“Then I want to see the ghosts!” exclaimed Carl.
“Come along, then,” advised Sam.
“If you didn’t know Carl right well,” Jimmie explained, as they walked along, “you’d really think he’d tremble at the sight of a ghost or a wild animal, but he’s the most reckless little idiot in the whole bunch! He’ll talk about being afraid, and then he’ll go and do things that any boy in his right mind ought not to think of doing.”
“I had an idea that that was about the size of it!” smiled Sam.
Presently the party turned the angle of the cliff and came upon a placid little mountain lake which lay glistening under the moonlight.
“Now, where’s your ruined temple?” asked Carl.
“At the southern end of the lake,” was the reply.
“I see it!” cried Jimmie. “There’s a great white stone that might have formed part of a tower at one time, and below it is an opening which looks like an entrance to the New York subway with the lights turned off.”
The old temple at the head of the lake had frequently been visited by scientists and many descriptions of it had been written. It stood boldly out on a headland which extended into the clear waters, and had evidently at one time been surrounded by gardens.
“I don’t see anything very mysterious about that!” Carl remarked. “It looks to me as if contractors had torn down a cheap old building in order to erect a skyscraper on the site, and then been pulled off the job.”