“Well,” resumed Ned, “Dick and I saw a vessel pick up those ranges with a searchlight, and we think that accounts for the strange light that appeared on the wall Saturday night; also we know that the boat came fairly close to the beach and lay there almost an hour, although nobody came ashore from her. Even allowing for a lot of imagination, we are sure we saw a queer thing like a buoy that rose out of the lake and later disappeared—somewhere. Shortly afterward we fancied we saw a red light at the end of the old road, and from what we learned yesterday, I’m quite positive we were right in calling it the tail light of an automobile.”
“There’s not much doubt of that,” agreed Dave, “also you’ve proved that there’s some connection between the shack in the woods and some of the things that have been happening out at Coleson’s.”
“Somebody is using the old wood-road and has taken a lot of pains to conceal the fact,” continued Ned. “I guess this about concludes the list of things we actually know—up to date. I’ll have to admit that all of ’em taken together don’t help us a whole lot when it comes to solving the puzzle.”
“Do you think we ought to report the whole thing to the police?” asked Tommy, doubtfully.
“Police! Not on your life!” yelped Dick. “Once it got known that the cops were hunting for somebody out there, we’d never get anybody for the dances. Right now a lot of the crowd are getting a big kick out of the idea that the place is haunted and the rest believe that we are pulling off a few ghost stunts for their amusement—either way it’s going big. But a bunch of cops snooping around would kill it and leave us flat.”
“I think Dick is right,” agreed Ned. “We’ve got to work the thing out for ourselves—at least till we’ve made sure of our ground. We’re certain that something is going on out there and that it is being kept awfully close. Nobody is ever seen coming or going, yet we know such coming and going is actually taking place. Just what connection—if any—this has with the phony ghost stuff we can’t be sure of.”
“You can’t make Sam believe it’s phony,” murmured Tommy Beals.
“No, nor Wat Sanford either,” added Dave Wilbur. “He’s naturally more or less of an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ anyhow, and ever since Red and Fatty sprung that bedtime story about the hunchback, Wat has had the jim-jams regular.”
“Well, I guess we’re all pretty brave—in the daytime,” remarked Dick. “The question is what are we going to do about it all?”
“I have an idea we might learn something by watching that shack,” suggested Ned. “It might prove to be the key to the puzzle. I had planned to lie out there tonight and see if anything happens. Does anybody want to join me?”