“Who would sneak around a tent on a night like this?” scoffed Vench, as Jim slipped out.
“Didn’t see anything,” Jim said, returning and shaking the rain off his coat.
“We hope you don’t hear anything else tonight,” grumbled Terry. “Might as well bring a dog in here to shake himself!”
Long before taps the visitors had gone and the friends turned in. In the morning the rain had stopped, but a gray sky hung over the camp. Just as assembly was breaking up the Officer on Inspection reported to the colonel.
“Something to show you on a tree at the end of the camp, sir,” he reported.
The cadets swarmed around the colonel as he took a heavy piece of cardboard from a tree not far from the tent occupied by the Mercers and Terry. In large, crude letters this warning was written:
YOU DURNED TIN SOLDIERS KEEP YOURE NOSE OUTN THE GHOST BUSINESS.
12
A Brush with the Sheriff
The cardboard had been propped up in the space provided by a small branch. The letters had been wet and faint streaks showed where they had run.
“The sentries who were on duty last night please step forward,” requested the colonel. A number of cadets promptly stepped forward, facing the colonel.