"If you cry like a baby—!" Danny's mother was whispering to his sinking heart.
The others had fallen into an argument about the exact location of the haunted tree, but presently Ed Rowell asked impatiently:
"Well, what is it about the place, anyway?"
"Haunted!" exclaimed Ham. "A murderer, hunted with dogs through the mountains, hanged himself on——"
"And the old tree died in the night," assisted his brother. "And it stands there now, naked and stark and dead. At night——"
Danny's heart stood still to hear.
"At night," broke in Whitman, "if you creep up close, you can see the dead man swinging in the wind!"
"Listen!" exclaimed Biddie under his breath.
It will have to be recorded that they all jumped violently at the exclamation.
"What?" demanded L. C.