The Go Ahead Boys and the Mysterious Old House Part 26

"It wasn't because they didn't try hard enough," laughed George. "My grandfather used to tell me that when the soldiers at Morristown heard the 'old sow,' which was the name of one of the guns, they understood right away that there was danger of an attack. Everything in the old house was shut up except the windows, and then five of the continentals took their stand at every window and were ready to fire upon any one that came near the place."

"I would like to have seen Washington," said John thoughtfully.

"They say," said George, "that he was about as tall as you are, String, but he had some breadth and thickness as well as length. He weighed about two hundred pounds. All the time he was at Morristown he was very quiet. I fancy he was worried all the while. That didn't prevent him from being very strict with his soldiers, however. He issued an order that there should be no gambling or swearing, that n.o.body should be permitted to do any stunts on Sunday, and the men who disobeyed didn't forget the lesson taught them."

"Why, what did Washington do?" inquired Fred.

"He had guilty soldiers whipped in the presence of their companies. A man would be tied up to a tree and then the drummers or fifers would have to lash him. Sometimes they got forty blows, sometimes more. One time a soldier who had disobeyed orders about poaching and had stolen a pig from a poor farmer was reported to the commander. Washington had him whipped with more than a double dose. They say that the men did not make any complaint though, and even when they were going through the performance every man used to take a lead cartridge between his teeth and bite hard on it whenever he was struck a blow."

"I guess that's one reason why Washington was so popular," suggested John thoughtfully.

"It's an easy way to become popular," laughed Fred.

"Never you mind," retorted George. "You know just as well as I do that no fellow likes a teacher that is not strict. My father says that the man or boy who tries to be popular never is."

"And your father is dead right too," said Grant quickly, turning to his friend.

"Yes, sir, he's all right," responded John.

CHAPTER XXI-AN EXPLANATION IN PART

It was the middle of the afternoon when the Go Ahead boys returned to George's home. Apparently they had not been cast down by their failure to obtain information concerning the missing car. Indeed, as one of the boys laughingly remarked, George was the only one deeply and personally concerned in the loss and if he did not feel discouraged there certainly was no reason why his friends should be despondent.

On the broad piazza of the old farmhouse the boys sat for a half-hour talking over the experiences of the day. Different suggestions were made as to possible plans that might be adopted in the search for the stolen automobile.

"I'm not thinking so much about the car as I am about what we saw to-day at Morristown," said Grant thoughtfully. "I feel almost as if I had stepped right back into the eighteenth century."

"My friend," said Fred soberly, "that is where you belong. I have often been puzzled to know how to account for some of the strange traits of your peculiar personality. You have hit the nail now squarely on the head. You have been born one hundred and forty years too late. You are a rare old antique."

The boys laughed as Grant arose from his seat and lifting his diminutive friend bodily from the chair in which he was seated, he dropped him over the rail.

"When you grow up," he called, "and learn to behave you may come back here."

"I'm not coming back," called Fred glibly.

"We'll try to live through our disappointment," said Grant.

"You'll be disappointed all right the next time you see me," called Fred. Then turning to John he eagerly beckoned to him to follow him.

With a groan John slowly arose from the chair in which he was seated and followed Fred as he led the way around the corner of the house.

"What I want of you," said Fred when he and his companion could not be seen by the other boys, "is to go with me over to the Meeker House. I think I have found something."

"Is it the same thing you found last night?" inquired John.

"Not at all. I don't mind telling you that I have fixed a trap over there."

"What do you mean, a steel trap?"

"No, no," said Fred. "I sprinkled some bran last night all around the floor. I filled my pockets with it before we started and while we were in the old house I scattered it on the floors. Now, I want to go over there to find out if-"

"If what?" interrupted John. "Are you trying to feed those spooks on bran?"

"As usual, my friend," retorted Fred, "you begin at the wrong end. I am not trying to get an impression of their heads, but of their feet. Only, spooks don't make a deep impression when they step on the floor, and I'm more than suspicious that I'll find some tracks."

"I'll go with you," said John eagerly. "Wait until I tell the other fellows that we are going away for a while. Are you going to walk, Fred?"

"Yes, I am. I have been riding all day and I want to stretch my muscles."

Both George and Grant laughed when John told them that he and Fred were going for a walk.

"You'll walk in one direction," called George, "but you'll be running when you come back. I think I'll take the car and in a half an hour I'll come over after you. You'll want to see some of your friends by that time and you will want to see them bad."

"I don't want to see them 'bad,'" retorted John as he turned away. "They are 'bad' enough as it is. I want to see them badly."

Together the two boys walked through the woods and across the lots and by a shorter route than the highway arrived within a half-hour in the yard of the house they were seeking.

"Come around to the kitchen," said Fred. Almost unconsciously he had lowered his voice and although it was still daylight he was glancing nervously about him when he and John softly opened the rear door and stepped within the kitchen.

The boards of the floor were twisted and uneven. The floor was of pine and George had explained that his father had said that he believed the floor was as old as any part of the house. There were marks of the places where the women of another generation had scrubbed the floor.

Doubtless it had been their pride to keep the pine boards clean, just as it is a source of pride to many of their sisters of a later day to be adorned with feathers of various gaudy colors.

Noiselessly the boys advanced and without a word having been spoken began to examine the floor where Fred had scattered the bran the preceding evening. No footprints were found, however, and it was speedily plain that if any one had entered the building since the boys had departed they had not done so by the kitchen door.

Convinced that they were alone in the house, the courage of both boys somewhat revived. Indeed there was something in the sunshine of the summer afternoon and in the not unmusical sounds of the winged gra.s.shoppers in the adjacent orchard that was soothing to the excited boys.

They were about to pa.s.s out of the room when John abruptly stopped and whispered, "Look here, Fred. What's that?" As he spoke he pointed to a small tube which plainly had been fastened recently to the wall. The tube was of tin, about an inch in diameter and extended almost to the ceiling. Through the wall a hole had been made and the boys peered eagerly at the wall in the adjacent room to see whether or not the tube was there also.

"That's just how it is! That's good, String!" exclaimed Fred excitedly.

"That explains the sound of the voices we heard the other night."

"I don't see how it explains it," said John, somewhat puzzled by the excitement of his companion.

"Why, it's a speaking tube. You go back to the kitchen and I'll stay here and we'll try it."

The suggestion was quickly adopted and in a brief time both boys were aware that Fred's conjecture was correct. The strange sounds and the whispers of their names which had been heard frequently whenever they had visited the house after darkness had fallen, now were explained.

"That's the reason," said John eagerly, "why George always wants to come around to the kitchen door. Don't you remember he hasn't once come in by the front door?"

"That's right," responded Fred. "He knows more about what is going on in this old house than he has let on, and all the time he has been pretending that he was puzzled as much as we are by what we have seen and heard. We must think up something so that we can pay him back in his own coin."

"That's what we'll do," said John eagerly. "What shall it be?"

"Time enough to think about that later," responded Fred. "What's that?"