"A wildcat!" exclaimed Ty Collins, excitedly.
"Mebbe only an old owl," Lil Artha ventured; "because I remember you fellows told us there were some whoopers up here; and when an old house has got bats in its belfry it's likely to have owls too."
"The house is over that way, ain't it?" questioned Landy Smith, showing a mild interest in the matter; but his indifference was more than made up for by the excitement on the part of the Southern scout, whose dark eyes fairly danced with eagerness.
"I should say it was," he told Landy, "and if you think that's only an owl, or even a wildcat, suh, I reckon you've got another guess coming to you."
"Listen to that, would you?" broke from Ty; "our chum from Dixie here believes in ghosts, and he even thinks that was one warning us away from the haunted house. It'd take a dozen of the same to scare me off. I may light out before an enraged bull, but you don't find me sneaking away when there's a white thing waving up and down in the road. Had a lesson once, when I found it out to be just a rag hangin' from a branch, and since then nothing spooky ever faizes Ty Collins."
Chatz looked keenly at the speaker, and nodded his head. Although he made no remark, his manner was that of a prophet, and Elmer, noticing it, could imagine him saying: "Just wait, and we'll see what sort of nerve you've got, Ty Collins. Things seem different at high noon from what they do when it's midnight. And if I have my way you'll get a chance to see a real ghost, for once in your life; because I just believe in the things, make all the fun you want to."
Whatever the strange thrilling cry may have been, at least it was not repeated. Nancy was quieted by Toby, and the other scouts stood there, listening earnestly, for fully five minutes, but nothing developed worth noticing.
Finally Elmer called out to them:
"Here, get a move on, Toby, and come along. We've got lots to do before we can cook our first dinner; and I don't know how you fellows feel, but I'm as hungry as a wolf. Make a sharp turn here, Toby, because we want to push straight into the woods, and reach that spring."
Of all the scouts, George was really the only one who, as they walked on, turned his head and glanced back several times toward the region from which that strange sound had come.