The Go Ahead Boys and the Mysterious Old House Part 15

"Let them in. Let them in," said Grant.

"All right, just as you say," replied George, and as he spoke he brought the automobile to a standstill.

"What do you want?" he called to the two men who now were climbing the fence.

"We want you to take us home," replied one of the two.

"Is that you, John?"

"It certainly is."

"Well, I couldn't tell," laughed George. "You look more like a string than ever. Is that Uncle Sim with you?"

"Yas, suh. Yas, suh," spoke up the negro promptly.

"Then you have been over to the old Meeker House, have you?" inquired George as John and the colored man took their seats in the car.

"Yes, we have been there," abruptly replied John.

"You didn't seem to stay very long," suggested George. "Were there any special reasons why you didn't want to tarry any longer?"

"Dere sho' was," spoke up Uncle Sim, his teeth chattering as he spoke.

"Yas, suh. Yas, suh, dere sho' was." Lifting his face toward the sky the old colored man muttered some incantations or prayers which in a measure indicated the terror which possessed him. He was trembling in every limb and when he tried to speak his lower jaw, over which he apparently had lost control, resounded as it repeatedly struck the teeth on his upper jaw.

"Never mind, Uncle Sim," said George, noticing the abject terror of the old man. "We'll soon be out of this. I don't see why you went back there when you're so afraid of the old place."

"Yas, suh. Yas, suh," stammered Uncle Sim. "I don' went jes' because dis young man 'sist on my goin' wif him."

"Was he afraid to go alone?"

"Yas, suh. Yas, suh."

"Did he think he would be less scared if there were two than he would be if he was there alone?" laughed George.

"That's all right, George," broke in John, "you don't know what you're talking about. If you had heard what we did you would have made better time than either of us when we were trying to head you off."

"What did you hear?"

"Why, we heard the same old sound and a lot more. Just as true as I am sitting here there was a voice that sounded all through the house and it was calling, 'John, John'."

"Did you answer it?"

"Did I answer it? No, sir, I didn't answer it. I was out of that house before you could count ten."

"I didn't know that it affected you that way," laughed George, "to have anybody speak to you."

"It doesn't to have any live body, but that name was sounded all through the house. It wasn't loud either, it was just that whispered, 'John, John,' that I don't think I shall ever forget as long as I live."

"It seems to have affected Uncle Sim even worse than it did you,"

suggested George, as Uncle Sim clasped his hands and lifted them far above his head and offered various incantations, as if he were doing his utmost to ward off the evil spirits.

"Well, all I have got to say," explained George at last, "is that the Go Ahead boys ought to change their name."

"Why?" demanded Fred sharply.

"Because it seems to me that they can leave any place and make better time than anybody I have ever seen. Even Uncle Sim forgets his rheumatism and 'mis'ry' and keeps up with John when he races across the field. To-morrow morning I will give John one dollar if he will make as good time from the old Meeker House out to the road as he made to-night when it was dark."

"Never you mind about that!" retorted John. "You didn't see all that I saw."

"But you haven't told us what you saw."

"I told you something I heard. If you had heard your own name coming down the chimney and through the windows and up from the cellar, out of the attic, in the hallway, down the stairs and everywhere at the same time you wouldn't have stayed there any longer either."

"Perhaps I wouldn't," admitted George, "but my feeling is that you didn't hear half as much as you thought you did."

"No, sir," responded John. "I have told you only half what I did hear."

"Well go ahead with your story."

"I'm not going to talk until we get home."

CHAPTER XIII-WORD CONCERNING THE LOST CAR

Conversation ceased during the remainder of the ride. The silence was broken two or three times by George, who was driving the car as he looked behind him at his companions and laughed aloud. No response was given to his implied invitations to describe their feelings and as they came nearer the end of their journey the chagrin under which all three boys were suffering became still more marked.

At last when they were once more in the house, Fred, unable longer to remain silent, said abruptly, "I know there isn't anything in the racket at the old Meeker House, but in spite of it all I confess I'm scared when I hear those strange sounds."

"What are you afraid of?" laughed George.

"I don't know what I'm afraid of," said Fred, "but it scares me half out of my wits."

"There's something very strange about it," broke in John. "I don't believe in spooks and such things, but no one has told us yet what the sound of those flying wings means and they haven't explained how a fellow can get in there and hear his name called from seven different parts of the house at the same time."

"What about that horn?" inquired Grant. "That's the strangest part of it all to me."

"Do you know," said Fred, "I'm sure that horn that blows in the old house is the one that used to be on George's car."

"No, it can't be," said George. "There's nothing but ghosts in the Meeker House and so it could be only the ghost of that horn if there really is anything there."

"Well, it isn't the ghost of a sound," declared John positively. "It's a real noise let me tell you and when you hear it as I did to-night, first right close to your ear, and then, a second or two later, sounding as if it came from the attic or the cellar you're ready to believe almost anything."

"Too ready, I'm afraid," laughed George.

"The next time we go there," spoke up Fred, "I move that George Sanders be selected to go into the house by the front door. If you remember, fellows, he has always slipped out every time we went there and gone around to the kitchen door."