"And now you are going right back with us to Sandy Hook!" Elsie enthusiastically exclaimed.
Suddenly a silence fell on the jolly party, occasioned by the shadow that came over the face of Frank Merriwell.
"I can't go until we have settled the mystery of Barney Mulloy," he declared; and then gave a hurried account of what he and Bart had seen and heard.
"I hoped you wouldn't say nothin' about that!" grumbled the landlord, who had been until then an interested listener.
Up to that moment he had seemed pleased, though nervous, for it gratified him to have guests who were of sufficient importance to be brought to Glen Springs by the launch of a government steamer.
"This must be all nonsense, you know!" he declared. "And I can't have any such reports go out about my house. If it gits the reputation of being ha'nted, then good-by business. I won't have a guest set foot in the doorway all summer. I know these people who claim not to be superstitious. They ain't superstitious so long as other people sees things, but they git confoundedly so soon's they begin to see things themselves."
"You have seen things at sea that puzzled you?" Merry asked, knowing that he was making a center shot.
"Who said that I'd ever been to sea? And s'pose I have? I ain't worried people to death about it and broke up another man's business. There ain't a thing in this. This ain't out at sea, ye know!"
The landlord seemed to have the peculiar feeling that only ghosts that sailed or walked the briny deep were worthy of consideration.
"Explain it, then!" Merriwell demanded. "You can make us feel that nothing strange happened last night if you will explain the thing."