practical Jule replied.
"But I like to ramble over old houses. It evidently used to stand on
the bank of the river, but some washout left it back so far that it
was deserted. It looks like there might be ghosts hiding in it right
now! Do you hear anything?" the boy added, as he bent his ear toward
the neglected mansion, sinking to decay now for many a long year. "Do
you hear anything that sounds uncanny? I thought I heard a ghost
call!"
"I half believe you mean it!" laughed Alex. "I believe you really
think you hear something ghostly! If I were rich once for every ghost
there is in the world, I wouldn't have a cent to my name! What does
this ghost call sound like?" added the boy.
"It sounded like a long, low call for help!" was the reply. "I believe
all the calls from deserted houses are long and low, what?"
"Right you are!" Alex. answered. "Say, what's the matter of taking
Captain Joe with us when we go to the house? If there's a ghost behind
the casings, he'll be certain to find and bring it out to us!"
"Then I'm strong for Captain Joe!" cried Jule. "We'll bring the
perturbed spirit on board and put it with our collection of animals!
And there's the breakfast call, at last!" he continued, whereat both
boys rushed into the cabin.
Clay, who had been tinkering around the motors for half an hour,
entered the cabin before breakfast was over, his face looking
troubled, his clothing smeared with grease.
"I have an idea that we'll stop here a few days until some one goes to
one of the towns hereabouts and brings back some bolts," he said. "The
motors are out of whack, and ought not to be operated in the shape
they are in."
"I'll go back to Hickman in the rowboat," declared Case. "I have a
notion that I'd like to see the town."
"And row against that current?" asked Alex. "I see you doing it!"
"You couldn't do it in a thousand years!" Jule observed.
"Well," Case went on, looking at his map of the river, "there's New
Madrid, on the Missouri side. I might walk up there and back in a
day."
"Up there?" laughed Alex., looking over Case's shoulder. "Why do you
say up there? New Madrid is north from here, all right, but it is down
stream, for all that!"
"Well, walk down there, then!" Case replied. "I want to learn
something about that robbery anyway, and there may be news of it;
besides, a walk along the river will be a sort of a picnic. It isn't
more than ten or twelve miles to the town."
"Then you'd better arrange to return to-morrow," Clay advised. "You
are not used to such long walks. We are in no hurry to go on, for we
have all the time there is until this time next year!"
So it was finally arranged that Case should walk down to New Madrid
and get the needed repairs for the motors, while the others looked
over the country which lay about them. When Alex. suggested the visit
to the deserted house, Clay was anxious to become one of the party. He
said he had had the same idea in his mind ever since seeing the old
place.
"After Case goes," Jule suggested, "that would leave only Mose and
Teddy Bear on board the _Rambler_. I don't believe it is safe to leave
her alone."
"Of course it isn't," Clay admitted, "so I'll remain here to-day and
visit the old building to-morrow. Then you two boys can remain at
home."
Everything being satisfactorily arranged, Alex. and Jule started away
up the bayou in the rowboat. The old basin was full of water, and so
there was little current, which made it easy rowing. In half an hour
they were at the foot of an old pier, slanting over on weak legs like
a tipsy man. It was plain that the landing had not been used for
commercial purposes for a long time.
The boys fastened the boat and ran briskly up the rotting footway
which led to the enclosure in which the old house stood. There was a
wilderness of trees and shrubs in the enclosure, and the walks, which
had evidently once been carefully tended, were now overgrown with
weeds and long grass. Lizards darted out of unseen places and sped
away as the boys advanced along a broken walk which led to the front
door of the mansion.
At the very threshold the boys paused, listening. The ragged blinds
were flapping in the breeze, and the trees which rimmed the enclosure
rustled and creaked in a most uncanny way, but these sounds were not
the ones which brought the adventurous boys to a halt.
The noise they heard sounded like the tones of a violin, coming from a
great distance. The notes, faint, sweet, perplexing, rose and fell on
the wind, now lifting into a weird song, now dropping to the softest
melody!
"There's some one here, after all!" Jule suggested, though there was a
question in the way the words were spoken. "Some one lives here? What
do you think?"
Alex. pointed to the broken door which opened into the disordered
hall, to the window blinds, beating the casings at the will of the
wind, and at the long grass and weeds growing between the planks and
stones of the walks.
"I don't believe any one lives here!" he insisted.
"Then what is it making the music?" demanded Jule. "If that isn't some
one playing the violin you may eat my head for a cabbage!"
They listened again. The sounds stopped directly, then there came a
banging of doors and a rustle, as if some one in trailing clothes was
being dragged through the hall. Then a shriek which appeared to come
from directly under the feet of the boys cut the air, lifting into a
terrifying yell at the end. The lads involuntarily started back down
the path, but both stopped and faced the house again.
"I'm not going away without knowing more about it!" Alex. declared.
"That's the way I look at it!" grinned Jule. "We can't turn tail and
run like a couple of cowards. I wish we had brought Captain Joe along
with us!"
"Clay wanted him for company," Alex. explained. "Joe looked like his
heart was broken when we came off without him! I'll bet he runs away
and comes after us!"
Seeing that their automatic revolvers were in working order, the boys
walked back up the broken walk, mounted the steps, and passed into the
ancient hallway of the mansion. All was ruin and decay there. The
floor was broken out in places, and there were marks of an axe on the
casings of the door and on the narrow windows beside it.
The stairway leading to the rooms above was broken, too, some of the
steps being gone entirely. The lads stopped at the foot of the steps
for an instant to gaze upward and then turned into a lofty room on the
left. This must have been the parlor, and the apartment beyond it must
have been the library.
The furniture, which had once been valuable, was broken into bits, and
a charred spot on the floor showed where a fire had been kindled. The
rooms on that floor were all desolate and dismantled, and the boys
soon turned their attention to those above the ruined staircase.
Scarcely had they gained the head of the stairs when the music began
again. It seemed to come down the wide hallway which ran nearly
through the house parallel with the front.
"We're getting nearer to the band!" Jule whispered.
There was such a hush over the place, such a weird, uncanny
atmosphere, that, somehow, the boys did not feel like being
loud-voiced or boisterous.
"We'll be running into a reception committee next!" Alex. returned.
The music continued for a few seconds, then ended in a repetition of
the dragging, rustling sound and the shriek which had been heard
before. This time the noise indicating physical motion appeared to
come from the very hallway where the boys were standing!
Alex. and Jule continued on through the hall until they came to a
partition which shut off the north end of it. There was a door in this
partition, but it was locked. At first all the efforts of the lads
failed to budge it.
"There's one part of the ranch that hasn't rotted away," Alex.
observed, as red-faced and perspiring, he paused in his attack on the
door.
"That shows there's some one taking care of it," Jule decided.
"Suppose we try the door once more? It ought to give way before our
weight."
They both threw their shoulders against the upper panels and they
dropped back, revealing a small room which had the appearance of
having recently been occupied. There was a wide fireplace at the back
of the room, which was at the end of the house, and a chair standing
near the hearth was softly cushioned. There was a window on each side
of the fireplace, but the curtains were drawn so all the details of
the apartment were not visible. The boys drew back for an instant.
"We're breaking into some one's house!" Jule whispered.
"I guess that's right!" Alex. returned. "What ought we to do now?"
"Keep right on until we get at the solution of the mystery," Jule
answered. "It may be that we shall find a maiden in distress, and----"
The boy stopped in the midst of his light-hearted speech and looked
again through the broken panels of the door at the end of the hall.
What he saw was a side door opening.
As the door swung back an old man, white haired and walking with a
stout cane, came into the room and sat down in the chair by the
hearth. Then, without glancing toward the broken panels and the boys
beyond, he spoke:
"The door is not fastened, boys. You are welcome to enter."
The boys entered, feeling ashamed and half afraid, and the old man
pointed to two chairs by the hearth which had not been seen through
the broken door.
"Sit down!" he said, almost with an air of command, "and tell me why
you are here."
The boys sank down into the chairs; then there came a sharp click, and
they felt themselves falling through the floor!