Camp Fires of the Wolf Patrol Part 5

"Oh! it's gone now. It just seemed to slide away while I was looking.

But I could hear it moving all the same; and I tell you, honest Injun, that it was a dreadful _squashy_ sort of sound," and Chatz shrugged his shoulders with what seemed to be a shudder, as he said this.

Elmer hardly knew what to do or to say. Chatz was not above playing a joke, given the opportunity, but this was really a subject on which he felt very deeply, so that it was hard to believe he would be likely to hold it up to scorn.

He seemed to be wide-awake, too, so that there was little chance of its being a dream. Sensible on all other subjects, the superst.i.tious Southern lad had a decided weakness for spooks, and he could imagine uncanny objects prowling around where no one else found the slightest indication of such a thing.

"Where was this?" Elmer asked, cautiously.

"Over there, in that open spot," replied Chatz, cheerfully and without the least sign of hesitation. "You can just make out the deeper shadow of the trees back further. I was looking that way and thinking of something connected with my home when all of a sudden IT loomed up, staring at me in a frightfully ghastly way, and moving its white body slowly up and down, just like it was warning me of some coming danger."

"Sure it wasn't that owl again, are you?" questioned Elmer, dubiously.

"Couldn't have been any such thing, because," triumphantly went on Chatz, "you see, there ain't a single chance for it to roost on anything! That place is bare! I crossed it several times going for wood yesterday afternoon before dark set in. And then besides--"

"Yes, what else was there?" Elmer asked, encouragingly, for he began to realize that there was at least no fake about the other's upset condition.

"Why, it made the queerest noise you ever heard--just a squashy sound that I'll never be able to forget. Ugh! it was a nasty experience," and he rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, after the manner of one just awakened.

Somehow this gave Elmer an idea.

"Look here, Number Six, are you sure now that you weren't asleep, and just dreaming that something bobbed up in front of you?" he demanded, sternly; for in his capacity as a.s.sistant scout master he was given certain privileges which the rest of the boys readily recognized.

"I don't think there's any reason to believe that sort of thing,"

returned the other, steadily. "Fact is, I was never more wide-awake in my life."

"And the thing just stood there, and waved at you, did it?" Elmer continued.

"Oh! I know what you think about it, but when I see a thing I can't deny it, can I? There was something close to me a few minutes ago, something that must have been a spook. If I hadn't had the good sense to stick my hand in my pocket, and grab hold of that blessed old rabbit foot, I honestly believe it would have jumped me! Now laugh again if you want to," defiantly.

But Elmer was himself a bit puzzled. Of course he could not think of allowing himself to dream that what Chatz had seen could be anything unusual. The surrounding conditions invested the most commonplace occurrence with a mysterious atmosphere--that was all, and had it been anyone but Chatz they might have found an easy explanation for the puzzle.

"Well," the scout leader said, finally, "we'll all have to borrow that lucky charm then, when we go on duty, if it's going to scare the spooks away. But your time is up, Number Six, so you can proceed to awaken the scout who follows you."

"I'm glad, and I'm sorry," remarked Chatz. "To tell the truth, I'd like to find out if that pesky thing _could_ crop up again. You see, there's no need of being scared about it, so long as you've got something that keeps you from getting hurt."

Evidently the belief of the Southern lad in that magical rabbit's foot was firmly founded, and it would be exceedingly difficult to uproot it.

Sneers and scorn would never accomplish that result; in fact such action was apt to only make him cling the more stubbornly to his fetish worship. Elmer believed in going about such things in another manner entirely. Chatz must be shown the error of his ways; and to do that most convincingly the real nature of the object which he believed to be a ghostly visitant from the other world, would have to be proven.

"Wait a minute, Number Six," he said, as the other was about to head toward the tent where part of the Wolf Patrol slept, so he could find and arouse his appointed successor.

"Yes, sir," replied Chatz; for, while Elmer was a chum of his, there were times when he must recognize him only as a superior officer in the organization to which both belonged, and show him due respect.

"Remember, not a single word to the scout who is to succeed you," Elmer went on.

"Not a word will I breathe, sir, I promise you," replied Chatz, and Elmer knew that nothing would tempt him to betray his trust, for his sense of honor was very high, as it is with all Southern boys.

"Perhaps we might get a pointer on this matter if the strange thing you saw appeared to another," remarked Elmer, thoughtfully.

"Oh! don't I just wish it would," remarked Chatz, eagerly. "Then perhaps the rest of the fellows wouldn't think me cracked in my upper story. And Lil Artha wouldn't be so unfeeling as to say I had rats in my belfry, He's the one who comes on after me. Don't I just wish it would give him a _good_ scare, though!"

"Well, go and wake him up, then. I'll let the other sentry know that it's time for a change," and Elmer walked away.

A sudden idea had flashed up in his mind. Could it be possible that there was anything in this wild yarn of Chatz's? Would the second sentry be able to throw any light on the mystery?

He found him squatting on the ground, near a tree, and saw that it was Jasper Merriweather, the timid boy of the troop. At first Elmer had half a suspicion that the other was asleep, for his head was bowed in his hands. At the sound of his step, however, Jasper suddenly looked up with a violent start, and Elmer saw that he was more or less frightened, for he was shivering, even though he had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

"Oh! it's you, sir, is it?" he exclaimed, and there was a positive vein of relief in the tones of his quivering voice that Elmer could not but notice.

"Why, who else did you think it could be, Beaver, Number Four?" asked the a.s.sistant scout master, quickly.

"Oh! I don't know," came the rather hesitating reply. "You see I guess Chatz Maxfield has got me all worked up with his silly notions, because I'm seeing things, just like he does, right along. I'm ashamed of myself, that's what."

"Do you mean just now you saw something?" asked Elmer.

"Well," replied Jasper, rising to his feet as he spoke, with returning confidence, "I thought I did, for a fact; and I just hid my head to shut it out, but of course it was only what Mr. Garrabrant calls an optical illusion. There just couldn't be anything there."

"Of course not," the other went on, encouragingly. "H'm, what was it, by the way, you _thought_ you saw, Number Four?"

"That's the silly part of it, sir," Jasper answered. "It wasn't anything that I could recognize at all, which proves that I was only imagining things. Plague take Chatz and his ghosts! I never was very brave at my best, but thinking of him has just about queered me. I'm glad you came to talk to me, and show me how foolish it is to let such notions take root."

"But, by the way, where was it you thought you saw this wonderful thing which you say bore no shape that you could describe?" Elmer insisted.

"Oh! let me see, I was sitting just this way, and looking straight out yonder. It was in that open place, sir. I guess the fire must have flashed up suddenly, and dazzled me a bit."

But Elmer noticed that the second sentry pointed in exactly the same quarter where Chatz insisted he had set eyes on the ghost! This would seem to indicate that there must be something in the story.

"Was it a flaming red ghost, Number Four?" he inquired further.

"Why, of course not, sir," chuckled the other. "If it had been I'd have thought it was only Ty Collins in that red sweater he sometimes wears.

Oh! no, what I _thought_ I saw was a white object. It seemed to be there when I hid my face in my blanket, but when I looked a minute later it was gone."

"Did you hear any sound?" Elmer demanded.

"Well, yes; but after all it may have been one of the fellows snoring,"

Jasper replied. "But at the time I thought it the queerest sort of noise ever. Might 'a' been a big bulldog jumping into the water. I've heard something like it when I pulled my foot out of a soft oozy piece of mud."

"All right, Number Four. Your time is up, so go and gently arouse your successor. And please don't even whisper a word about this until I give you permission."

"Well, I guess I won't," Jasper quickly mumbled. "Think I'm itching to have the laugh on me? No, siree, I'm as dumb as an oyster," and with that he staggered off toward one of the tents to awaken Nathan Scott.

Elmer returned to his blanket, but he had something on his mind that kept him from enjoying any sound sleep for the remainder of that particular night.

Those two boys had certainly seen _something_, and while, of course, Elmer was too sensible a fellow to allow himself to give the idea of a ghostly visitor the slightest credence, he found himself puzzled to account for it all.

Because of his lying awake so long he slept later than usual in the morning. True, he sprang up when the notes of the bugle sounded the reveille, but most of the others had been abroad before him.

They took a dip in the lake, though the water was so very cold that none of the scouts cared to remain in more than five minutes. Besides, the almost tragic occurrence of the previous day haunted some of them, and made them a bit timid about venturing into the water, though by degrees this fear would naturally wear off.