ON THE OLD QUARRY ROAD
When Julius made this assertion, the other fellows looked at each
other in what might be said to be a queer way. In fact, they had all
heard certain absurd stories told in connection with the old quarry
that had not been worked for so many years that the road leading to
it across country had grown up in grass and weeds. Some adventurous
boys who went out there once declared it was a most gruesome place,
with pools of water covered with green scum lying around, and all
sorts of holes looking like the cave Robinson Crusoe found on his
island home to be seen where granite building rocks had been
excavated from the towering cliffs.
It was K. K. who laughed first, actually laughed scornfully, though
Julius took it all so seriously. Thad Stevens followed with a
chuckle, after his peculiar fashion.
"You give me a pain, Julius, you certainly do," ventured K. K.
"To think," added Thad, assuming a lofty air of superior knowledge,
"of a fellow attending Scranton High believing the ridiculous yarns
these uneducated tillers of the soil and their hired help pass
around, about there being some sort of a genuine _ghost_ haunting the
old quarry--why, it's positively silly of you, Julius, and I don't
mind telling you so to your face."
"Oh, hold on there, fellows!" expostulated the other boy; "I didn't
say that I really and truly believed any of those awful stories, did
I? But so many different persons have told me the same thing that,
somehow, I came to think there _might_ be some fire where there was
so much smoke. Of course, it can't be a ghost, but, nevertheless,
there are queer goings-on about that deserted quarry these
nights--three different people, and one of them a steady-going woman
in the bargain, assured me they had glimpsed moving lights there, a
sort of flare that did all sorts of zigzag stunts, like it was
cutting signals in the air."
"Hugh, do you think that could be what they call wild-fire, or some
folks give it the name of will-o'-the-wisp, others say
jack-o'-lantern?" demanded Horatio Juggins, who had been listening
intently while all this talk was going on.
"I'd hardly like to say," replied Hugh thoughtfully. "As a general
thing that odd, moving light is seen in low, damp places. Often it
is noticed in graveyards in the country, and is believed to be
induced by a condition of the atmosphere, causing something like
phosphorescence. You know what a firefly or lightning bug is like,
don't you, Horatio? Yes, and a glow-worm also? Well, they say that
there are black-looking pools of stagnant water lying around the old
quarry; and yes, I think the lights seen might come from just such
conditions."
"That sounds all very well, Hugh," continued Julius, "but what about
the terrifying cry that sometimes wells up from that same place?"
"A cry, Julius, do you say?" exclaimed Horatio, his eyes growing
round now with increasing wonder and thrilling interest, "do you
really and truly mean that, or are you only joshing?"
"Well," the narrator went on to say soberly, "two fellows told me
they'd heard that same shriek. One was hunting a stray heifer when
he found himself near the quarry, and then got a shock that sent him
on the run all the way home, regardless of trees he banged into, for
it was night-time, with only a quarter-moon up in the western sky.
The other had laughed at all such silly stories, and to prove his
bravery concluded to venture out there one night when the moon was as
round as a cartwheel. He got close to the deserted workings when he
too had a chill as he heard the most outlandish cry agoing, three
times repeated, and----well, he grinned when he confessed that it
took him just about one-fifth the time to get back home that he'd
spent in the going."
"Whee! perhaps there may be some sort of wild animal in one of the
caves they tell about up there?" ventured Horatio. "I'm not a
believer in ghosts, and I don't consider myself a coward, either; but
all the same it'd have to be something pretty big to induce me to
walk out there to that same lonely quarry after nightfall. Now laugh
if you want to, K. K."
"Well," interrupted Hugh, just then, "we're approaching the place
right now where that old quarry road I spoke of starts in. I'd like
ever so much to take a look at that same quarry, by daylight, mind
you. Is there any objection, fellows, to our testing out that road
right now? It used to be a pretty fair proposition I've been told,
so far as a road goes, and I think we could navigate the same in this
car. K. K. how do you stand on that proposition, for one?"
"Count me in on anything that promises an adventure, Hugh," came the
prompt reply. "There is plenty of gas in the tank, and if we do get
a puncture on the sharp stones we've got an extra tube along, with
lots and lots of muscle lying around loose for changing the same.
That's my answer, Hugh."
"Thad, how about you?" continued the shrewd Hugh, well knowing that
by making an individual appeal he would be more apt to receive a
favorable response, because it goes against the average boy's pride
to be accounted a weakling, or one addicted to believing old wives'
fairy stories of goblins, and all such trash.
"Oh, count me in, Hugh," responded the other, with an indifference
that may possibly have been partly assumed; but then Thad Stevens was
always ready to back his enterprising chum, no matter what the other
suggested.
"Horatio, it's up to you now!" Hugh went on remorselessly, as K. K.
stopped the car at a signal from the other, and faint signs of what
had once been a road were to be distinguished just on the left.
"Majority rules, you know," said the wise Juggins boy, "and already
three have given their assent; so it's no back-out for little
Horatio."
"Course I'll agree, Hugh," quickly added Julius, when he saw that the
other had turned toward him. "I'm just as curious as the next fellow
to see that old haunted quarry--in the daytime, of course. Besides,
everybody knows there isn't any such thing as a ghost. All such
stories, when they're sifted down, turn out to be humbugs. Sometimes
the moving spectre is a white donkey browsing alongside the road.
Then again I've heard of how it was a swing that had a white pillow
left in it by the children, and the night wind caused it to advance
and retreat in a _terrible_ way. Hugh, let's investigate this silly
old business while we're on the spot."
And by these wonderfully brave words Julius hoped to dissipate any
notion concerning his alleged timidity that may have lodged in the
brains of his chums.
So K. K. started up again, and by another minute the old car had
passed in among the trees, with the overgrown brush "swiping" against
the sides every foot of the way. It was necessary that they proceed
slowly and cautiously, because none of them had ever been over that
long disused road before, and all sorts of obstacles might confront
the bold invaders of the wilds.
Hugh was using his eyes to good advantage, and at his advice the
others did the same. It was a good thing the car was old, and that
it mattered nothing how those stiff branches scraped against the
sides during their forward progress. K. K. knew how to manage, all
right, and, although the trail was quite rough in places where the
heavy rains had washed the earth away, and left huge stones
projecting, he was able to navigate around these obstacles
successfully.
Twice they came to low places where water ran, and there was some
danger of the heavy car becoming mired. At such times several of the
boys would jump out, and after investigating the conditions perhaps
throw a mass of stones and pieces of wood in, to make what Hugh
called a sort of a "corduroy road" across the swampy section of
ground.
It was all very interesting in the bargain, and, for the time being,
the boys even forgot the fact that they were exceedingly tired.
Then they seemed to be gradually ascending a grade, where the road
turned out to be somewhat better.
"I imagine we're getting close to the quarry now, fellows," Hugh
informed them; "if what I was told is true. It will lie over here on
the right; and only for the dense growth of trees with their foliage
still hanging on, we might see the cliff forming the background of
the quarry right now."
Julius and Horatio looked around them with increasing interest, and
perhaps a slight flutter of unusual vigor in the region of their
hearts. It was about as gloomy a scene as any of them had ever gazed
upon. Years had elapsed since work in the stone quarry had been
abandoned, and Nature, as usual, had done her best to hide the cruel
gashes made in her breast by man; the trees had grown and spread,
while bushes and weeds extended their sway so as to almost choke
everything around. The distant cawing of the crows sounded more
gruesome than ever amidst such surroundings; but there was no sign of
bird-life to be seen. It was as though the little feathered
creatures found this region too lonely even for their nest building.
Not even a red or gray squirrel frisked around a tree, or boldly
defied the intruders of his wilderness haunt.
"There, I just had a glimpse of the place through an opening!"
suddenly announced Hugh; "I calculate that we'll soon come in plain
sight of the whole business, for this road leads straight across the
dumps, I was told, and then on again in the direction of Hobson's
Pond."
The sun was passing behind the first cloud of the whole day just
then. Somehow the added somber conditions had an effect on all the
boys; for, with the temporary vanishing of the king of day, the
shadows around them appeared to grow bolder, and issue forth from
their secret retreats.
"Ugh! this is certainly a fierce place for a fellow to visit, say
around midnight," K. K. was forced to admit, for he was the essence
of candor at all times.
"Wild horses couldn't drag me up here at such a time as that," said
Horatio, as he looked ahead, and shivered, either with the chill of
the air, or from some other reason, he hardly knew himself.
"Hugh, would you try it if someone dared you to?" demanded Julius
suddenly, taking the bull by the horns, so to speak.
"I don't think I would, on a dare," replied the other calmly, yet
deliberately, as he smiled at the speaker; "but if there was any good
and sufficient reason for my doing the same, I'd agree to come alone,
and spend a whole night in the deserted quarry. However, I'm not
particularly _hankering_ after the experience, so please don't try to
hatch up any wild scheme looking to that end. If you want to come,
Julius, you're welcome to the job."
Julius shuddered, and looked a bit pale at the very thought.
"Oh! I wasn't even dreaming of it, Hugh," he hastened to declare.
"I'd much prefer to being asleep in my own comfy bed at home when
midnight comes around, and the last thing on earth you'd catch me
doing would be out hunting spooks."
It was just as Julius finished saying this that they received a
sudden shock. A loud and thrilling sound, not unlike a human shriek,
came to their ears, filling each and every boy in the car with a
sense of unmitigated horror. It was so exceedingly dreadful that K.
K. involuntarily brought the auto to a full stop, and then turned a
face filled with mingled curiosity and awe upon his comrades.