ALECK SEES A GHOST
“Where do you suppose he went to?”
“Search me! He has certainly dropped out of sight entirely.”
“Perhaps he slid out through one of the doors and went back to the
house and is now laughing at us,” suggested Andy. He was busy wiping
the mud from his hands with an old salt bag.
“No, he couldn’t have left by any of the doors, for they’re all bolted
on the inside,” declared Jack.
“Maybe he went up in the loft and dropped from one of the windows,”
suggested Randy.
The three boys took another look around, shouting Fred’s name several
times as they did so. Then they went up in the loft. Here a grimy
window stood half open.
“That window has been opened since we came,” declared Andy. “Just the
same, he could easily drop out of it to the pile of hay below,” he
added, looking down.
“We might as well go back to the house and see if he’s there,” said
Jack, and thereupon the three boys descended to the lower floor of
the barn, unlocked one of the doors, and made a quick dash for the
farmhouse.
“I’m going to wash up a bit before I look for him,” said Andy. “I feel
as dirty as a sewer digger.”
“And you look worse than that,” added his twin, with a laugh. “Come on,
Jack, let us find Fred and make him tell us his secret,” he added to
his cousin.
A few minutes after the three boys left the barn Aleck Pop entered the
place to get a peach basket which the cook wanted. The colored man had
been told that the baskets were in the far end of the barn where Jack
Ness had placed them.
“I don’t see why Jack couldn’t’ve brung dat basket,” mumbled Aleck,
as he stumbled along in the semi-darkness of the barn. He considered
that all work around that place belonged to the hired man and not to
himself, he being employed principally around the house and on outside
errands.
The colored man was still some distance from the back end of the barn
when he heard a strange thumping. He came to an abrupt halt and began
to scratch his woolly pate.
“What’s dat knockin’?” he demanded. “Who’s dar?”
The thumping ceased and all was quiet around the barn except for an
occasional sound from the stalls where several of the horses were
munching hay. Then Aleck took another step or two forward.
At once the thumping started up again, coming so loudly and seemingly
so near that the colored man gave a suspicious jump.
“Who’s dar?” he cried again. “Who’s dat knockin’? Is some of you boys
playin’ a trick on old Aleck?”
Again the thumping ceased, and now it was so quiet in the darkened
barn that Aleck seemed to feel his scalp rising. He was naturally
superstitious, and at once began to imagine all sorts of things.
“You can’t play no tricks on me!” he exclaimed rather weakly. “You come
out o’ hidin’, whoever you is!”
“Goof! Goof! Kerchoo! Goof!” came in muffled tones, and this was
followed by a thumping that made poor Aleck turn as if to run. “Goof!
Goof!”
Straining his eyes in the semi-darkness of a back corner of the barn,
Aleck made out a long and heavy box, the lid to which was tightly
closed. Then, as he stood stock still but ready to run away if
necessary, he became aware that the strange thumping and other noises
were coming from this receptacle.
“Must be a dog or a hog in dat box,” he muttered. “But why don’t he
raise de lid and pop out?”
As the strange sounds and thumping continued, Aleck timidly and
fearfully took several steps forward, and then, by peering closer, saw
that not only was the lid of the box tightly closed but a hasp used for
a padlock had fallen into place over a staple, so that the lid could
not be pushed up from the inside.
“Dat dog or hog or whatebber it am, am sure a prisoner,” he murmured,
and then something like a grin came over his ebony face. Stepping
closer, he unclasped the hasp and threw back the long and heavy lid of
the box.
“Goof! Goof! Kerchoo! Goof!” came in a splutter from the bottom of the
box, and a moment later there arose to the astonished gaze of Aleck Pop
a tall figure in white, waving two ghostlike arms wildly.
“Land of Abraham!” shrieked the colored man, and began to tremble from
head to foot. “It am a ghost! It sure am!” Then he turned to flee.
“Goof! Goof! Kerchoo!” came from the ghostlike figure. “Kerchoo! Say,
somebody――kerchoo――dust me――kerchoo――off――kerchoo――will you? Goof!
Goof!” and the figure continued to splutter and make all sorts of
mysterious movements.
“It’s a ghost! It’s a hant!” shrieked Aleck, and rushed out of the barn
and toward the house as fast as his aged legs would carry him. He burst
into the kitchen, rolling his eyes wildly.
“Aleck! Aleck! What is the matter with you?” cried Aunt Martha, in
consternation.
“Der am a ghost in de barn, Mrs. Rober!” was the scared reply. “A great
big white ghost!”
“Oh, Aleck, there are no such things as ghosts,” was the ready reply of
the old lady. “You are surely mistaken.”
“But I done saw it! It rose out of a box and waved long white arms at
me!”
“What’s that about a ghost, Aleck?” questioned Jack, as he came in,
followed by the twins.
“I done saw a ghost in de barn. Came out of a big box down in a back
corner. It was all white and groanin’ and moanin’ something terrible. I
think somebody’s gwine to die!” and Aleck rolled his eyes in fright.
“It must be Fred,” declared Randy. “Aleck, it’s Fred, and he’s playing
a trick on you.”
“How could dat be Fred? Who locked him in dat box?”
“Was he locked in?” questioned Randy quickly.
“He sure was. De hasp of de lid was slipped over de staple.”
“Then there’s the answer to the riddle,” announced Andy. “Fred got in
the box and couldn’t get out again.”
“But dat ghost am all white――jest as white as a ghost could be,”
declared Aleck emphatically.
“If he was locked in the box, why didn’t he make some kind of a noise
when we called him?” questioned Jack.
“Let’s go and make sure!” cried Randy.
Regardless of the rain, the three boys hastened once again to the barn
and rather sheepishly Aleck Pop followed them. A ludicrous sight met
their gaze as they entered. Standing in the middle of the barn floor
was Fred trying with a handkerchief to get a whitish substance from his
face, and especially from his eyes and nose. He was spluttering and
sneezing and coughing all at the same time.
“Goof! Goof! Kerchoo! I’m almost――kerchoo――dead with this――this stuff!”
he spluttered. “Here, lend me a handkerchief or――kerchoo――something.
I――I can’t get my breath!” and he continued to splutter for several
minutes.
In the meantime Jack thumped him on the back and the others did what
they could think of to relieve him. His clothing was covered with a
fine, light, flour-like substance, and this had gotten into his ears
and hair, as well as into his eyes and nose.
“I know what that is,” declared Randy. “It’s the new stuff Uncle
Randolph bought for spraying in the garden. It takes the place of
arsenic and things like that. It’s sprayed on dry, and then the rain
does the rest.”
“My gracious, Randy, do you suppose it’s poisonous?” questioned Jack
quickly.
“If dat stuff am poison, Fred am a dead boy,” prophesied Aleck
solemnly. Now that he saw that what he had supposed was a ghost was
really Fred he felt more like himself.
“I’m going to hunt up Uncle Randolph and find out about this,” said
Randy, and ran off without further ado. A little later he came back to
find the others dusting Fred off with a whiskbroom and a cloth.
“Uncle Randolph says he doesn’t think the stuff will do any harm,”
Randy announced. “But he thinks Fred had better take a bath and change
his clothing and be careful not to swallow any of the powder and not to
breathe any of it up into his nose.”
“You bet I’ll take a bath, and do it right away!” was Fred’s answer,
as he continued to cough and sneeze.
“But how in the world did you come to jump into the box? Didn’t you see
the stuff in there?” questioned Jack.
“It wasn’t there when I jumped in――at least, it wasn’t there to bother
me,” answered Fred. “It was in a couple of big paper bags. I was all
right when you tramped around the barn calling for me, and so I kept
quiet. But after you left I tried to get out of the box and found I
couldn’t. Then I began to thump around, and first thing I knew I kicked
the bags apart and then the powder flew all over, and I was almost
smothered. Then I began to splutter and kick for all I was worth, and
then Aleck opened the box.”
“Well, it’s a good thing Aleck came,” declared Randy. “If he hadn’t
come, you might have been smothered to death.”
“I guess that’s right. Aleck, I owe you a good deal for this.”
“Dat’s all right, Massah Fred,” answered the old colored man. “Jest de
same, jest don’t you scare dis darkey to death de next time you get in
a box.”
“The next time I get in a box I’ll keep out of it,” declared the
youngest Rover, and then hurried to the house to get his bath.
When the girls heard of the mishap that had befallen Fred they were
much concerned, even Ruth taking a great interest.
“Oh, Fred, you must be more careful!” cried his sister. “Why, you might
have smothered to death!”
“It’s just like the old story,” said Ruth. “Don’t you remember, where
the bride hid from her husband and got locked in a trunk in a garret
and her skeleton was not found till years and years afterwards?”
“Oh, Ruth, what a horrible story to tell!” burst out Martha.
This happening seemed to bring the young folks together again, and for
the time being the little coldness between Jack and Ruth was forgotten.
After supper the young folks gathered around the piano for a while and
played and sang, and then listened in on a radio which the boys had
brought from the city.
“There is something wrong with this radio set,” declared Jack, after
they had made a number of attempts to get distant stations. “I think
the best thing we can do is to look over the aërial to-morrow and see
if we’ve got it just right.”
“I think that big elm tree interferes with it,” declared Randy.
A little later the boys prepared to make some prints from the films
taken of the horse race, using a battery light for that purpose. It had
now grown darker and Aunt Martha was going around lighting up.
The boys were still at work over the films, and the girls were in the
sitting room with Ruth at the piano, when suddenly Martha let out a
scream, and this was followed by a scream from Mary.
“What is it? What’s the trouble?” questioned Jack, as he came rushing
in, followed by the others.
“Somebody looked in at the window!” declared Ruth.
“It was Slugger Brown!” gasped Martha.
“And he made the most awful face at us you ever saw!” added Mary.