"Didn"t see nuthing just then. Soon the moanin" died out, an" I thought I must have made a mistake, an" I went on fishin" ag"in.
Then come that strange moanin" once more, an" it made me shiver, for I was in a mighty lonely spot. All to once, something cried out, "He"s dead! He"s dead!" I looked around, but I couldn"t see a soul. "Who is thar?" I called. Then I heard a strange whistle, an a rustlin" in the bushes. A minute later I saw a figure in bright yellow standin" out before me on the lake. It seemed to move right over the water in the fog, an" in less than a minute it was gone."
"What was it?" asked Snap, and his voice trembled a little.
"I dunno, Snap. It looked like a real old man, with claw-like hands. I called out to him, but he didn"t answer, and when he seemed to be lost like in a smoke, I was scared an" I don"t deny it. Just then I felt a big tug on my line an" I pulled in an"
found I had hooked a water snake. Thet settled me, an" I came down to Firefly Lake an" to hum quick as I could git thar!"
"What do you think it was?" asked Whopper.
"I can"t for the life o" me tell."
"Are you sure you heard that voice, or was that imagination?"
asked Snap.
"It wasn"t no imagination whatsoever," answered the old hunter, positively. "I heard thet voice jest as plain as I can hear yourn, an" it come right out o" the sky, too!"
"That is certainly queer," mused Snap. "You say the ghost was yellow?"
"It was."
"I thought most ghosts were white," put in the doctor"s son.
"Was it a man?" asked Frank.
"If it was, how did he walk on the water?" demanded Jed Sanborn.
"Oh, it was a sure ghost, no two ways on it!" And the old hunter shook his head positively.
"Are there any houses near the lake?" questioned Giant.
"Not a house within two or three miles. It is the wildest place you ever visited," answered Jed Sanborn. "Hunters don"t go there much on account of the rough rocks in the stream flowing into Narsac. If you take a boat you may have to tote it a good bit---an"
it ain"t much use to go up there less you"ve got a boat, because you can"t travel much along the sh.o.r.e---too many thorn bushes."
After that the old hunter told them all he knew about Lake Narsac.
He said the lake and its surroundings were owned by the estate of a New England millionaire who had died four years before.
In settling the estate the heirs had gone to law, and the rightful possession of the sheet of water with the mountains around it was still in dispute.
"One thing is sartin," said the old hunter. "If ye go up thar, ye won"t have no Andrew Felps chasin" ye away---as was the case up to Lake Cameron."
"No, but we may have the ghost chasing us," answered Giant.
"Say, maybe we had better go somewhere else," suggested Whopper, hesitatingly.
"Whopper, are you afraid of ghosts?" demanded Snap.
"N---no, but I---er---I"d like to go somewhere where we wouldn"t be bothered by anything."
"I am going to Lake Narsac, ghosts or no ghosts!" cried the doctor"s son.
"So am I," added Snap, promptly. "If Whopper wants to stay behind---"
"Who said anything about staying behind?" demanded Whopper. "If you go so will I, even if there are a million ghosts up there."
"I don"t believe in ghosts," came from little Giant. "It"s some humbug, that"s what it is."
"Maybe, maybe," answered Jed Sanborn. "But if you hear that voice and see that yellow thing---well, I reckon your hair will stick up on end, jest as mine did!"
CHAPTER V
A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION
On the following Monday Snap and Shep were walking down the main street of Fairview when they heard a cry and saw Giant beckoning to them from the post-office steps.
"What"s up?" asked Snap, as he came up to the small youth.
"Ham Spink and Carl Dudder just went in to mail some letters,"
said Giant.
"What of that?"
"Whopper went in after them. Whopper and I are now sure it was Ham and Carl who tried to steal our clothing the day we went swimming."
"How do you know that?" asked the doctor"s son.
"By the way they are dressed. They have the same yellow-brown suits on they wore that day."
Giant had scarcely spoken when Whopper came out. His face showed that he was angry.
"I told you they did it," he said to Giant. Then, seeing the others, he explained:
"I accused them of it and they admitted taking the clothes--- they said it was nothing but a little joke and they laughed at me. Then when I said they could pay for the missing things they told me to clear out or they"d have me locked up for trespa.s.sing on Mr. Spink"s land!"
"That"s like Ham," answered Snap.
"I wish we could pay them off good," went on Whopper.
Just then Ham Spink and Carl Dudder came out of the post-office.
Snap and the others were standing behind some boxes of goods and the dude and his chum did not at once see them.
"We"ll have a celebration with those fireworks when they come," Ham was saying. "We"ll show Fairview a great sight."
"That"s right," returned Carl Dudder. "We"ll put them in my father"s barn until we want to use them."
Then both boys caught sight of Snap and the others and broke off their talk. They, wanted to brush past without speaking, but Snap and Shep blocked the way.