“Yes, one of us should have kept watch up here,” admitted Ned. “We lost a good chance to get a look at our mysterious visitors, but we’ll know better next time.”
Dave Wilbur, chief of transportation, was not expected till afternoon, but he appeared soon after eleven o ’clock. And he came alone.
“Wat Sanford and Jim Tapley are drafted for tonight’s guard duty, but Wat funked the job and Jim won’t come without him,” explained Dave. “Wat’s naturally superstitious anyhow and Red and Fatty have fed him up with that bedtime story of theirs, till he’s so jumpy he’d see Coleson or Coleson’s great-grandmother if you hollered boo at him!”
“Well, he’d have seen something queerer than any of the Coleson family, if he’d been here last night,” declared Dick, proceeding to give an account of the night’s happenings.
“So while you two were watching some tub out on the lake, a car ran in here and out again,” remarked Wilbur dryly. “Well, ‘when the cat’s away, the mice’ll play,’ but take my advice,” he continued more seriously, “no matter what you saw—or what you thought you saw—don’t say a word to the boys about it. If Wat gets another jolt, he may refuse to come out here Saturday night, and a jazz orchestra without a trap-drummer would be about as jazzy as a church picnic. Tip off Red and Fatty if you like, but make ’em lay off Wat Sanford with their ghost stuff.”
As there was nothing to be accomplished by remaining longer at the house, it was decided to return to town without delay. Charlie Rogers and Tommy Beals were waiting in the Wilbur yard when the three drove in.
“Did you fellows see anything out there last night?” asked Rogers eagerly, as he and Tommy followed the car into the garage.
Ned paused to close the garage doors against possible intrusion and then proceeded with a more or less detailed account of what had occurred.
“Then you didn’t get a sight of that—that creature; that big, shapeless, humpbacked-looking thing that Red and I saw standing between the end of the house and the woods?” asked Beals.
“Oh, you needn’t look so darned wise, Dave!” snapped Charlie Rogers, his peppery temper flaring at sight of Wilbur’s ill-concealed grin. “Fatty and I saw it—even if it was only for an instant. If Ned and Dick had stayed up at the house, they might have seen it also!”