CHAPTER IV
"TO THE VICTORS BELONG THE SPOILS"
SO far as the other scouts knew, Elmer Chenowith had never seen such amystery as a real ghost in all his life; and he certainly had not heardone groan, or give any kind of sound. Consequently his imagination wascalled upon to conjure up a series of queer, blood curdling noises suchas an orthodox specter, fresh from the world of shades, might beexpected to utter when tremendously excited.
Josh and George afterwards confessed that if they had not known it wasthe scout master who amused himself in this way, they too might haveshivered in their shoes. As for the Southern boy, he lay there amidstthe brush, and kept his eyes glued all the time on the face of Elmer, asthough he dared not depend on his knowledge of facts, but must back thisup with the positive evidence of his eyes.
Once Chatz even cautiously put out his hand, and gently felt of Elmer'skhaki sleeve; it was a mute confession that while never a doubter likeGeorge, the boy from Dixie had to be convinced when it was a matter ofsuperstition.
But the main thing, of course, was what effect Elmer's groaning mighthave upon the four boys who had stolen a march upon the scouts, andreached the harvest of nuts in advance.
No sooner had the first sounds begun to rise than they looked up withstartled expressions on their faces. Of course, like nearly every otherperson in town, the quartette must have heard strange stories connectedwith the abandoned Cartaret place, for such things have a way oftraveling from one end of a county to another, being eagerly repeatedeven by many who would scorn to admit their belief in such silly notionsas ghosts.
Before coming up here perhaps Connie and Phil, with the other twofellows, may have talked things over seriously, and expressed many afervid hope that their piratical operations might not be interrupted byany visit from a spectral guardian, such as was said to watch over theplace.
The first thing they did was to stare at each other, while their mouthscould be seen to open with astonishment.
Elmer changed his key, and gave them another sample of the weird soundscapable of being coaxed from a birch bark horn. He certainly was makinga great success of his music, his comrades thought, as they lay thereand waited to be invited to have a share in the proceedings, accordingto agreement.
Toby afterwards solemnly declared that he could see the caps of the fourfrightened boys start to rise, as their hair stood on end; though anelement of doubt always surrounded this statement; for Toby was soexcited himself that possibly his imagination worked over-time.
With the change in tune the boys seemed to regain in some measure thecommand of their faculties; at least they were able to rush closetogether, as though seeing protection in mutual sympathy. It was a plaincase of "united we stand, divided we fall!" And clutching at one anotherthey continued to shiver and listen,--meanwhile looking all around, asthough more than half expecting to discover some terrible figure bearingdown on them.
Elmer would have been only too happy to have provided such a specter fortheir accommodation; but unfortunately he had not come prepared tolaunch such a thing. Ghosts were hardly in his line; and in lieu of aspecimen for exhibition purposes he was compelled to do the best hecould with the material on hand; which is always a cardinal principlewith scouts.
"Now!"
When Elmer hissed this single word his four chums knew that their timehad come to get into the game. The snake had been "scotched, notkilled," as Josh later on aptly described it. No matter how muchfrightened Connie Mallon and his cronies might seem to be, if they stoodby their guns what would the advantage amount to? The affair must beturned into a regular rout in order that the scouts might reap the fullbenefit.
Accordingly all of them got busy immediately. George pounded on a hollowlog with a heavy stick, and managed to produce a series of throbbingsounds that were likely to add to the consternation of the listeners;Ted clapped two stones together; while Toby and Chatz rattled the brushviolently, and added a few choice groans of their own manufacture asgood measure.
It was enough, yes more than sufficient.
Human nature had reached its limit, so far as those alarmed fellows wereconcerned. Undoubtedly they must have become convinced that their raidon the preserves of the ghostly guardian of the haunted Cartaret placehad aroused the ire of the said defender, and that they were now indeadly danger of being seized by bony hands.
Of course Connie and his followers were raw novices in matters connectedwith haunts, and all such things, or they would have known that no selfrespecting ghost was ever caught giving public exhibitions of hisoddities in broad daylight. The gloom of night, or the weird light ofthe moon, has always had a monopoly of these thrilling diversions.
When Connie Mallon suddenly gave a tremendous spring forward, andstarted on a full run, there was no holding the other three back. Theywent plunging madly on in his wake, paying little attention to thedirection they took, so long as their flight promised to carry them awayfrom those dreadful manifestations.
Elmer did not stop his labors; in fact he even went to some pains toincrease the racket, under the impression that once you get a thingstarted it is good policy to keep it moving.
He had distinctly warned the others, however, not to allow theirexcitement to overlap their discretion; for should one of them so farforget himself enough to give vent to a genuine boyish shout, perhapsthe panic-stricken quartette might become wise to the fact that theywere being made victims to a great hoax.
"Come on, let's chase after them a bit, fellows!" Elmer told them,between his puffs through the birch bark megaphone; "but keep well back,so that they can't get a look-in at us if they turn their heads. Noiseis what we want, and plenty of the right kind."
Acting on his suggestion the others trailed after their leader. Theyswished in and out of the bushes, and accompanied their progress withall manner of novel sounds, each of which was calculated to add just amite more to the alarm of the fugitives.
More than once they heard loud cries of pain coming from ahead, as oneof the runners collided with some tree which had not been noticed in histerror; or else found himself tripped up by a wild grape-vine that layin wait for unwary feet. As Toby declared later on, all this was "justpie" for the chasers; they feasted off it, and seemed to enjoy the runimmensely; which was more than the Mallon boy, with his three cronies,could ever say.
At least Connie seemed to have kept his head about him in one importantparticular, which pleased Elmer very much; he knew in which directionlay their wagon, for which he had been in the act of sending one of hiscompanions at the very moment this awful clamor broke out which hadstarted them in full flight.
The neigh of a horse close at hand told Elmer what was happening, and heimmediately held his eager clan in. Far be it from them to wish to delaythe departure of the Mallon tribe, whose room was worth far more to thescouts than their company.
"Wait, and listen!" said Elmer, in a whisper.
"You didn't get the whole of that straight, Elmer," Toby told him,quickly, in a low, husky voice; "you ought to have said, 'Stop! Look!Listen!' That's the way it always is at railroad crossings!"
"Hist! Be still!" cautioned the leader.
They could hear loud excited voices near by, accompanied by the stampingof horses' hoofs, as though the excitement had communicated to the teamused by Connie Mallon and his three cronies in their rival nuttingexpedition.
"Now, let's start up again, and add the finishing touches!" Elmer toldthe others, when a dozen more seconds had dragged past, and they feltthey might safely assume that the fugitives must have untied the team,as well as scrambled into the wagon.
Once again did that strange chorus break forth, with Elmer groaningthrough his birch bark horn, and the others doing all in their power toaccompany him in regular orthodox ghostly style, in as far as theirlimited education along these lines went.
Taken altogether the racket was certainly enough to scare almost anyone. Snorts and prancing on the part of the horses announced that theywere now sharing the gene
ral excitement. Then came cries urging haste,and presently the plain unmistakable smack of a whip being brought downwith decided emphasis on the backs of the animals, several timesrepeated.
With that there was the crunch of wheels, and away dashed the two-horsewagon, making for the road which Connie knew must not be far away. Onceor twice the scouts had fugitive glimpses of the departing vehicle as itflashed past small glades where the view happened to be unobstructed;and it was certainly "killing," as George called it, to see thosefellows bouncing about in the bed of the wagon, holding on for dearlife, and with Connie plying the whip savagely, while the horses leapedand tugged and strained to make fast time over the uneven floor of thewoods.
The echoes of the flight grew fainter in the distance, and presently asthey stood there the scouts could tell from the change in sounds thatthose who were fleeing from the wrath of the ghosts must have reachedthe harder road, for the hoof beats of the horses came with a poundingstroke.
Gradually even this was dying away. Then the five boys turned and lookedat each other, with their faces wreathed in huge grins.
"Tell me, Elmer, is it safe to let off steam now?" demanded Toby,eagerly.
"If you're careful not to be too noisy, go it!" came the reply.
With that Toby threw himself flat on his back, and began to kick hisheels up in the air, all the while laughing, and giving queer gurglingsthat were meant to serve his pent-up emotions about as the escape valveof a boiler does when the steam presses too heavily on the boiler, andrelief is necessary.
He was not alone in his hilarity, although the merriment of the otherspartook of a different nature. Ted, Chatz and George went around shakinghands, and assuring each other that never in all their lives had theyever run across a more ridiculous diversion than this flight of the boldnut-gatherers.
"Talk to me about Napoleon's retreat from Moscow," said George, whoprided himself on his knowledge of history, "why, it wasn't in the samecategory as that wonderful escape of the Connie Mallon gang from theraid of the Cartaret ghosts. And say, what thrilling stories they'llhave to tell about it all! Believe me, the whole Hickory Ridge will knowabout it by night time. Oh! I'll never forget it! I haven't had so muchfun for a whole year as to-day. It was worth coming twenty miles just tosee them on the jump."
"Why," observed Ted, after he could regain his breath in part, "thatPhil Jackthon took the cake when it came to covering ground. Did youthee him clear that log like a buck? I bet you he made a record jumpthat time, and beat anything he ever marked up on the thlate at amatch."
"Well, they're gone, all right," said Chatz; "and from the way theywhipped their poor hosses I'd like to guess they'll keep on the wildrun till they get home. And there isn't much chance that we'll bebothered again by that Mallon bunch to-day; how about that, Elmer?"
"You can set that down as certain," replied the one spoken to. "It wouldtake more spunk than any of that crowd happens to own for them to changetheir minds, and come back here. And that's why I wanted you to becareful not to give the secret away. We've got the field to ourselvesthe rest of the day."
"Unless something comes along to give us a scare too," added Chatz,meaningly; for truth to tell, the superstitious Southern boy was alreadywondering whether all this playing ghost on their part might not bringsomething down on their heads savoring of retribution.
"Then what's to hinder our getting busy, and changing all that pile offine nuts from their sacks to ours?" George wanted to know. "The spoilsof battle belong to the victors every time; and besides, they weretrying to beat us out of our share as first discoverers. For one I ain'ta bit ashamed to grab everything. Let that silly bunch wake up earliernext time, if they mean to get away with the game."
What Elmer may have thought just then he did not say; but his ideas werecertainly not so pronounced as those of George, who was a pretty bluntfellow, one of the "give-and-take" kind.
As they were all of one mind a start back was made; and Toby, notwishing to be left in the lurch, had to bring his kicking exhibition toan abrupt finish, and hasten after his four chums.
The glorious store of nuts that had already been gathered wasimmediately turned from the sacks owned by Connie Mallon and his croniesinto the burlap bags the scouts had provided for the purpose. Then, farfrom satisfied, the boys proceeded to take up the work where the latenut-gatherers had left off. They climbed trees, and whipped the brancheswith the long poles, delighting in the sound of splendid nuts rattlingdown like hail. There is such a fascination about this sport that it isdifficult to know just when to stop it; and the ground was soon coveredto such an extent, that when the harvest had been gleaned several of theenemy's bags were more than half filled with the surplus.
"I never saw half so many chestnuts, walnuts and shell-bark hickory nutsgathered in heaps in all my life, as there are right here!" declaredGeorge; "a big bag apiece all around, and with three partly filled sacksbelonging to that crowd left over."
"Which extra plunder," said Elmer, quietly, "I'm sure none of us wouldthink of wanting, as we've got twice as much as we can use already."
"Then you're going to leave them for the ghost, are you?" asked Chatz,eagerly.
"We'll take them along," said Elmer, "and turn them over to ConnieMallon as a consolation prize; he'll find them in his front yardto-morrow morning, bright and early."