University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER IX.
TALKING OF GHOSTS.

"WELL, I hope the trousers turn out to be a good fit for Ajax!" remarked Josh, after they had settled down once more to take things comfortably.

"And that he c'n get them sneaker canvas shoes, with the rubber soles, on his feet," Hanky Panky went on to say, reflectively. "I thought I'd enjoy 'em first-rate myself, but as they turned out so big, I kept sloshin' around all the time in 'em."

"And I'm dead sure the old sweater I turned over to the poor fellow will feel a whole lot better

than the thin rags he had on," observed Rod, with a smile, and a satisfied shake of his head; "because, you see, he must just despise those zebra stripes that go to stamp him a convict in the eyes of every one."

"I feel a whole lot better, suh, from having helped the poor chap along," admitted Elmer.

"We all must," added Rooster, who had as tender a heart as the next one, even though unable to express his feelings as eloquently as Rod or Elmer. "But just at the time I ran across Ajax you were telling us something about the ghosts of Walnut Ridge, Elmer; suppose you go right along now, and finish. Of course, you mustn't think I believe in such silly things as ghosts; but ever since I c'n remember, I've always felt the greatest interest in hearing or reading about 'em."

The other boys smiled. They understood well enough. Rooster had always shown a weakness in the line of the supernatural, although secretly ashamed of the fact, and always ready to stoutly deny it.

"Oh!" remarked Elmer, with a wink in the direction of the others, "all I know is that there used to be a number of people who really believed ghosts haunted the region of Walnut Ridge. You see, suh, that name covers a wide section of country further to the south, and which we shall strike to-morrow on our way to Chattanooga. My old home, to tell

you the truth, is located in the very heart of the same Ridge."

"You don't say, Elmer!" exclaimed Rooster, deeply interested. "And you lived there up to three years back, didn't you?"

"About that length of time," replied the other, who evidently knew what Rooster was leading up to in these questions.

"How about you ever running up against a ghost, Elmer?" finally asked the other.

"Well, what d'ye think of that now, for a stunner?" cried Josh. "However could he meet up with what you say you don't believe in, tell me that, Rooster?"

"But did you ever think you saw a real ghost?" persisted the other, as if bent on striking while the iron was hot, and learning all he could about a matter that, as he confessed, had a singularly strong fascination for him.

Elmer rubbed his chin, as though reflecting.

"There was one occasion, suh, that I remember quite well," he started to say, when Rooster, greatly excited, and with a perceptible tremor to his voice, interrupted him.

"Then you did meet up with something that you thought might be er -- a sorter ghost?" he demanded.

"I'll tell you about it, if you wish," Elmer went on obligingly; and the others settled themselves to

listen; Rooster in particular leaning forward, and with eyes that seemed round with eagerness, fastened on the young Southerner.

"Go ahead, Elmer," said Hanky Panky, somewhat uneasily; for while he might not feel just as Rooster did about such things, there was a certain "spookiness" in connection with the subject, especially when the night wind was sighing mournfully through the bare limbs of a dead tree close at hand; and an owl far away in the woods was giving vent to his feelings in long-drawn hoots, that somehow seemed to be associated with grave- yards, and such things.

"Well, it happened one black night when I was on the road," Elmer started to say, seriously, his manner impressing Roster even more than his words. "I was not thinking of anything like ghosts, for I didn't believe in such things, though I knew lots of boys, black and white, who did. And then, all of a sudden, I saw something white moving ahead of me, though not a sound could I hear."

"Whee!"

Rooster whistled this word through his closely set teeth. Apparently in imagination he was putting himself in Elmer's place; and perhaps a cold shiver even ran through his body as he mentally saw that uncanny white object.

"What did you do?" asked practical Josh.

"I stood still, and looked," Elmer went on to

say, in that odd, awed voice, which Rod fully believed was assumed just to add to the feelings of Rooster, "It kept moving, first this way, and then that. I even fancied I could see a white arm waving at me, just as if the thing meant for me to clear out."

"Yes," quavered Rooster, which was equivalent to saying: "hurry up, and tell us what else happened, Elmer."

"I wanted to run the worst kind," continued the other boy; "but something seemed to have gripped me; and honest, I just couldn't move a leg. You've all been that way, I reckon, when you had the night-mare?"

"Sure thing," allowed Josh.

"And it is a terrible sensation to feel, I tell you," Hanky Panky went on to say, but Rooster only breathed hard, and waited for the balance of the story.

"Well," Elmer continued, in an aggravatingly slow way, "there I stood, with my heart beating so fast I seemed to feel it crowding right up in my throat. And all the while that white object was coming straight at me! I reckon, suh, I must have lived a year in that little time. Then it made a whinnying sound, and I knew that it must be the old white hoss belongin' to Mr. Cragin, that he'd turned loose in pasture!"

"Sho! was that all it was?" gasped Rooster, in

a vastly disappointed tone, as if he had anticipated something at least much more dreadful.

"Yes, suh, that was all," Elmer went on. "You see the animal had jumped the fence, and was feeding alongside the road, where the ground was soft; and that was why I didn't hear his hoofs strike. He could see me, though, and was expectin' to be spoken to, because everybody knew Old Moses. And between us all, I reckon now, that most ghosts are apt to turn out just as silly as mine did, if they're examined into."

"Of course they are," Rooster said, stoutly; but nevertheless Rod was of the opinion that a whole lot of his assurance was assumed.

"Forget all about that thing, and tell us about the moonshiners down here in Tennessee; ain't we likely to run across a whole bunch of the gents while we're nosin' about among the lonely roads of the mountains?" Josh wanted to know; for being of a practical turn of mind, his dangers were usually a concrete species, something you could see and feel, and run away from, if necessary.

"Oh! you'll not be so apt to run across moonshiners down in this part of the state as if you were over on the North Carolina line in Eastern Tennessee," Elmer immediately assured him.

"So I understand," Rod remarked, nodding his head in approval.

"Which isn't saying," continued the Southern

boy, "that there are no secret stills in these very hills around us. You know the poor whites down South feel that the United States Government has no right to say to them they shall not make the stuff, just as they please. And so it has always been, and I reckon suh, it always will be with them. They hate a revenue man worse than poison; and if they suspect any stranger being in touch with the authorities, it's bound to go hard with him, believe me."

"Well, we want to let it be known far and wide then, that we haven't any interest in the matter at all," Josh hastened to say, as he glanced around at the gloomy darkness that blanketed them on all sides; "because I'd just everlastingly hate to even think some fellow was aiming his rifle at me from among the rocks, or back of some tree. Rooster c'n talk about his ghosts, but a moonshiner'd make me have a cold chill quicker'n a dozen spooks."

"Then let's hope we'll have the luck not to run up against any of either brand," laughed Rod.

At that he immediately proceeded to change the subject to something of a more pleasant character; for Rod could see that both Hanky Panky and Rooster were showing decided signs of nervousness.

They continued to lounge around the cheery camp-fire for another hour or so, since it had been some little time since such an opportunity had come

their way; and like most boys a fire was almost an object of worship with several of them.

But in due time there were frequent yawns that announced the coming of drowsiness; and finally Rod declared they had better get ready to turn in.

The motorcycles had been chained together. This would effectually prevent the pilfering of one or more of the wheels while the owners slept. It also gave the boys a chance to enjoy their slumbers undisturbed by vague fears that an enemy might deprive them of their means of locomotion.

"Then we ain't going to keep watch?" asked Rooster, as though surprised, perhaps a little disappointed because of the fact.

"No use, that I can see," replied Rod. "We'll be lying pretty much in a bunch, and for one, I call myself a light sleeper; so I guess if anybody started to move about here I'd know it. And we're all pretty tired. So let's go to sleep, and be fresh as daisies in the morning."

"Them's my sentiments," Josh declared; and Elmer also remarked that he did not think there was the slightest need of keeping a sentry on duty.

Rooster had made himself as cozy a bed as possible, under the circumstances, considering the fact that they had no blankets along, and a tent was one of the things that were missing. But the sky seemed clear at the time they lay down, with many stars blinking in the dark vault above; and the air was

balmy, since the season chanced to be in the late summer.

There were plenty of dead leaves handy, and with these they had fashioned their beds, packing them in as hard as they could. Rod and Elmer, yes, and Josh also, appeared to have little trouble about getting to sleep; but it was different with the other two.

First Rooster would sit up, and stare suspiciously around; and then with a grunt of satisfaction lie down again; a little later Hanky Panky might be noticed raising his head, and glancing toward the spot where the motorcycles had been parked, so that the same stout chain could be passed through the front wheel of each.

He would then look all around at the forbidding woods, as seen indistinctly in the dim light of the flickering camp-fire; after which, hearing nothing but the querulous voices of some prowling ground rats, Hanky Panky in turn rolled over.

But as the night wore on, these manifestations of uneasiness on the part of the two lads grew more and more infrequent, until they too slumbered in peace.