CHAPTER XV
THE BOOGIE OF THE TOWER
"Let Elmer go on, and tell us some more," suggested Toby.
"Yes, we can talk it all over after we know the whole thing," added Lil Artha.
"Once I got that notion in my head," the scout master continued, "and I began to investigate along those lines. When I heard from two farmers in the market, who happened to live up this way, that for weeks they had been missing things off their places, mostly something to eat, I began to figure it out that the crazy man had to live, and would most likely forage for his grub, about like Sherman's bummers did in the Civil War, subsisting on the enemy's country.
"One of the hayseeds told me he had even set a trap for the thief, thinking it might be just an ordinary hobo; and when the alarm came one night he had hurried out to the hen-house only to find a couple of chickens gone, and the trap sprung, but no victim in it, for the thief had been too smart for him. But he said it beat him all hollow when he found tracks of bare feet around on the partly frozen ground in the morning, because it seemed queer that any tramp would be going around without shoes so near winter time!"
"Whew!" gasped Toby, entranced, and almost held spellbound by this thrilling recital of facts and fancies.
"The other farmer," Elmer went on to say, "told me that twice when he had had a visit from the strange thief he managed to glimpse something white that was making off at top speed, and which he expected was a man, though he couldn't be sure. He also said he had loaded up his double-barrel shotgun, and was going to give the rascal a hot reception the next time he called around. All of which kept making me feel that I was on the right track."