CHAPTER VII
HARVEST TIME
NO one said a single word for the better part of a minute, after Tobyhad made this astonishing statement. They continued to exchange uneasylooks, and then cast furtive glances up toward the particular window atwhich Toby had been pointing his trembling finger.
It was however excitement, not fear, that made Toby shiver; for afterall he was the first to break the sombre silence, and then it was tomake a proposition.
"Let's go back up there, and take a turn around," he said, eagerly;"mebbe we did miss some room, and after all there's somebody ahidin' inthe blooming haunted house. What d'ye say, fellows?"
"I'm on!" replied one of them before Toby had really finished speaking;and of course it was Chatz who agreed so readily.
Elmer immediately made a move that announced his readiness to do whatthe first discoverer of the ghost proposed; Ted and Toby followed suit;and finally George, shrugging his shoulders as though he considered itall folly, came tagging along at their heels grunting to himself.
In this fashion they entered the house, and immediately passed up to thesecond floor, looking curiously about them again. Nothing was in sight,not even a trespassing bat, for the little creatures had all beenalarmed when the boys made their first entry, and flown through variousopenings into the outer air.
"Now be sure you pick out the right window, Toby," warned Chatz.
"I counted 'em from the outside," replied the other, with abusiness-like air, "and it was exactly the seventh from the end; andhere she is. Everybody count and see for yourselves."
"That's all right," remarked George, triumphantly; "but suppose you showus your old ghost, Toby."
"Never said it was one," protested the other, as he looked about in apuzzled manner; "what I did remark, and I stand back of it still, wasthat if ever there was such a thing as a spook in this world that musthave been one."
George sniffed contemptuously.
"Go on and poke him out, then; I want to be shown, if I ain't fromMissouri!" he told Toby, who turned his back on him.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything here, Toby, for a fact," saidElmer, as he looked carefully around, up and down, on the floor, andalong the hall.
"It's disappeared, as sure as shooting, Elmer," admitted the pilot ofthe ghost-hunting expedition; "but I give you my affidavy that I did seea face, a white one at that, though it flipped out of sight before Icould grab a second look."
"Beats the Dutch what an _imagination_ some fellows have got," grumbledGeorge.
"I tell you I did see something, George!" repeated Toby, firmly.
"Sure, you might have done that," agreed the other, cheerfully; "butit's my honest opinion that it might have been just a little flash ofsunlight on a window pane. I've known such a thing to startle me more'nonce. And when you shifted your head, why, you got out of focus, and thething disappeared as you say, like a wreath of smoke. Now, I'm one ofthe kind that likes to look deep into things; and I never let a mysterygrip me. Make up your mind, Toby, that it was something like I'm tellingyou, and let it go at that."
Toby did not answer. Truth to tell he did not know what to say, forwhile he still firmly believed he had seen a human face at the windowthere was nothing around by means of which he could prove it.
He went to the window and looked out.
"Anyhow," he remarked, disconsolately, "even if I was fooled bysomething, it sure wasn't the sun, because it never strikes this side ofthe house after noontime; and look at the heavy trees shading it, willyou? I give the thing up, and yet I'd like to take a look over thisfloor."
"Suppose we start in and do it, then?" remarked Elmer, quietly.
Even George accompanied them, though he continued to look superior, andallowed a skeptical expression to appear on his face. Possibly, inspite of his avowed disbelief in ghosts, George did not really care tobe left alone in that house; his valor might all be on the surface.
Nothing was found, and Toby finally admitted that it seemed uselesswasting any more time prowling around.
"But I'll always believe I did see something," he avowed, as theystarted out of the building again; "and if we come up here to campduring the Thanksgiving holidays we ought to look into this businesscloser. P'raps something might show up in the night time that'd be worthseeing."
"Do you really think so, Toby?" exclaimed Chatz, with rapture, as thougheven the mention of it gave him secret delight.
"Rats!" sneered the unconvinced George.
They had gone only a little way from the house when Elmer called a halt.
"Just wait for me a few minutes, boys," he said; "or, if you feel likeit, fetch the wagon around to load up our sacks of nuts."
With these words he turned and went straight back into the house. Theothers exchanged looks, but did not say anything, though they must havethought this queer on the part of the scout master. But then Elmer was aprivileged character, and often did things that mystified his chums,explaining later on, to their complete satisfaction. Perhaps he may havedropped something up there on that second floor, or else conceived asudden idea which caused him to return for another look around.
"Might as well get loaded up, as hang around here any longer?" suggestedToby.
"I think the same," added George, "for there's no telling who'll beseeing all sorts of queer things next. Must be in the air. Once thatsort of thing begins to get around, and it takes a solid mind to ward itoff. Never bothers _me_, though."
"I'll bring the horse up," suggested Toby, with a grin; for in spite offinding himself the target for these shafts of ridicule on the part ofthe scoffer, Toby dearly loved to hear George offering objections.
"Guess you'd better, because Nancy knows you more'n she does any of therest of us; and a hoss is a rantankerous creature," said Chatz.
"Particularly a mare," added Toby, as he hurried away; but they noticedthat he cast many side glances at the surrounding dense foliage as hewent in the direction of the spot where they had left Nancy and thewagon when approaching the grove of nut trees, as though he did notwholly fancy finding himself alone amidst such weird surroundings.
Once the wagon was brought up it did not take the scouts long to get allthe sacks of nuts loaded. When they saw what a splendid showing thecollection made it caused a fresh outbreak of congratulations allaround.
"There never was such a grand lot of nuts brought into town from the daythe first cabin was built away back!" declared George, who could notsee any reason to throw cold water on this positive fact, with theevidence plainly before him.
"That's what comes of having an idea," remarked Toby, proudly; "if Ihadn't engineered this plan we might have spent a hard day in the woods,and only brought home a single bag to show for it. Just look at thatwholesale lot, will you?"
"Yeth, and we're all ready to thay you did it with your little hatchet,Toby; it taketh you to hatch up plans, thure it doeth," admitted Ted.
"Wonder what's keeping Elmer?" Chatz observed, as he turned to looktoward the house, glimpses of which they could catch through smallopenings in the dense growth of trees; to immediately add: "there hecomes right now."
"Hope he found what he was looking for," George ventured, and nothingfurther was said in regard to the matter.
Elmer quickly joined them. Chatz looked keenly at his face, and fanciedthat he could detect something like a faint smile there; but even if thescout master had made any sort of discovery on his last visit to thehaunted house, he did not seem ready to take his chums into hisconfidence.
"Well, that looks like something, boys," he remarked, as he surveyed thegreat load of filled bags that occupied nearly every bit of space in thewagon bed.
"Oh! we believe in doing a wholesale business when we get started,"laughed Toby; "the only thing that's bothering me is where Chatz, Tedand George can find room to sit. Guess they'll have to fix it so as tostretch out on top of our load."
"Ted can crowd in with the two of us on the front seat, if he wants,"explained Elmer; "and i
f somebody gives me a hand we'll soon arrange aplace for the other seat back here on top of these four partly filledsacks."
"Consolation prizes, you mean!" muttered George, who did not exactlylike the idea of their going to all the trouble of carrying the extrasacks home just to drop them in the yards of the members of the Malloncrowd; George was inclined to be proud, and it seemed to smack too muchof pulling "chestnuts out of the fire" for others.
"Well, after all, suh, they worked hard enough to knock those nuts downto be entitled to a share," Chatz remarked, that fine Southern sense ofjustice cropping up again, despite his dislike for Connie Mallon and allthose who trained in his camp.
"Not to speak of the bruises and black eyes some of them must havepicked up when they conducted that masterly retreat," Elmer added; "I'llnever forget that panic; for I don't believe I ever saw fellows morefrightened than they were."
"Well, do you blame them?" asked Ted; "if I got it in my head that bunchof ghosth had it in for me on account of my breaking in on their hauntI'd run like a whitehead too, and thatth right."
"I'd like to see Connie's face when he discovers that sack of nuts inhis yard to-morrow A. M.," George continued, actually pursing up hislips in a smile, something he was seldom guilty of.
"Reckon he'll think it rained down in the night," chuckled Chatz.
"More'n likely he'll begin to believe he's only been dreaming that thesethings happened, and that he did fetch the nuts home with him, afterall," Toby volunteered.
"But when the other counties are heard from, and they all compare notes,won't they get on to the game then?" George asked.
"How about that, Elmer?" Toby inquired, turning to the scout master.
"I don't see how they can help but figure it out as it stands," came thereply.
"That is, they'll guess we fetched back their bags for 'em, and notwanting to turn the same over empty, just chucked a lot of nuts in tomake 'em stand up," and George as he said this looked as consequentialas though he had solved some great problem.
"All I'm afraid of," resumed Toby, "is they'll get the idea in theirdense heads that we're only doing this because of fear; that is, we'reoffering a bribe, hoping they'll forgive us for frightening them, andwon't hold us to a reckoning. I don't like knuckling down that way. Iwish we thought to put a note in each sack telling them we only turnedthese nuts over because we had more than we could use ourselves, andthought they'd worked hard enough to earn some."
Elmer, however, shook his head.
"That wouldn't be worth while trying!" he declared. "I think it'd onlymake them more bitter against us. The best way to do is just to leavethe bags in their yards, and say nothing. If they ever ask us why we didit, let's say we thought it only fair they should have some of theproceeds of the raid on the Cartaret grove, because they worked hardenough for it. If they want to make trouble after that why we'll have toaccommodate them, that's all."
That settled the matter. When Elmer clinched an argument he seldom leftany ground for the others to stand on; and in this case all of the boysseemed to be satisfied to let him do as he proposed, though severalprivately disliked the idea of carrying that additional weight backhome, just to turn over to that turbulent, trouble-making crowd.
"There's nothing more to keep us here, seems like," suggested George;"so what do you say to going home?"
"It's time," admitted Chatz, "and if Nancy is able to draw such a heavyload, we ought to get there before dark, which comes along about five,these November days."
"It's mostly down-grade," Toby went on to say, as he climbed to hisseat, and took up the lines; "besides, I told you the animal needed agood haul to take some of that extra spirit out of her. All aboard,fellows; those who can't get a board find a rail. Homeward bound, andwith the greatest load of bouncing big nuts ever harvested along HickoryRidge."
They were a merry lot as they found places on the wagon.
"Hope Nancy behaves herself going home," George remarked, as he tried tofix himself firmly in his seat; "if she took a notion to cut up all of asudden where d'ye think we'd land back here, with the wagon so full?"
"Plenty of room on the road, George; and believe me you wouldn't have toquestion where you'd dropped, because it'd be a convincing argument,"Elmer told him.
So they started, and all of them turned to take a last look in thedirection of the haunted house, as they caught a glimpse of it throughthe trees.
"Good-bye old ghost!" cried Toby, waving the hand that did not hold thereins; "we'll come again and interview you, mebbe. Take care ofyourself, and don't play any mad pranks while we're away."
As they rode off, making their way among the trees, and heading for thevicinity of the road, Chatz turned to Ted, who was sitting in the middleagain, having decided to cast his fortunes with the comrades of the rearseat, and remarked in what he meant to be a low tone:
"I'd give something to know, suh, whether Elmer _did_ find out aboutthat _thing_ when he went back into the old house again!" but Ted onlyshook his head in reply, as though the subject was too deep for him, orelse he believed Elmer would take them all into his confidence when hesaw fit to do so.