“Why, it looks like a small drygoods store, I declare!” exclaimed Peg.
“Old sheets, fellows,” announced Nat, triumphantly. “D’ye know what they can be used for? Any of you ever play ghost in your lives? Well, I have, and a sheet is always needed in the game.”
“Go on and tell us what you aim to do with the old sheets, Nat!” urged Andy.
“Just this,” then replied the other eagerly. “We can creep through the grounds of the empty Brandon place that lies next door to Jed’s property. We’ll find some way to get inside his house, and just when the town clock is striking midnight, we’ll start to groaning to beat the band, and show up before the old chap. Dick here, who can throw his voice so well, will do the talking, and tell him we’ve come from the land of spirits to take him back with us. There, what d’ye think of my scheme, fellows? Ain’t it a dandy?”
CHAPTER II
A SCHEME THAT WENT WRONG
For a brief interval after Nat had so triumphantly announced his grand scheme for frightening Old Deacon Nocker the other boys were still. Apparently, every one was digesting the idea, and coming to some sort of a mental decision. Dan Fenwick was the first to voice his views.
“It strikes me as a cracking good prank, Nat!” he exclaimed, “and I’m voting to help you carry the same out.”
“Count me in for one of your old sheets, Nat!” cried Peg, enthusiastically.
“Dick, what do you say?” asked Leslie Capes, a little anxiously, as though he rather hoped the other would veto the whole business by declaring it was too silly, or too full of danger.
If this was Leslie’s expectation, he was doomed to disappointment, for Dick immediately came out with a full endorsement of Nat’s proposal.