"There's where we hid our wagon that other time," the last named declared, pointing to a thick cover of brush, into which the track of wheels led; "and Toby, you notice, is turning out, because this time we don't want to head direct for the nut grove, but the dense woods alongside. We saw a fine spring as we came by, and I reckon, suh, that our efficient scout master has it all fixed in his mind's eye to pitch our tents close to that."
"Saves a heap of water lugging, and that counts," admitted Lil Artha.
"That oughtn't to bother you much, Lil Artha," said George; "when you're built to cover half a mile at every step. All you'd have to do would be to take one look-in, fill your pail, and then turning around, come right back again."
"Our camp, then, will be pretty close to the old house, won't it?" ventured Chatz; and there was an eagerness in his voice that betrayed how much he had been thinking of his luck at being in the vicinity of a building said to be haunted, for two full nights.
"That's what it will," Toby called out over his shoulder, for he was following the pilot of the expedition, Elmer, who strode on all by himself away in the van; "and you'll have a chance to scrape up an acquaintance with that old hobgoblin, Chatz. You're welcome to all the fun; I haven't lost any ghost that I know about, and you don't ketch me hanging about in there half the night, waiting for something white and clammy to stalk around. Ugh! I should say not. Oh! what was that?"
Nancy, up to then behaving very well, because quite tired after the long pull, began to prance at a lively rate; and every one of the four scouts craned their necks and stared in one particular direction; it was in that quarter George had just said the haunted house lay; and what had come to their ears was the strangest sort of a cry they had ever heard, a mingling of pain and rage it seemed.
CHAPTER X
IN FOR A GLORIOUS TIME