FOLLOWING THE LIGHT
The sight of a lantern high up in the mountains captured Ted’s
imagination as well as his attention. The region seemed to be a
particularly lonely one and he wondered who the lantern-carrier could
be. While there had been light he had looked along the mountain side
but had seen no house or barn. The wooded slopes had appeared untouched
by the hand of man and altogether too dense and forsaken for a house of
any kind. Yet the bearer of the lantern was going somewhere.
The light flashed in and out among the trees as the bearer carried it
onward and upward, winking at irregular intervals as it passed back
of trees. The gleam was yellow and a trifle dim, yet there was power
enough to it for the watching boy to see. Although it was perhaps
perfectly natural for someone to walk the mountains with a lantern,
Ted’s mind pondered it.
“Wonder where he can be going? It really isn’t any of my business, and
I suppose that the person carrying the lantern knows what he is up to,
but it looks a bit mysterious. Still, it isn’t necessary to follow it.”
His mind had already considered the possibility of following, but at
first he rejected the idea wholly. In the first place, the action would
probably end in his seeing the man enter some hidden barn on perfectly
proper business, and in the second place, it was the right of anyone to
walk along the mountain at any time. But the upward twist and turn of
the tiny, bobbing light fascinated him.
“I guess I will follow it,” he finally decided. “I’d like to see where
it goes to. I may learn something about the region if anything can be
learned on a dark night like this, and anyway, I’ll feel a little more
satisfied if I see where the light is going. Now, let’s see how good I
am at finding my way around here in the dark!”
Centering his eyes upon the light’s feeble gleam Ted started on his
climb up the side of the mountain. As soon as he plunged into the trees
he lost sight of the gleam which he was trying to trace, but from time
to time he caught sight of it again as he came out into a cleared
space. It was no longer moving up but was keeping on a level of the
mountain side and he took an abrupt cut across the contemplated line of
march. The light moved slower and slower now and he gained upon it.
In one stretch of his climb Ted lost sight of the light altogether and
for some moments he was unable to locate it. He was about to give it
up as a bad job when a fleeting flash came to him through the trees.
Now he made out that the lantern-bearer was standing still and in this
interval he hoped to catch up. With this in mind Ted rapidly climbed
the last slope and stood on comparatively level ground on what was a
great shoulder of the mountains, heavily wooded as was the rest of
the region. Before him the lantern, hung in an invisible hand, cast a
circle of light around the ground.
In the shelter of some bushes and trees Ted crouched and looked at the
lantern. It was an extremely old-fashioned one, with three rounded
sides open and the fourth blank. Due to this structure of the lamp
Ted was unable to see who it was who held the thing. The uncompleted
circle cast by the lantern showed only the tips of two large shoes and
the shadowy outline of a pair of trousers which seemed much the worse
for wear. Above this, the bearer was invisible and might have been
looking in Ted’s direction as well as in any other, for all that the
boy knew. In fact, the continued silence of the man, combined with his
motionlessness, made Ted somewhat uneasy, for it was possible that he
was simply standing there and looking around. Ted imagined that he had
made a lot of noise in his climb.
At last the lamp was slightly shifted, much to Ted’s relief, and he saw
at once the object of the man’s search, or at least the goal of it. The
feeble rays from the old lantern showed dimly the outline of an old
house. In the fitful gleam there was revealed a short section of the
foundation, which was crumbling away, and a limited view of the warped
boarding on the side of the house. It was to this spot that the lone
prowler had come and he seemed to be intent upon his job.
As Ted remained at his post watching the lantern and the man moved
away, passing along the side of the house. The watcher had a hurried
glimpse of broken masonry and rotting boards occasionally obscured by
masses of bushes and creepers. The man went around to the back of the
house and for a few moments the light was entirely withdrawn from Ted’s
sight.
By this time Ted had entered fully into the sense of adventure of
the thing. Surely, there was something unusual going on. Something
important must be bringing this man out with his lantern to look around
an old house. The building itself aroused Ted’s curiosity. Who could
have built it up in the solitary fastness of the woods and how long had
it been standing idle? Something beside the beauty of the place must be
responsible for the intent prowling of the man with the lantern.
“I must see this house by daylight,” Ted decided.
The light winked suddenly around the far corner of the house and moved
along the front. Rough steps were revealed and the man with the shadowy
legs mounted the steps, crossed the porch and passed through a gaping
doorway into a front door. A swift glimpse was afforded Ted of white
plaster on the walls and then the light disappeared.
It was gone for some little time, finally appearing briefly in an upper
window. After that it disappeared again and was gone so long that Ted
grew highly impatient and seriously contemplating leaving. He knew that
he should be getting back to the town, for it was late and he had a
long drive before him. But the subject in hand fascinated him and he
wanted to see it through.
“I’ll give the gentleman a few more minutes,” he thought. “If nothing
shows up then, I’ll have to beat it.”
Crouching there in the bushes he waited straining his eyes toward the
blackness of the house. The whole mountainside had now become so black
that the house was not even distinguishable as a darker blot, and if
the man with the lantern had not revealed it, Ted could not possibly
have become aware of its presence except by bumping into it. With the
light out of sight the darkness was a solid wall.
Just as Ted’s impatience was nearing the breaking point he heard the
man with the light returning. There was a sound of crunching footsteps
and he came down a staircase in the house and before long the flashing
beam of the lantern showed. Man and lantern crossed the front porch and
without hesitation approached the bushes off to the left of where Ted
was concealed.
Now the lantern was placed on the ground and the man, still invisible
and keeping out of the rays of the lamp in a manner that was
particularly irritating, crashed his way into the bushes. Something was
hauled forth with a rustling, crackling noise. For a brief instant the
sides and rungs of a ladder were disclosed and then the thing passed
out of the light circle. But there was a bump which led Ted to believe
that the ladder, an old common farm ladder, had been placed against the
side of the house.
In this guess he was correct. The lantern was lifted from the ground
and the two mysterious legs sought the bottom rung of the ladder. As
Ted watched, the light and the legs went up step by step, the side of
the house, briefly illuminated, sliding by as the man mounted to the
top.