Then the men forced him to hurry along, and finally landed him on that secret ledge where he believed there was some sort of cave.
That was all Nat knew, and the whole thing smacked strongly of mystery until he heard what Elmer's theory was.
"Anyhow," Nat said, with considerable satisfaction in his voice and manner, "they didn't scare me one little bit. And besides, Elmer, in lots of places I went and made plain marks that I just knew you could read any old time."
"That stamps you a true-blue scout, Nat," declared Elmer, "and I think the troop has reason to be proud of you."
"Three cheers for Comrade Nat Scott," suggested impulsive Red; and they were given with such a vim that many of the big bullfrogs along the farther bank jumped into the mill pond in great alarm.
As their main object had been carried out while on the way to the haunted mill, and there was no further reason for lingering after they had eaten the "snack" carried along for this purpose, the Hickory Ridge troop of scouts took up the homeward march.
After talking it all over among themselves it was decided that their duty compelled them to give the game and fish warden a hint as to what was probably going on up at Munsey's mill.
He went there with a deputy two days later, but the Italians had taken warning and fled. However, the warden found and destroyed several nets with which the fish poachers had been illegally gathering the finny prizes in the long-deserted pond.
There was one disappointed scout in the troop however, and this was Chatz Maxfield.
He always would feel as though he had missed the opportunity of his life in spending some time at a haunted mill which was supposed to support a good lively ghost, and never once chancing to come upon the hobgoblin.