CHAPTER XV
THE GHOST OF THE TULIP GLADE
A large number of varieties of the trees of the Blue Ridge regionwere to be seen from their camping ground of that night. There wereyellow and gray birch, hickory, the bull bay, and best of all, thegiant tulip tree, one of the largest and most beautiful of the treesin all the great Ridge country.
It was in a lane of tulip trees that the camp of the Pony Rider Boyswas pitched. The sky being overcast, Tad had put up a tent for theguide while Chops was engaged in setting the camp to rights in otherdirections. This tent was located next to the one occupied by Stacyand Walter Perkins. Stacy regarded the arrangements with a satisfiedgrin, which Tad shrewdly interpreted.
"Look here, Chunky, don't you try to play tricks on that poor guidetonight," warned Butler.
"Poor fellah!" mocked Stacy, "What am I going to do if I dream ofblind horses and black cats?"
"Get up and stick your head in the spring. That will wake you up."
"I guess I'd be awake before I got to the spring. That isn't a joke,Tad. That's just an imitation of a joke."
"Don't you dare stick your head in the spring," admonished Ned. "Ihave to drink that water."
"So do the horses," retorted Stacy. "You haven't heard them find anyfault, have you?"
"That's a fact, I haven't," admitted Rector sarcastically.
"Perhaps that is because the horses hadn't thought of it in thatlight," suggested Walter.
"Great head, great head," cried Stacy. "But confidentially, Tad."
"Yes?"
"We've missed some more biscuit," whispered the fat boy.
"How many?"
"Twenty since breakfast."
"Didn't we eat them for dinner?"
"Not a bisc."
"Hm-m! You are quite sure you didn't help yourself?" questioned Tadquizzically.
"Help myself? Help myself?" demanded Chunky indignantly. "Do I lookas if I had twenty biscuit inside of me?"
"I can't answer that question," laughed Tad. "But to return to whatI was saying, are you going to behave yourself tonight?"
"About what?"
"About frightening Chops," insisted Tad.
"I can't promise anything about my dreams. If I dream I can't helpthat, can I?" demanded the fat boy.
"I'll tell you how to help it," spoke up Rector. "Go to bed on anempty stomach. If you will do that, I promise you that you won'tdream a single dream."
"I just love to dream," murmured Stacy, twiddling his thumbs andgazing soulfully up to the tops of the great tulip trees.
The Professor interrupted at this juncture to say that he thoughtthey should post a guard that night lest the mountaineers come back.
Tad said he had a plan that he thought would answer fully as well.His plan, as explained to his companions, was to splice their ropesand draw them around trees close to the camp, placing the rope abouta foot above the ground.
"Hm-m-m-m!" reflected the Professor.
"In the darkness the rope would not be discovered, and one trying toget into camp would surely trip over it," further explained Butler."This, you understand, would make a racket that would awaken thecamp."
"Excellent! Excellent!" approved the Professor, rubbing his palmstogether enthusiastically. "I shouldn't be at all surprised to hearthat one day you had invented something really worth while."
"Try your skill on inventing an appetite regulator," suggested Ned."You could try it on Chunky."
"No you don't," retorted Stacy indignantly. "You don't tryexperiments on my food-consuming machinery. It works quite wellenough as it is, though I shouldn't mind if it had a little greatercapacity."
No one laughed, though a pained expression might have been observedon the faces of three Pony Rider Boys.
"If you had thought of the rope plan earlier, it might have savedsome of us from sleepless nights," declared the Professor. "What asurprise it would be to an intruder were he literally to fall intoour camp headfirst."
"Haw, haw, haw!" roared Chunky. "Wha--what's the matter? Wasn't ittime to laugh?" he demanded, observing the eyes of the Professorfixed reprovingly upon him.
"Yes. A most excellent plan," continued the Professor, ignoringStacy's flippant remark.
"I'll fix it up right away," said Tad. "Pass over your ropes,fellows. If we rope anyone tonight it will be by his feet ratherthan over his head."
The ropes were quickly spliced and put in place, forming an almostinvisible barrier about the camp. After Tad had finished his task,Stacy fell over the rope to test it, bringing down upon him a torrentof rebuke, for he had nearly pulled the barrier down.
"Don't you dare do that again," warned Tad. "I don't propose to havemy work spoiled just to please your curiosity."
"Pshaw! Wasn't the rope put there to fall over?" demanded the fatboy.
"Yes. Of course, but--"
"Then, what are you growling about?"
"Oh, nothing," answered Butler hopelessly.
The Professor shook his head as if argument were a sheer waste oftime.
It was quite late when the last of the boys turned in that night, forthere was much to discuss, much to wonder at in the strange actionsof the mountaineer who had ordered them from the Ridge.
During the talk Chunky went to sleep by the fire. He was awakenedsuddenly when Ned, who had gone to the spring for a cup of water,poured some of the almost ice-cold water into the fat boy's openshirt front at the neck. Chunky leaped up, uttering a howl, andbowling over the Professor who sat close beside him. For a fewmoments there was no end of excitement, which finally came to afinish when Stacy started off for his bunk in high dudgeon.
Tad sat regarding the fat boy with twinkling eyes. Tad had somethingin mind. Mischief was brewing when that look appeared in his eyes.Soon after that he turned in, followed immediately by the othermembers of the party.
As the hours drew on, the campfire died down to a glowing heap ofembers and coals, now and then starting into a sputter and a crackleas some charred piece of wood blazed up and burned briskly for aminute or two. Inside a tent one boy lay with half closed eyesgazing thoughtfully at the fire. After a time he got up cautiouslyand peered out. Being satisfied that all were asleep, he stole intothe adjoining tent with a rope in his hand. Soon afterwards heslipped out and entered another tent, after which he went back to hisown tent.
Once more the camp settled down to silence. The fire burned lowerand lower until the camp was almost in darkness.
Suddenly a figure all in white appeared at the entrance to the tentoccupied by Stacy Brown.
"'Ware the black cat!" it said in a deep sepulchral voice. "'Ware,'ware the--"
"Wha-wha-wha-wha-what!" gasped Stacy Brown, sitting up suddenly,gazing wide-eyed at the apparition at the tent entrance.
"'Ware the black cat!"
Just then there was a flash and a report. A gun was fired. Itseemed as if the flash and the report had come right out of the topof the head of the ghostly figure.
With a wild yell of terror Stacy Brown leaped from his bunk. Almostas soon as he rose, his feet were jerked violently from under him andhe flattened out on the ground.
"I'm shot, I'm shot!" he yelled, starting from the door.
At about the same instant Chops, who had sprung up at the first yellof alarm, also measured his length on the ground. His feet had goneout from under him much after the same manner as had Chunky's. Chopsalso plunged for the door, howling with terror.
Then a strange thing occurred. Both the tent occupied by Stacy Brownand that used by the guide began performing strange antics. All atonce both tents collapsed. Walter Perkins was under one of them.Walter's howls were now added to the general din.
Chunky had managed to stagger outside. So had Chops; but the tents,now down, kept bobbing as if imbued with life.
"Ghost! Ghost!" yelled Chunky.
"Yi-i-i-i--yah!" screamed the frightened guide. Chops's yell was cutshort by another fall. At the same instant Sta
cy Brown again wentdown.
By this time the Professor had charged upon the scene. So had NedRector. Walter Perkins and Tad Butler were crawling out from undertheir collapsed tent, Walter frightened, Tad laughing.
Professor Zepplin, grasping his revolver, was glaring about forsomething at which to shoot. He saw only Stacy Brown and the guideperforming strange antics. The Professor threw some dry wood on thecoals, then roared out a demand to know what had happened.
"I'm shot again! I'm shot," bellowed the fat boy, making a springfor the Professor's protection. Stacy fell short by several feet,landing flat on his face on the ground. Billy Veal, who had startedto run in an opposite direction, went down also.
The camp was now in a great uproar. Everybody was shouting andgesticulating. The Professor excitedly stirred the fire, then dancedfrom one side of the camp to the other. Stacy and Chops stumbledabout, falling on their faces almost as fast as they could get up.
The Professor in his excitement backed over the rope that Tad hadstrung about the camp earlier in the evening. He landed in a thornbush, which, in view of the fact that he was clad only in his pajamas,did considerable execution to the Professor's skin.
Nothing like this had ever occurred to interrupt a night's rest forthe Pony Rider Boys.
"Stop it!" roared the Professor, when, after extricating himself fromthe thorn bush, he succeeded in grasping Chunky by one shoulder.
Stacy was jerked from the grasp of the amazed Professor as if he wereat one end of a huge rubber band that had sprung back. How the fatboy did yell!
Almost at the beginning of the trouble a figure had darted from thecamp and plunged over the guard rope. Then, hastily scrambling toits feet, darted away into the shadows.
The fire had now blazed up so that the camp showed plainly. Chunkyand the guide kept falling. The way their feet went out from underthem caused the others to roar with laughter though they did notunderstand the cause at all.
Suddenly, Ned Rector let out a yell.
"Look! Oh, look!" he howled.
The Pony Rider Boys on the Blue Ridge; or, A Lucky Find in the Carolina Mountains Page 16