Part 1 (2/2)
When Doubting George made that last plea of his the driver turned his head and looked at his companions. He saw an eager glow in the eyes of the trio who had been kept in the dark up to that moment with regard to their mysterious destination.
”Well, we've got along so far that it ain't likely anybody'll want to turn back, and show the white feather,” he observed, with a quick glance directly at Chatz Maxfield; ”so here goes. We're headed right now for the old Cartaret place!”
”Whew! Cartaret's Folly they call it, because the man who built the same sank a fortune there making it beautiful, and then the owls and rats took charge, which was all of twenty years ago, I reckon!” George went on to say, first whistling to mark the surprise he felt over the disclosure.
”And there's a lot of talk going around to this day about ghosts being seen in the windows and around the grounds of that deserted place; but most people would say that's only old women's stories. All the same those people who don't believe in spooks and goblins and all such things couldn't be hired for any amount of money to camp out in that big house for just one dark night.”
It was Chatz who made this a.s.sertion. All of his chums knew that Chatz had a deep-rooted vein of superst.i.tion in his system, which it seemed impossible for him to get rid of. He believed in spirits coming back to haunt graveyards, and empty houses where perhaps some violence had once occurred. Elmer and other scouts had laughed at him many times, and Chatz even took himself to task because of his weakness, which he had probably imbibed through a.s.sociation as a small child with colored pickaninnies down on the plantation in South Carolina. Sometimes he boldly declared he was done with such childish beliefs; but when an occasion chanced to come along bearing on the subject it was strange how Chatz again found himself standing up for his old-time faith in hobgoblins, and the efficacy of the left hind-foot of a rabbit shot in a graveyard in the dark of the moon, to ward off evil influences, and repel the power of spooks to do bodily harm.
It was well known that many people shunned the vicinity of the old Cartaret place, some eight miles away from Hickory Ridge, because queer stories pa.s.sed current concerning white figures seen stalking about the weed-grown grounds, and looking out of the open windows of the ruined house. That was why Toby had been 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 n.o.body 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 n.o.body 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 n.o.body 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 antic.i.p.ated 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 n.o.body 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 appet.i.te 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. .h.i.tching 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 refres.h.i.+ng 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.
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