Chapter 5 A STARTLING SURPRISE

"Hello! Is it safe to come out; and is the coast clear of ghosts?"

That was Billy addressing Hugh on the following morning, the scout master, as well as Alec Sands and Arthur Cameron, being up and around. They looked at Billy poking his head out from amidst the folds of his capacious red-and-black striped blanket, and laughed, for somehow he reminded them of a cautious old tortoise trying to spy out the land before entrusting his flippers beyond the confines of his shell.

"Nothing doing in the ghost line, Billy," Hugh told him, "so you can stretch yourself as much as you please. Hurry up a little! Alec here was just suggesting that as the morning looks so fine we might as well go outside and build a cooking fire under the trees for a change"

Billy thereupon threw the blanket aside and hopped to his feet.

"When you say anything about eating," he observed as he started to finish his dressing with feverish haste, "seems like my whole system responds. Alec, I want to tell you the idea isn't half bad either. Dining in this musty old room seems too much as if we were still at home, you know. Nothing like being under the trees when you're taking an outing. I haven't got any gypsy blood in me that I know of, but I do like the big outdoors a heap, better than anything else going--that is, except eating."

Monkey Stallings was by this time also awake and fixing himself to defy the chilly morning atmosphere.

They abandoned the castle, taking their belongings with them. At the time it was looked upon only as a little incident, and no one dreamed that afterwards they would find themselves very thankful for having done this very thing.

Back of the building the trees grew thickly, and it did not take the scouts long to discover a very good location for a temporary camp, where they could build a fire and cook breakfast.

"Another thing," said Alec, "if the weather holds good I'm going to suggest that we hunt a place back there, half a mile, perhaps, away from the castle, to spend the night in. Like Billy here, I don't fancy sleeping under a roof when I can have a chance to camp out under the stars and hear the whispering of the trees."

The others were quick to seize upon the idea.

"It's our only chance to sleep out," said the Stallings boy, "because we've got to make tracks to-morrow afternoon, you remember."

"I should say that Alec ought to be able to take all the pictures he needs of this old rookery this morning," remarked Arthur. "As for me, I've seen all I want of the place. It makes me feel sad, because I can't help thinking of what happened up here so long ago. It was a crazy man's scheme to start with, and then there was the terrible tragedy that happened later on. Ugh! let's climb out right now."

So they built a nice cooking fire, and started to get breakfast. It was while they discussed the morning meal with the eagerness that boys' healthy appetites alone can display, that Billy asked a leading question.

"I forgot to ask if anybody heard a ghost laugh in the night?" he demanded. "Once I happened to wake up, and imagined I could hear somebody laughing away off in the distance; but say, I only pulled my head further under my blanket, and went to sleep again just like an innocent little babe. How about that, Hugh, Alec, and the rest? Was there anything doing?"

This was the time for Alec to tell about the little adventure Hugh had met with. Billy's eyes grew round with wonder and awe as the story proceeded, and seeing this, Alec did his best to keep up the interest at fever heat to the point where Hugh burst into the haunted turret chamber, and made the discovery that it was tenanted by a family of owls, and some bats.

"Gee whiz!" ejaculated Billy, heaving a great sigh of relief, "I honestly began to believe you meant to tell us that turret-tower room was the place where the tragedy happened, and that Hugh had watched it all being repeated over again. Owls, hey? Well, they're an innocent lot when you get acquainted with 'em. All the same, let me tell you I'm glad we expect to sleep outdoors to-night."

"When we get through breakfast, boys," suggested Arthur, greatly interested in what he had just heard, "let's all go up and be introduced to Hugh's pets, if they haven't vamoosed the ranch. I always did like to watch owls stare at you with their big yellow eyes; but you want to keep away, for they've got wicked beaks, and can take a piece of skin off your hand as easy as anything."

Accordingly this programme was carried out. The visit to the turret chamber was not as productive of results as some of the boys might have wished, for most of the owls and bats went scurrying forth through the slits in the wall as soon as the door was opened, despite the garish light of day which they were supposed to dislike. Still, enough were seen to satisfy Billy the story had been no "fake."

Alec said he was disappointed because he could not take a picture of the whole outfit; though not necessarily for the benefit of his rich aunt.

"But the sun seems just about right for the several exposures I want to make of the southeastern side of the castle," he told them, "so let's climb down out of this and get busy."

"I'll tell you what I think," ventured Billy as they were making for outdoors once more. "Like as not that same family of owls has been responsible for a lot of that silly talk about this place being haunted. People imagine all sorts of things, you know, when they don't understand queer sounds."

"Yes," retorted Alec, with a chuckle, "that's so, they do, Billy; and I've known them to pull their heads under blankets. It's all very well for you to talk so bravely when the sun's shining overhead; but everybody knows how different things look and seem at midnight. We'll forgive you this time, Billy, because the rest of us, all but Hugh perhaps, were in something of the same boat, I'm afraid."

The photographic work went on apace, and as Alec had in times past proven his abilities in this line, he was apparently justified in believing that success was going to crown his present efforts.

"I tell you Aunt Susan will be tickled half to death when she gets prints of these pictures," he remarked again and again as he worked, never missing a single object that he considered would lend additional enchantment to the views. "I ought to consider myself mighty lucky to be presented with such a dandy camera as this. I've made sure to fetch my daylight developing tank along with me, because if any of the exposures turn out to be poor ones I'll have another chance to duplicate the same tomorrow morning, even if it is Sunday."

"So far," observed Monkey Stallings, with a chuckle of satisfaction, "there isn't any sign of those two hoboes turning up here again--which pleases me a heap, let me tell you."

"Oh! no danger of them coming back again," Billy assured him. "They got the scare of their lives when you tooted that goose-call. Long before now that brace of tramps has struck the railroad ties, and are making tracks for other regions where they don't have old castles haunted by spooks."

The last picture was finally taken. Alec seemed satisfied with what he had done.

"I've got two rolls of film left," he explained, "which I'm going to hold for an emergency. You never know what may happen when you're taking pictures. Something is apt to come along that you would give a heap to get, and if you're out of films you feel like kicking yourself."

"You've got a long head on your shoulders, Alec," commented Arthur. "I guess you must believe in the old saying that 'an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.'"

"Also," added Billy drily, "that in times of plenty it's wise to lay in a stock against the dry spell that's coming. I've been there myself, and ought to know what it means to go hungry just because you've been careless. That's one reason I always try to put in a spoonful of coffee for every fellow, and then add one for the pot."

That was always the way with Billy; he seemed to view almost every subject as inevitably connected with the one absorbing idea of supply and demand. By this time these good chums of his knew his weakness so well that they generally let such allusions pass unnoticed.

"How would it do for us to root around a bit while we have the time?" ventured Monkey Stallings, who liked to investigate better than anything else, except in an old mansion where the dust of years had settled, and there were uncanny things to be run across.

"If you mean," Hugh told him, "we might move around some, and look for that place where we want to make our camp for the rest of our stay up here, I'd say it was a good idea."

"Of course," supplemented Arthur, "we could move back to the castle late this afternoon if the weather turned out bad, and a storm threatened, which, according to all the known signs, isn't going to be the case."

"Glad to hear you say that, old weather bureau prophet," laughed Alec; for the scout who had just made that bold assertion had long been looked up to as an authority on the subject of changes of the weather, and could reel off a dozen reasons for the prediction he was making, all founded on a good sensible basis.

Accordingly they all started forth, having deposited most of their belongings in a good hiding-place where they would be perfectly safe. Since there had been no attempt to clean up the grounds surrounding the wonderful "castle" after its abandonment, Some ten years or so before, of necessity they had gone back to their original, wild condition. Nature always seeks to hide the cruel gashes made by the hands of man, covering the wound with all manner of growth from trailing vines to young saplings, brush and weeds.

Passing through a dense wilderness of this newer growth, the scouts pushed on into the heavier woods. Here they found things much more to their way of looking at it. Indeed, with the stately forest trees rising up all around them, and shutting out that queer building on the point of land overlooking the broad valley beyond, it seemed an ideal spot for making a camp.

They were not long in deciding on where they would stay, and two of the fellows, Alec and Monkey Stallings, were dispatched back to carry their personal belongings to the new site. Alec was anxious to get to work developing some of the rolls of films he had taken, in the expectation of making good any failures.

By ten o'clock everything had been gathered in the new camp, which was situated not much more than a quarter of a mile away from the deserted mansion. The boys believed they could already call their mission a success; and after Alec had been heard from in connection with his photographic work, this would be set down as a certainty.

"Listen!" called out Monkey Stallings about this time, for he happened to have remarkable hearing. "Seemed to me that was some one talking over yonder."

"Mebbe the tramps have come back after all," exclaimed Billy looking startled. "You know they always say a bad penny is sure to turn up again."

"Better look for some good handy clubs, I say," observed Alec, pouncing on just such a stout stick as he had in his mind's eye when speaking.

"Whoever it is coming," remarked Hugh, uneasily, "we'll soon know the worst, for I can see them through the bushes there. They know we're here in the bargain, because they're making straight for this place."

The scout master had hardly finished saying this when two men dressed in gray uniforms and carrying guns suddenly stepped out of the bushes, one calling aloud:

"Hold up your hands there, every one of you, and don't try to run, or it will be the worse for you. We've tracked you up here, and you're under arrest. Steady now!"