"I'm on!" replied one of them before Toby had really finished speaking; and of course it was Chatz who agreed so readily.
Elmer immediately made a move that announced his readiness to do what the first discoverer of the ghost proposed; Ted and Toby followed suit; and finally George, shrugging his shoulders as though he considered it all folly, came tagging along at their heels grunting to himself.
In this fashion they entered the house, and immediately passed up to the second floor, looking curiously about them again. Nothing was in sight, not even a trespassing bat, for the little creatures had all been alarmed when the boys made their first entry, and flown through various openings into the outer air.
"Now be sure you pick out the right window, Toby," warned Chatz.
"I counted 'em from the outside," replied the other, with a business-like air, "and it was exactly the seventh from the end; and here she is. Everybody count and see for yourselves."
"That's all right," remarked George, triumphantly; "but suppose you show us your old ghost, Toby."
"Never said it was one," protested the other, as he looked about in a puzzled manner; "what I did remark, and I stand back of it still, was that if ever there was such a thing as a spook in this world that must have been one."
George sniffed contemptuously.
"Go on and poke him out, then; I want to be shown, if I ain't from Missouri!" he told Toby, who turned his back on him.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything here, Toby, for a fact," said Elmer, as he looked carefully around, up and down, on the floor, and along the hall.