"Where's Chatz?" asked one of the other boys, suddenly.
"He asked permission to walk back a bit over our trail," observed Elmer. "Said he missed a buckle from his coat, which he was carrying over his arm when he tripped. I let him take a lantern with him to see if he could find it."
"Lil Artha" began to laugh, and several of the other boys joined in.
"Oh! my! what if he happens to run across one of those ghosts he's always talking about?" suggested Toby Ellsworth Jones, whose grandfather had been a veteran, and a soldier under the colonel who died at Alexandria, Va., in the Civil War; whence the name of Ellsworth—Toby was just wild on the subject of aeronautics; and while thus far everything he attempted had proven as flat a failure as the famous flying machine of Darius Green, still he lived in hopes of accomplishing something that would make the name of Jones renowned.
Several of the boys struggled to their feet at this, finding themselves stiff in the legs after their long walk.
"Look! there's a light coming just flying along the road right now!" cried Larry Billings.
"And that must be Chatz on the full run, though he wouldn't yell out for anything!" exclaimed Mark.
"Something must be chasing him, fellows!" declared Toby, in great excitement.
"Perhaps it's a wildcat!" suggested Jasper Merriweather, who was a bit timid.
"Here he comes, and he can speak for himself. What ails you, Charlie; what happened to start you running?" asked the scout master, as the boy came hurrying up, breathing hard, and showing signs of positive alarm.