“’Bout a mile beyond where your camp is. It is a swampy sort of a place not fit for nothin’ but hogs to live in, and old Jerry has a shack there. But he never bothers no one and I don’t know why he’d ever want to chase you out of there.”
“I guess he couldn’t have anything to do with it,” agreed Ted. “By the way, what is that house way up on the mountain, the one where the furniture is still in the place? Looks like it was furnished and never used.”
“Oh, that’s the Bainbridge place,” was the reply. “Rich feller by the name of Bainbridge built that house for his wife and it sure was a handsome dwellin’! I saw it when it was first finished, and I want to tell you it had more gilt and brass and blue and everything than any place I ever saw. Well, Bainbridge was lookin’ forward to bringin’ his wife up there—she’d never seen it—when she decided she wasn’t goin’ to live up in no mountains, and she finally up and run off with somebody else. Bainbridge spent a lot of time mopin’ around the place and acted like he was half-crazy, and then finally he disappeared. Nobody knows where he is today.”
“That fellow over in the cabin isn’t Bainbridge, is he?” Buck asked, quickly.
“Oh, no! I know both of ’em by sight, and that ain’t him. No, unless Bainbridge’s ghost is hangin’ around that old house. I don’t know where he is.”
They paid for their provisions and then tramped back to camp, discussing the affair between them. Nothing definite appeared to have been learned from the farmer and they decided to keep a stricter lookout in the camp.
“If we ever hear anybody around in the bushes we’ll have to make a dash for them,” said Buck.
Arriving at the camp they found it apparently deserted and perfectly quiet, but a glance into the tents showed that all of the boys were asleep. Very quietly they packed the provisions in the improved ice chest, and then as quietly crawled into their blankets for a nap. For the next three hours the camp was so still that anyone looking down upon it would have decided that it was deserted, and then, as the coolness of the evening came on, first one and then another began to stir, until the whole camp was awake.
Supper was eaten and then they sat around, content to remain in the camp. Just before they turned in there was a dispute about the Black Riders and Ted was called upon.
“It was started by a man named Simon Reed,” he said.