Following the fall of the walls of the old house, the fire blazed up
anew and a fresh shower of sparks fell far from the blazing building.
The crowd was helpless. The only water to be had was from the old well
which now had caved in and the small amount which could be secured had
been exhausted in the early part of the fire. The timbers were old and
dry, and blazed almost like burning paper. The faces and forms of the
spectators seemed to be ghostly in the light against the dark background
of the night.
For an hour the blaze still continued, but the flames were gradually
becoming lower. No longer were there showers of blazing sparks that fell
upon the ground far away.
There was only a dim glow when at last Mr. Sanders led the way back to
the automobile. The excitement of the boys, however, still continued and
when their car started they were all looking back at the spot where the
crowd, fantastic in its appearance in the dim light and the glow of the
dying fire, were still to be seen.
"Well, there's one thing I feel almost as badly about as I do the loss
of the old building," said John thoughtfully, as the car sped homeward.
"What is that?" inquired George.
"Now we shall never know about the mysteries of the old place."
"There aren't very many mysteries left," suggested Fred. "We have found
out about the speaking tube and the chimney-swallows."
"Yes," said Grant, "but how about that blaze?"
"I suspect," joined in Mr. Sanders, "that the blaze you speak of had
something to do with the burning of the old house."
"What do you mean?" inquired George quickly.
"That's just what I mean," replied Mr. Sanders. "Somebody had a
flash-light over there and probably set fire to the building. I haven't
any idea who could have done it."
"I guess the tramp might tell us something," suggested Grant.
"The tramp?" inquired Mr. Sanders. "What tramp?"
In response to his questions the boys related all their experiences with
the strange man whom they had found in the old Meeker House. The part
which he had taken in the return of the lost automobile was also
explained and in response to George's suggestion that his father should
reward the man for the return of the car his father quickly inquired,
"But what was he doing away up beyond Tuxedo? I thought you said he made
his headquarters here in the old Meeker House."
"He does, part of the time," explained John.
"But what was he doing up there so far away?" inquired Mr. Sanders
sharply. "You know I sent you word that there was a possibility that a
car which had been located in a garage at Newburgh might be the one
which we had lost. What was he doing up there? How did he travel so far
and so fast?"
"He explained to us," said John, "that he had got a ride most of the
way. In fact I think he said that he didn't have to walk over half a
mile. He stole a ride on the cars and then somebody took him in his
automobile and brought him farther."
"Did he say what he was doing up there?" inquired Mr. Sanders.
"No, sir," replied George.
"But you say he was a very skillful driver?"
"Yes, sir," spoke up John promptly. "I never saw a man that could handle
a car better."
"I think we must look into this more fully," said Mr. Sanders, "but it
may be that he is the one who may know more about the loss of our car
than we think and I'm sure he could explain a part at least of the
origin of the fire at the old Meeker House."
"Do you think he set it on fire?" demanded Fred.
"Probably not, at least intentionally," replied Mr. Sanders, "but it may
be that he was the one who had the flash-light and he may have set fire
to the old building without intending to do so."
"Well," spoke up John, "I'm sorry we shan't ever find out about that
tooting of the automobile horn that we heard in the old building and the
flash that we saw. Why, the fire seemed to be all over the building at
once and then die out in every room just as quickly as it came."
"I think we shall know more about it," said Mr. Sanders quietly.
"Meanwhile the best thing for us to do is not to do anything to-night."
After the arrival of the boys at George's home the excitement still
continued and for two hours the boys remained on the piazza talking over
the experiences of the night. Much of the mystery of the old house was
still unexplained.
"Well, all I can say is," declared Fred, as the boys at last arose to go
to their rooms, "that if the old cowboys and skinners came back to the
old Meeker House to carry on their pranks they'll have to seek other
quarters now."
"I think you will find that your cowboys and skinners are pretty well up
to date," laughed Mr. Sanders. "And you'll find too that they are
clothed in very substantial flesh. I have been suspicious for a long
time that the tramps were using the old house for a sort of
headquarters, but I was not sure of it until you told me the story of
the man with whom you had had some dealings. We'll all go over there the
first thing to-morrow morning and perhaps we shall find some things that
will help us to make the others clear."
Accordingly, soon after breakfast the following day, the four Go Ahead
boys, together with Mr. Sanders, departed for the place where the fire
had occurred the preceding evening.
When they arrived, smoke was still rising from the ashes, but the flames
had long since died away. No one was near the spot and as the boys
approached the ruins, Mr. Sanders said, "I wish our friend, the tramp,
would come."
"Why do you want him?" inquired George.
"I think he is the man who can give us the information we most want just
now. I do not recall that I ever saw him."
"He's a strange man," said George quickly. "He looks like a tramp and
yet he uses good English and he shows that he has been used to better
things some time in his life."
"Did he tell you that?" laughed Mr. Sanders.
"I don't know that he said that exactly, but that's what he made me
think."
"Quite likely."
"Well, it's true," maintained George stoutly. "All you have to do is to
look into his face and hear him talk and you know that he isn't just a
common tramp."
"Strange how the mysteries about the old Meeker House keep up," laughed
Mr. Sanders. "First you have the cowboys and skinners meeting there and
then you have men who may be modern cowboys and skinners in flesh and
blood who make it their headquarters. The twittering of the
chimney-swallows drives all four of the Go Ahead boys out of the
building."
"But we went back," spoke up Fred quickly. "We didn't give up. Besides,
Mr. Sanders, I noticed last night when we came down the stairway that
all four of us had all we could do to keep up with you."
"So you did. So you did," admitted Mr. Sanders laughingly. "But I did
not run because I was afraid of spooks."
"Neither did we," said Fred. "We thought when we had a man along with us
that we would be protected and everything would be safe. But when we saw
him leaving the old Meeker House, faster than any of us boys could go,
we thought our safest plan was to try to keep up with him. Something
might happen to him, you know. If he was in trouble he might need our
help."
Mr. Sanders laughed heartily at Fred's assertions and then said quickly,
"Who is that man coming across the field?"
All the boys looked quickly in the direction in which Mr. Sanders
pointed and a moment later George said in a low voice, "That's our
tramp."
"I thought he would be here," said Mr. Sanders. "Now perhaps we can find
out a little more than we knew before."
All five awaited the approach of the man who indeed proved to be the one
about whom they had been talking.
As the tramp came near, his face lighted up with a smile as he cordially
said, "Good morning. Good morning. You're early on the scene of our
disaster last night."
"Yes," responded George. "We saw you last night and then we lost sight
of you in the crowd and couldn't find you again."
"Well, here I am," said the tramp, smiling. "If you still want to see me
all you have to do is to look at me. I never thought before that I was
very much to look at."
"We want to talk to you," said Mr. Sanders more seriously. "You told the
boys, did you not, that you and your friends had been making the old
house your headquarters?"
"Not exactly 'headquarters,'" replied the tramp. "We used to stay some
nights there."
"And you used the ghosts to scare people off or keep them away from the
old house?"
"That's what we did," admitted the tramp, laughing loudly as he spoke.
"It would do your heart good if you could only have seen some of them
leave."
"What were those groans that we heard?" spoke up Fred. "I never quite
understood them. We found out about the birds in the chimney and the
speaking tube that ran from the kitchen to the front room, but how about
those groans?"
"Why, there were usually two or three of us, and when we had visitors we
took our stand in different rooms and one answered the groan of the
others. Sometimes we groaned all together. Usually, though, we did not
have very much to do, because after one or two groans we usually found
the old house deserted."
"What about that automobile horn?" inquired George.
"Oh, that was another way we had of scaring people, that was all."
"Where did you get the horn?" inquired Mr. Sanders.
"I can't just say. We had it a long time."
"It sounded, the boys tell me, very like the horn of the car that we had
taken from our garage."
The tramp looked into the face of Mr. Sanders a moment before he said,
"And you suspect, do you, that I took your car and left the horn here?"
"Do you know where our car is?" inquired Mr. Sanders abruptly. "I told
my son to give you ten dollars for returning the old car. Here is the
money," Mr. Sanders added, as he held forth a bill.
"Thank you, sir," said the tramp, as he took the money and thrust it
into his pocket. "I told the boys that I could be persuaded to accept
the reward; but about your other car, all I can say is that I don't know
where it is now."
"Do you know who took it?"
"I do not."
"Do you know how the fire started in the old house last night?"
"No, sir. I don't."
"But you had some flash-light powder and you set it off here. The house
may have caught fire from it."
"I don't think it could possibly have got on fire that way. You see we
used that powder in pans and we set it off in two or three rooms at the
same time, just as we used to answer one another's cries or groan
together. The fire couldn't spread. The powder just flashed up and then
the fire was all out in a minute. Besides, the old house was no good
anyway. No one could live in it and my friends and I thought that if we
slept there occasionally no one would be any the worse for it. Of course
if there had been any objections made we should have been glad to pay
attention to them."
"I wish you would come back to the car with me, I want to speak to you
alone."
"All right, sir, just as you say," responded the tramp, quickly
advancing and accompanying Mr. Sanders as he led the way across the
fields after he had bidden the boys remain where they then were.