"Thame here," purred Ted.
"Oh! of course I'll join you in anything you hatch up, fellows," George told them; "though I don't take any stock in all this nonsense about ghosts and such. If you show me one, and I can pinch his arm, and feel the bones in his hand, I might believe in the stuff; but you never can, and that's a fact. Still, I'd like to see what the inside of this old Cartaret house is like. I don't believe there's a single fellow in Hickory Ridge that can boast he's been through it. Lead the way, then, Elmer, or Chatz. We'll follow you."
That was always the way with George. He would oblige a comrade every time, but his chronic way of fault-finding, or unbelief, often took away much of the pleasure his accommodating nature might have afforded.
They had bundled the cooking utensils together, ready to be placed in the wagon when it was brought up; Toby also fastened his wonderful parachute in as small a compass as possible, and laid it down alongside the other things.
"Wouldn't want to forget to take that along home for a king's ransom," he stoutly declared, looking defiantly at George, because of course that individual was smiling in a fashion that smacked strongly of incredulity.
After that the whole five of them headed toward the spot where they knew the deserted house was to be found. Chatz was fairly quivering with eagerness, and there was a glow in his dark eyes that told how much he appreciated this chance to pry into the secret lodging place of a reported ghost.
Everything was overgrown, and looked very wild. Elmer remarked that if there really were such things as hobgoblins in this world, they certainly could look long and far without finding a more congenial neighborhood in which to reside; for the whole appearance of the place seemed to smack of the supernatural. The breeze actually whined as it passed through the bare branches of the untrimmed trees close to the house; and loose shutters and windows added to the creaky sounds by their rattling, every time a little gust happened to blow.
"Wow! this sure is spooky enough around here to suit me," Toby frankly admitted, as they stood there, and looked about them.
The house itself had once been quite an extensive, and perhaps costly affair, with two wings, and a spacious hall in the center. That was long ago, for now it was in the throes of dissolution, a mere wreck of its former self, and fit only for bats, owls, and rats. Doors hung on a single hinge, and shutters had been torn off long ago by gales, leaving the paneless windows gaping beyond. Moss streaked the rotten roof, and parts of the porch had given way under accumulated snow piles in previous winters.
As Toby said it certainly was gloomy enough, and one did not need to have a very vivid imagination to picture the tragic scenes that were said to have been enacted here many years ago, when the place was a regular Eden, with flower beds and outbuildings on all sides.