CHAPTER XXV--THE SPOOK APPEARS
Ted Smart saw it first, but no one believed him when he told about it.Ted declared that he turned over in bed and beheld a white, ghostly formfloating slowly and silently across the room about two feet from thefloor. He also declared that he could see through the white form anddiscern solid objects on the farther side. But every one knew Smart wasgiven to exaggeration, and so they laughed.
"Did you really see anything at all?" asked one.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Ted derisively; "I didn't see a thing. I am stoneblind, and I can't see anything."
"But it was dark."
"Oh, the moon didn't shine in at the window at all!" retorted the littlefellow. "It was dark as pitch! I can see better in the dark than I canin the daylight!"
All of which meant exactly the opposite.
"Well, what was the spook doing in your room, Smart?"
"Ask me! Just floating round, I fancy. But when the old thing floated myway I just sat up and said, 'Shoo!' like that. The thing stopped andstretched out a hand toward me. I said, 'Oh, Lord!' and went right downunder the bedclothes. I don't know how long I stayed there, but when Irubbered out the spook was gone."
"A pretty bad case of nightmare," was the verdict, but Ted did notaccept it. He insisted that something had been in his room. True, hisdoor was locked when he got up and looked around, and the "something"was gone.
Ted was the last fellow at Fardale to be able to impress any one withsuch a story. They guyed him at every opportunity about it. One afteranother the boys came to him and asked him to tell them about the"spook." They kept him repeating the story over and over until he becametired of it. Then when he became disgusted and refused to talk about itany more they laughed and kept up the sport by gathering around him andrepeating what he had said.
Later in the day, Smart said:
"I wonder if spooks have to comb their hair. My pet comb andsilver-backed hair-brush are gone. Don't know where they could have goneto unless my spook took them."
Of course he was advised to look around thoroughly in his room for themissing articles. He did so, but the comb and brush he could not find.Ted could not understand why any one should wish to steal the comb andbrush.
The very next night Joe Savage saw the "spook."
Savage and Gorman roomed together, although they were not the best offriends, having come to a misunderstanding over Dick Merriwell andfootball matters.
Joe knew not just what awakened him. It seemed like a long, low sigh.However, when he opened his eyes, he dimly saw a white form standing atthe foot of his bed. His first thought was that Gorman had arisen forsomething, but a moment later he discovered that Gorman was peacefullysleeping beside him, breathing regularly and somewhat loudly.
Savage was a fellow of considerable nerve, but now he was startled inspite of himself. His room was not on the right side for the moonlightto shine in at his window, but still there was light enough for him tomake out the white figure, which had the general semblance of a humanbeing.
Joe thought of Smart's spook-story.
"Rot!" he told himself. "That's what's the matter. I must be dreaming."
He deliberately pinched himself, discovering that he was verywide-awake.
The thing seemed to be looking straight at him, and a feeling ofunspeakable queerness froze him stiff in bed. He tried to convincehimself that it was a case of imagination, but the longer he looked theplainer he could see the ghostly figure. After a while he becameconvinced that there really was something white there at the foot of thebed.
Then through the room again sounded that long, low, tremulous sigh. Itwas expressive of unspeakable sadness, and about it there was somethinginhuman and spiritlike.
Savage felt himself getting cold as ice. He began to shiver so that thebed shook. In that moment he was ashamed of himself, for he was not afellow who believed in such nonsense as ghosts. Summoning all hiswill-power, he sat up in bed, expecting the thing would vanish, in whichcase he would be satisfied it was an hallucination of some sort. Insteadof vanishing, the ghost stretched out a hand toward Joe as if to grasphim.
Immediately Savage lay down again. The thing slowly moved away,disappearing from view.
Joe lay there, hearing Gorman still breathing regularly andstentoriously, but straining his ears for some other sound.
The door leading from his room to the corridor was not in view.
Joe had remained silent thus a full minute or more. At last he forcedhimself to get out of bed and step out of the alcove into the room. Hewas still shaking, but he looked about in vain for the spook. The thing,had vanished from the room.
He crossed the floor quickly and tried the door. It was locked.
"Well," said Savage to himself, "I wonder if I really did see anything!I'm almost ready to swear I did, and yet----"
He lighted a match and looked around as well as he could. Lights werenot permitted in the rooms at that hour, but he did not believe any onewould observe the light from a burning match.
The striking of the match broke Gorman's slumber. He choked, started,and sat up. He saw Savage in the middle of the room, holding the lightedmatch above his head.
"What's up?" grunted Abe, rubbing his eyes.
"I am," answered Joe.
"What are you looking for?"
"The spook."
"Hey?"
"I saw it," said Savage.
"What's the matter with you?" growled Gorman, in deep disgust. "Comeback to bed."
The match burned Joe's fingers and he dropped it.
"I saw something," he declared.
"Been dreaming," mumbled Gorman, lying down.
But the darkness seemed to convince Joe that he had really and trulyseen something.
"No," he declared grimly, "I know I saw something at the foot of thebed."
"Pooh!" ejaculated Abe, and he got into a comfortable position andprepared to sleep again.
After returning to bed Joe lay a long time thinking the matter over.
"I'm not a fool," he thought, "and I am ready to bet my life that therewas some kind of a thing in this room."
The impression settled on him so that he found it almost impossible toget to sleep. As he lay thus a sudden wild yell echoed through thecorridors, followed by a commotion.
Joe had left the bed at a single bound as the yell rang out. Anotherbound seemed to take him to the door of his room. He found somedifficulty in unlocking the door, as the key was not in the lock, and hewas compelled to take it from the hook where it hung and use it tounlock the door.
By the time he got outside, with Gorman at his heels, the corridor wasswarming with excited cadets in their night garments.
"What's the racket?" asked Savage, of the nearest fellow.
"Jim Wilson saw a ghost," was the laughing answer. "Wouldn't that jaryou!"
But immediately Savage was eager to question Wilson. This was prevented,however, at this time, as the boys were hustled into their rooms.
"What do you think of that?" asked Joe, when he and Gorman were back intheir room.
"Jim Wilson's a scare-baby," returned Gorman. "If any other fellow hadyelled like that I'd thought it a joke to get up a sensation. Wilsonwould never think of such a thing."
"But I saw something here in this very room a while ago."
"Don't tell anybody that," sneered Abe, as he again prepared to sleep."They'll take you for a big chump."
Gorman was a fellow who liked to sleep, and he declined to make anyfurther talk.
During the remainder of the night all was quiet about the academy.