"Gives you the creeps, all right," admitted George.
"Now, for my part," Elmer remarked just then, "I kind of like the feeling it makes pass over you. And as few people have visited here for the last ten years, I'm glad you asked us to look around with you, Chatz. Let's go inside."
There was no trouble about finding a place of entrance, for there were plenty of the same, some originally intended for this purpose, and others the result of decay while the old mansion lay here year after year the sport of winds and storms, winter and summer.
They wandered around from room to room, viewing the wreck of what had once been a very fine house.
"Looks to me like there might be some truth in that story about the Judge making this a regular prison for his young and pretty wife," Elmer announced as his opinion, after they had been pretty well through the lower story, and were climbing the shaky stairs to the upper floor.
"Why, yes, there were actually bars across the windows in that last room!" declared Chatz; "it's just such a place as I've always had in my mind whenever I got to thinking about haunted houses. You could imagine anything might happen here. Right now, if it was midnight, we could watch and see if there was any truth in all those stories about the ghost of the Judge's young wife storming around here, going through all that terrible scene again. I'd give something to be able to learn if she does come back to visit the scenes where she was so unhappy."
"Here, you'll have uth all shaking like we had the ague, if you don't stop that thort of talk," said Ted, apprehensively, and when he thought no one was looking, rubbing the back of his hand across his eyes, as though something connected with the sad story of the old-time tragedy had brought unbidden tears there.
"Well, perhaps you may have just such a chance, Chatz," said Elmer, suddenly, as though he had made his mind up.
"Tell me how," requested the Southern boy, trying to control the eagerness that burned within his soul when he heard this said.
"You remember that we'd about made up our minds to spend the Thanksgiving holidays in camp somewhere, just to have another little outing before winter dropped down on us?" Elmer went on.