CHAPTER XXI

THE WATCHING POST

Ted nodded as he looked the suit over. It was a coarse white sheet and the dweller in the hut was taking some pains on the construction of it. But there was no doubt as to its proposed use.

“Yes, sir, it’s a ghost uniform, if there is such a thing!” smiled Ted. “And I guess I have an idea where he intends to wear it!”

“He isn’t going to a masquerade, I’ll bet on that!” grinned Buck. “If I’m not mistaken he’ll turn up pretty soon at our camp with this nightgown on!”

“When he does, we’ll take it off!” promised Ted, grimly.

“Shall we wait for him to come home and then nab him?” Buck asked.

“No the sight of this ghost costume has made me change my mind, and if you agree to my plan, we’ll work this thing out another way. Let’s get out of here before he returns and wait around camp until he does show up in this sheet affair. Then, when we grab him, we’ll have him just where we want him. If we accuse him of anything now he can easily back out by saying that he doesn’t know anything about it, but if we catch him around the camp in this suit we will have him just where he’ll find it impossible to escape.”

“That is all right as far as it goes, but how are we going to know just what night he does visit the camp? We don’t want a chase such as we had the other night.”

“No, but I have a plan for a trap. However, let’s get out of here first and we’ll discuss it on the way back. Now I’m particularly anxious that he doesn’t catch us in here or know that we have been here.”

“All right. We haven’t disturbed anything, have we?”

Ted looked around thoughtfully and then shook his head. “I guess not. We didn’t touch anything and I’m glad we didn’t even touch the suit. By the way, while we are here, let’s see if there is any sign of that skeleton that was in the bushes back of the camp.”

They hunted hastily around for the skeleton, looking in every corner and into a small closet space off of the main room, but there was no sign of the object which had so startled them. Satisfied that they could not find anything, which would add to their store of knowledge concerning the man, and anxious to get out of Hogs’ Hollow as soon as possible, they left the hut, arranging the door as they had found it, and struck at once off into the swampland toward the higher ground. No words were exchanged between them until they had quitted the hollow and had arrived at higher ground, where they started off side by side toward the camp.

“What is your idea about trapping the fellow when he comes ghosting?” asked Buck, as they skirted the cemetery and started along the rough road.

“Now that we have a fairly good idea that he’ll visit us, we’ll prepare for him,” explained Ted. “I guess that after the surprise attack on him the other night he won’t come any too near the camp in his white sheet, though he must be going to show himself, or why bother with a sheet at all? He may plan to reveal himself on a rock as he did with the black horse that time, but whichever way he plans it, I guess we can be sure that he is coming sooner or later. Now, if we’re going to be in the camp we won’t have much chance to cope with him, but we won’t be in camp!”

“Won’t be in the camp!” Buck echoed. “Where will we be?”

“We’ll be outside of camp and hidden in a clump of bushes, watching the camp to see what happens. You know our tents back up against the hill where the springs are and that will be an advantage. My idea is for us to lift the backs of the tents, creep out and along the slope until we reach that bunch of maples on the east side of the camp. Those trees are pretty close together and there is a fine screen of bushes, where we can lie in wait and watch the camp.”

“Oh, I see! Then if he gets to fooling around back of the camp we can see him better than we could if we were down in the camp.”

“Yes, and not only that, but I think the sight of an empty camp will lure him on. If he has no evil intentions toward the camp I think that sheer curiosity will draw him into it. Then, from our watching post on the hill we can figure out a plan to swoop down on him and surround him. How does that sound to you?”

“All right,” approved Buck, enthusiastically. “But we’ll have to be regular Indians to crawl from the tents to the maples!”

“That is all right, we’ll be able to do it. Of course, if he ever sees us at it, everything is over, but we’ll just have to be so careful that he won’t see us. If anyone is to do the seeing, we’re the ones to do it. I’d like to catch him red-handed prowling around the camp and then we’ll have a clear case against him.”

“Yes. But don’t forget that he must have a helper. Things have happened in such a way that he can’t possibly be doing them all by himself.”

“I realize that, and I don’t know whether they’ll work in pairs or not, but I think if we can get him we’ll have no trouble in getting his friend, whoever he is. We’ll concentrate on getting him and that will probably clear up the atmosphere quite a bit.”

They arrived at the camp, to find the other boys anxiously awaiting them, though they had not been idle. Preparations had been made for supper and everything was ready to put on the fire when they got back. The boys were at first disappointed because they had not brought a prisoner back with them, but Ted soon explained his plan to them and they fell in with it whole-heartedly.

“That will mean we’ll be sleeping out in the open for a few nights at least,” Ted told them. “You see, when we crawl out there we’re not going to just sit there for a few hours and then go back into the tents. It is pretty likely that this fellow will try his next piece of funny work in the middle of the night, and when he does we’ll want to be out of the camp and a whole lot nearer to him than he thinks for. If he tries anything more like setting the woods afire we’ll be right on top of him before he can get very far, and in order to do so we’ll want to camp out and away from the tents. So tonight when it gets dark we’ll let the fires die down a bit and then we’ll go to our tents as though we intended to turn in early. From in the tents we’ll slip out the back one by one, each with his own blanket, and we’ll make an outdoor camp in the maple grove.”

“Won’t it be cold outdoors?” a boy asked.

“No, it won’t be. It is warm nights, as you know, and it won’t hurt us a bit to sleep outside. Of course, if a storm comes up we’ll crawl back and wait until a better night comes along.”

After supper that night they allowed the fires to die away to a mass of red embers and then one by one drifted into their tents. As soon as they entered the shelters they rolled up their blankets, strapped them on their shoulders and one by one raised the back wall of the tents and slipped out into the darkness back of the tents.

Here the blackness was intense and they found that crawling was not necessary. Keeping well to the darkness and out of the feeble light from the fires they stole one by one to the grove of maples and there assembled, until all of them were in the place. This grove was of ample size to hold them all and after some low-pitched conversation, which Ted and Buck took care to keep down and discourage, they spread out their blankets and made their first attempt at outdoor sleeping.

Some of them went to sleep at once, while others, finding sleeping under the stars a distinct novelty, lay awake for some little time. But all of them were getting used to the camp life by this time and it was not long before all of them slept soundly.

Morning came without anything having happened and they awoke in some disappointment. Ted saw that he had omitted some important part of his scheme.

“We should have had them sneak back in camp and come out of their tents, just as though they had slept there all night,” he told Buck. “If anyone is watching the camp and sees us come out of here, they’ll catch on to the plan at once. I never thought of that part.”

“Tomorrow morning we’ll have to wake up just before dawn and sneak back, to finish our sleep in the tents,” nodded Buck. “I’ll tell you what we do know. Suppose we go off into the woods a short distance and then enter the camp from a direction back of the springs? Then, if anyone should be watching and sees us come in, they’ll think we took an overnight hike and are just getting in.”

“Providing they didn’t see us going into the tent for the apparent purpose of going to sleep there,” reminded Ted. “But we’ll do it that way and trust to luck.”

They moved off into the woods and approached the camp from a different direction from the maple clump.

The day passed pleasantly enough, the boys enjoying the camp life and the swimming. That evening, as they finished their suppers, a beautiful full moon made its appearance in the sky.

“Going to have a fine old moon to sleep under tonight,” remarked Drummer.

The act of retiring to the tents and stealing off to the maple grove was again performed and once in the grove they sat on their blankets and talked in low tones. The night was so fine that no one actually wanted to go to sleep, though it was now the usual time.

“Well, we might as well turn in,” yawned Ted, beginning to unbutton his shirt. The others reluctantly followed his example and soon most of them had slipped in under the blankets. Ted took a final look down at the camp.

The fires were low, almost out, in fact. The brilliant moon lighted up the camp like a silvery lantern and the entire landscape, done in silver and black, was hauntingly beautiful. Ted felt a flash of annoyance at the train of circumstances which was compelling them to spend the night away from their tents.

“Too bad we have to fool around with those fellows,” he grumbled, inwardly. “This would be a beautiful night to lie in the tents and look out at things. I wish—”

He broke off in his thoughts and bent forward, his eyes narrowed. Then he snapped his fingers softly and hissed. The boys sat up in their blankets.

“What’s up?” Buck whispered, quickly.

“Get up, but don’t make any noise, on your lives!” was the thrilling reply, in a carefully guarded tone. “There is a figure all in white in the trees close to the creek!”