The Outdoor Chums in the Forest; Or, Laying the Ghost of Oak Ridge

by Quincy Allen

  CHAPTER XIII

  A CHANGE OF BASE

  "Talk to me about your ghastly specters, will you!" shouted a voice, asheads began to be thrust out of the several tents.

  "I told you he'd come again to warn us!" chattered Bluff betweenrattling teeth.

  "Oh! Please wait! My apparatus won't work! There, now!" And a suddenflash announced that Will had finally succeeded in his heart's dearestwish, and snapped off a picture of the terrible ghost of Oak Ridge.

  The fierce illumination only added new terror to the flying feet of thetwo men. They could be heard crashing through the forest, howling withfear, and anger, as in the darkness they collided with sundry trees thatwere unseen in their blind haste.

  "It's gone!" announced Jerry.

  "All right. I've caught my view, just the same. Frank! Where are you?"whooped the exultant artist, capering around in his pajamas, as hehugged his camera to his breast.

  "Here," answered the sentry, appearing at that juncture.

  "A pretty guard, you are, old boy, to let all those chaps creep up onthe camp while we slept in unconscious innocence," said Bluff, inpretended indignation.

  "Unconscious innocence is good! Tell me about that, will you? Take agood look at Bluff, fellows. He's expecting to sprout wings soon."

  "I was awake, and watching all the time, boys, believe me. I saw thefarmer as he crept up, followed by his man. He lifted his head andlooked into the camp, no doubt trying to figure which of the two tentssheltered Jed. It was my intention to shoot into the air suddenly, andthen hold him up while the rest of you piled out to surround them; butsomething I hadn't counted on took the chance out of my hands."

  "Do you think they'll live through the experience?" asked Will.

  "Meaning the two countrymen? Oh, I suppose so, if they don't dash outtheir brains against the trees as they run," laughed Frank.

  "What do you think of the ghost now, Frank?" asked Will eagerly.

  "I'm still considering," returned the other, nodding his head sagely.

  "But do you still hang to your opinion that it's some person playing apart?"

  "More than ever."

  "And trying to scare us out of this region for some purpose or other?"

  "Most undoubtedly," was Frank's immediate reply.

  "And you don't think it could be that Peters crowd?" went on Bluff.

  "They wouldn't be equal to a thing like this. As I said before, it isthe work of a clever schemer. The object is all that puzzles me," saidFrank.

  "You watched the thing carry on pretty closely, I suppose?" venturedWill.

  "Had my eyes glued on it every second that it stood there, waving itslong arms in such a theatrical fashion. Now, I can remember reading oncehow a man played ghost in a haunted house, and when he was caught itturned out that he wanted to buy the place, and that was his way ofdepressing the price."

  "Talk to me about your bulls and bears, that way of knocking down pricestakes the cake!" ejaculated Jerry, greatly amused.

  "Wall Street wasn't in it with that man; but I think they sent him tojail for trespass or something," continued Frank.

  "But there's no house up here, so that couldn't be his game," remarkedBluff.

  "Now I remember hearing my father tell about a man who carried on thisway once to scare people away from a certain locality. Come to find outafterward, he was boring for oil, and believed he had made aten-strike," remarked Jerry.

  "No oil around this section, that I ever heard of, so that explanationfails to hold good," laughed Frank. "Next!"

  "It's my turn now. I never heard of anything that might cover theground, but an idea came to me when I was thinking the old thing over,and perhaps you fellows might care to hear it," said Bluff.

  "Listen to the long-winded lawyer talk! Of course we want to hear.That's what we're sitting around this blessed fire for, in our pajamas,shivering to beat the band. Out with it, you!" exclaimed Jerry.

  "Original things cut no figure with some people. They want to read aboutall they learn, or have other persons tell them; but about thisbrilliant thought of mine: It's mighty evident that whoever the ghostis, he wants to be left alone. Now what kind of people dislike to havestrangers come prowling around their secrets? Why, down in Kentucky andTennessee it would be moonshiners. Up in the Maine forests, like as nottimber-grabbers. Here it might be counterfeiters."

  "Hear! hear! Bluff has spoken the last word!" exclaimed Jerry excitedly.

  "What do you think about it, Frank?"

  Will, as he put the question, turned toward the one upon whom the restwere accustomed to depend to settle all disputes.

  "I don't know. The suggestion Bluff made might turn out to be the truesolution of the mystery. At any rate, it's barely possible, and worthremembering. Later on we may be able to see light in this dark puddle,and then know how near he came to hitting the bullseye," he repliedthoughtfully.

  To him it appeared a serious matter, and one that should not be treatedwith too much levity.

  "Well, I'm sleepy again, in spite of all this excitement, and as my turncomes last, I'm going to turn in. A bully old blanket feels good to me,fellows," saying which, Jerry crawled under the khaki-colored canvas.

  The others followed suit. It would do no good to continue theconversation at such an unseasonable hour. All that was to be saidcould hold over until breakfast time, when they would be able to look atmatters in a different light.

  Frank sat out his watch, and then put Bluff on the job. In turn heroused Jerry, who stood it out until the dawn began to light up theeast, when he started the fire into new life, put the coffee on to boil,with cold water, as was their wont, and busied himself in doing variousthings until the rest should appear.

  Jed was the first to creep out and go down to the stream for a wash. Itmight be noticed that the lad seemed unusually timid this morning.Whether this sprang from his fear of the gruff farmer, or the wonderfulspectacle he had seen on the preceding night, Jerry could not say.

  Over the breakfast they made merry in connection with the adventuresthat had come their way since making camp.

  "Everybody work!" called out Frank finally, as he started in to pack up.

  They all seemed delighted at the prospect of a change of base, all butpoor old Peter, who wheezed worse than ever as he found himself hitchedup to that big load, and the fine prospect of a sturdy pull, uphill,ahead of him.

  "I'm just hungry for a sight of the water," announced Bluff.

  "Ditto here. Camp don't seem just the same away from it," said Jerry.

  "And the views one gets with a lake for a background! Nothing cancompare with them," observed the photographic fiend, sighing.

  "Well, I hope none of us will be disappointed with Lake Surprise, that'sall," remarked Frank, as he lashed the canvas of his tent in a bundleand placed it carefully in the wagon.

  They were off by nine o'clock.

  "Good-by to the old camp! Hurrah for the new one!" sang out Bluff, as heturned to wave a pathetic hand toward the scene of their late location.

  "Did you take some of the bear meat along with the hide?" asked Will.

  "All we want, I guess. I forgot to bring a file, and my teeth needattention before I tackle any more of that pemmican," groaned Jerry.

  "Wait and see. The next time I expect to boil a chunk, and serve it thatway, as a bear stew. If I have any choice, I prefer a cub, myself; butyou fellows know that in this case it was a question whether we got thebear or he got us; and since circumstances compelled me to shoot----"

  "Keep some of that hot air for to-night, when you'll need it to blow upyour old rubber bag," called Jerry derisively.

  "----why," went on Bluff composedly, paying no attention to theinterruption, "it would be a sin to waste all that good wholesome meat.Hence these tears on the part of our envious friend."

  "Envious friend is good--for you!" muttered Jerry; but all the same, hestopped trying to plague the other, as though the shaft might have gonehome.

  Soon they were
climbing the hills that stretched along the foot of themountain range proper. Old Peter was put to it, at times, to draw theload, and more than once Frank called to his comrades to put their huskyyoung shoulders to the wheels in order to help out.

  Will wandered on as they descended the other slope, with the mountainsbefore them. He carried his beloved camera, of course, and no doubthoped to come across some charming picture that would add to thepleasure of the boys when the season of cold and snow was upon them.

  In this way he managed to get quite some distance ahead, for the wagonwas halted while Frank rebuilt the load, in danger of falling off withthe sharp descent.

  Down at the bottom of the valley that lay between Oak Ridge and theSunset Mountains proper, Will came to a stream. It was a broad butshallow one, and believing he could easily wade across, he pulled hisshoes off, tied them to his belt, and then turning his trousers up,started in.

  It had a soft, sandy bottom that felt very pleasing to his feet.Half-way over Will stopped to look about him.

  "Say, now, that would make a dandy picture, with the water lazilyswirling downstream, and the trees hanging over. I've a good notion totry it," he said.

  Standing there, he set to work. Perhaps he was more than usuallyparticular to get things just as he wanted them. Sometimes one canoverdo this good trait, and Will came to that conclusion when, uponattempting to move on, he found to his surprise that his feet seemedlocked, as in a vise.

  When he tried to lift one, his entire weight falling upon the otherseemed to push that one down several inches deeper.

  "What does this mean? Why, the water is already up to my trousers! Iguess I'll have to hitch them up higher, or get wet."

  He was not at all excited, as yet, for the danger that menaced him hadnot come into his mind. He managed to accomplish the little task whichhe had set out to do, but by that time he was in up to his knees, andapparently still gradually going down, slowly but surely.

  Now he could hardly move either foot, and as for pulling one of them outof the sucking sand, it seemed utterly impossible.

  Will looked up. There was a stout limb of a tree just above him. If hecould only get hold of that he might manage to draw himself out. Vainlydid he stretch up his hands, for they fell short fully a dozen inches oftouching the very nearest twigs of that friendly limb.

  For the first time a cold chill began to chase up and down his spinalcolumn.

  "What if the boys fail to come along for half an hour! At this rate I'dbe completely out of sight, and they'd never know what had become ofme!" he exclaimed, in new horror.

  The surface of the stream looked so very innocent, no one would eversuspect that such a terrible trap lay just beneath the slowly runningwater.

  "It's what they call quicksand--that's what!" he ejaculated, as helooked down with distended eyes, and saw that line of water graduallyrising above his knees--slowly and almost imperceptibly, but as surelyas that the sun shone overhead.

  Then Will grew frightened.

  "Help! help! Frank! Jerry! Come quick!" he shouted at the top of hisvoice; but only the echoes seemed to come back to taunt him.