Under Canvas: or, The Hunt for the Cartaret Ghost. Douglas Alan Captain
wise enough to keep his secret until they were so far on the road that there was little likelihood of any boy venturing to propose that they abandon the nutting expedition and return home.
"Well, I knew some of you fellows would be saying that," he now remarked; "so I asked Elmer about it, and he advised me to bottle up till we'd gone half-way to the place. So now, I hope nobody wants to go back?"
"Oh! you needn't look at me that way, Toby," Chatz hastened to exclaim; "p'raps I may be silly enough to believe in ghosts, but nobody ever called me a coward; and where the rest of you go, suh, Chatz Maxfield can be counted on to follow."
"Me too!" chirped Ted.
"P'raps now you may remember that once before we ran foul of a haunted place up at that old mill," remarked George, "and it turned out to be only a bunch of game-fish poachers at work there. I never did take much stock in ghosts."
"You never take much stock in anything, suh, I notice, till you've pulled the same to pieces, and examined it all ovah," the Southern scout told him, quickly.
"Then it theems that you know about the thupply of nuts up at the old Cartaret place, do you, Toby?" asked Ted.
"I asked a man who was sent up there only a couple of weeks back by the lawyers that have the estate in charge, to look it over and see if it was worth while to try and repair the ruined house. And say, he told me he never saw trees loaded with such a crop of dandy nuts as there were in that woods back of the house. You never heard of any fellows going up there to gather hickories, did you? I guess nobody ever goes inside half a mile of the place if they c'n help it. And Elmer, he fell in with my scheme right away. Besides, you see, I'm taking something with me that I hope to get a chance to try out on this trip," and Toby pointed back to a mysterious bundle lying in the bed of the wagon, on the many gunny-sacks that had been brought along in order to hold the anticipated harvest of nuts for winter use.
"Well, well, well!" George exclaimed, in his skeptical way, "now chances are that's some other foolish invention of yours, Toby – a new kind of flying machine that'll drop you ker-plunk in a frog pond, or crack your head on a log when you try it out."
"Nothing'd ever be accomplished in this world if everybody had your doubting nature, George," the driver of the wagon told him; "I happen to be built on a different model, and p'raps you may live long enough to hear the name of Jones go thundering along the pathway of fame on everybody's lips."
"Mebbe I will," George told him, "because they say it's getting mighty near as common as Smith. But I'd better not say that when my cousin Landy Smith is around. I only hope this don't turn out a hoax, that's all. It's going to be an all day trip, and I'd hate to be sold, and come back with one measly bag of poor little nuts to be divided among five."
"Well, now that you know the dreadful dark secret, and nobody says turn back home," Toby announced, with a broad grin, "I'm goin' to invite the whole bunch to stop off at this wayside grocery at the crossroads here, and have some sarsaparilla with me. It's my treat this time."
As the road had been more or less dusty, and their throats were accordingly somewhat parched in consequence, there was no dissenting voice heard to this generous proposition.
"Plenty of time to gather all the nuts we want, and then make an early start for home," Elmer told them, as Toby pulled near a series of posts where the horse could be securely hitched.
"And the best of it is that we've thought to fetch some stuff along so we can build a fire and have a cooked dinner," George went on to say, with a pleased smile; for while he might be given to doubting many things, he never had occasion to question his appetite as every one knew – that was always in positive evidence.
All of them jumped from the wagon, which had two seats, so that three boys could sit behind, and one with the driver. While Toby was doing the needful with his hitching halter made of rope, the others stretched their legs, and waited, because it would be hardly proper for them to troop into the road grocery ahead of the scout who had invited them to join him in a refreshing drink.
A hulking boy was leaning against the fence near by, and observing the five scouts in a leering sort of way.
"Huh! that's Angus McDowd, one of that Fairfield bunch we beat at baseball last summer," muttered Toby, as he happened to glance over, and noticed the other observing them with a sneer on his face.
"Never liked him for a thent!" Ted was heard to say in a low cautious tone; for the other boy was a strapping big chap, and if provoked might give them more or less trouble, in a desire to fight them one after the other, as he had the reputation of being something of a bruiser.
"My stars! but he was mad that day we won the game, though, let me tell you, suh!" observed Chatz; "and he did his level best to get in a scrap with some of our fellows. Felix Wagner and Tom Ballinger had to lead him away, you remember. He doesn't like the boys of Hickory Ridge any too well, believe me, fellows."
They all went inside the little dusty-looking building, where some enterprising man had started a wayside grocery, and general store, at which you could purchase nearly anything from a paper of needles to a coffin, or an automobile tire, and gasoline.
Fortunately the man happened to have some stray bottles of soft drinks like sarsaparilla and root beer that must have been left over from his summer trade; and presently each of the scouts was washing the dust down his throat.
Altogether they may have spent about ten minutes in the store; and then after Toby had settled the account, they again passed out to the wagon.
The loitering Fairfield boy had disappeared, as Elmer noted when he looked over toward the fence where Angus McDowd had been standing on their arrival.
"Now, what ails you for a silly thing, Nancy?" said Toby, as the mare laid back her ears, and pranced at their approach. "Been getting too much oats lately, I reckon, with too little exercise. Well, you won't be feeling so fresh and frisky by the time we get back home to-night. That load of nuts is going to make you puff, let me tell you. Pile in, fellows, while I unfasten the hitching rope. Whoa! there, don't you dare try to bite me, you horse with the nasty temper! Why, this is a new trick for you to show. Grab the lines, won't you, Elmer? The blame nag's that anxious to show off she'd leave me in the lurch! Let up, there, can't you?"
It was only by making a hasty jump that agile Toby managed to gain his seat, to take the taut lines from Elmer's hands. Immediately the mare commenced to rear up in a most remarkable manner. Then, taking the bit between her teeth, she started along the road, fortunately in the right direction, at a whirlwind pace, amidst a cloud of dust, and with the three scouts who had been sitting on the second seat tumbling around in a heap in the bed of the wagon, all of them having been thrown backward.
Even as the grocery keeper came running out of the door to see what was the matter, and while they were still within hearing distance of the place, Elmer felt sure he saw a head rise into view above the pig-pen situated on one side of the road, and could recognize the grinning face of that Fairfield loafer, Angus McDowd.
There was no time to say anything. The mare was undoubtedly running away, and the wagon flinging from side to side in the road, as Toby stood half erect, pulling with might and main on the lines in the endeavor to hold the frantic animal in.
It began to look like croaking George might have been right when he said he doubted whether the nutting expedition would be much of a success.
CHAPTER II
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE ROAD
"Hold her in, Toby!" George was heard to shout, as he floundered around in the midst of the gunny sacks, with the other two scouts straddling him half the time.
"Whoop! we ain't in thuch a hurry ath all that, Toby. Get a grip on the linth, Elmer, and help him pull. Oh! what a quack I got then on my head. I bet you I'll have a lump ath big ath a gooth egg! Quit clawing me, George; I can't help it if I do climb all over you. Look at the way the wagon thwings, would you?"
Elmer did not need to be told that it was his duty to assist Toby control the runaway animal. No matter what the cause of the beast's strange fright might turn out to be, their first business was to drag so heavily on the lines that Nancy would have to moderate her wild pace.
Accordingly