At this the others shouted with laughter, while Bradley was utterly at a loss to comprehend the cause of their merriment.
“You’re a ’ole lot of hiddiots!” he cried, his disgust breaking all bounds. “You heven laugh at a fool!”
“Don’t—don’t cast reflections on yourself!” said Smart.
Billy reached for him, but Ted knew better than to fall into those muscular hands, and he dodged away.
“Hi’ll ’ave nothing more to do with you!” declared the Cockney lad, as he turned and stalked out of the room, and the laughter behind him added to his disgust as he closed the door.
CHAPTER XXV—THE SPOOK APPEARS
Ted Smart saw it first, but no one believed him when he told about it. Ted declared that he turned over in bed and beheld a white, ghostly form floating slowly and silently across the room about two feet from the floor. He also declared that he could see through the white form and discern solid objects on the farther side. But every one knew Smart was given to exaggeration, and so they laughed.
“Did you really see anything at all?” asked one.
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Ted derisively; “I didn’t see a thing. I am stone blind, and I can’t see anything.”
“But it was dark.”