"He got off sound and unhurt, did he?" asked Toby; "I'm real glad of that, 'cause I wouldn't want him to be injured. I reckon that 'coon was a mascot to me, and gave me good luck. But do we get ready to start home so early in the afternoon, Elmer?"
Before any opinion could be advanced by the scout master, Chatz broke in hastily:
"I'm going to ask you a great favor, suh," he told Elmer; "and which I hope you can grant without interfering at all with any plans you have formed."
"What's that, Chatz?" asked the other; although from the quick look he cast in the quarter where lay the haunted house, it was easy to see that he could give a pretty fair guess what it's nature would prove to be.
"Why, suh, we may never get the chance again, and I've always wanted to see what the inside of a haunted house looked like," Chatz went on to say.
"Whee!" burst from the lips of Ted; while both George and Toby pricked up their ears, and began to show considerable interest.
"You mean that while we're up here, and have half an hour or so on our hands," Elmer suggested, "we might as well take a look-in over there, and see if the rats and the owls are the only things living in the Cartaret house."
"I'd like to very much, suh, believe me, I would," Chatz continued, with one of his winning smiles that were very difficult to resist.
"What do the rest say about that?" and as Elmer made this remark he turned to the other three scouts.
"I vote in the affirmative!" Toby immediately answered.