Scotty held up his hands in surrender. "No. I passed them on my way back from the car."
"Evidence not sufficient," Dr. Miller said with a grin. "The ghosts may or may not be human. Your first fact needs more proof, Rick. Carry on."
Rick sighed. "All right. I'll start over again. First, we have uncovered cement bags that contained radioactive ore, pulverized into a fine dust. I'll amend that. The bags contain a small quantity of radioactive ore, which gives some reason for believing they were once full of such ore."
The group laughed. "Now you're on the beam," Dr. Miller approved. "State only what you know as fact and identify what you infer from the facts as inference or speculation."
"Glad you all approve. Second, we believe the Frostola man was interested in the cement bag Scotty carried. It is a fact that when we returned from town the cement bag that we put in the trash can, and the cement bags we left where we found them, had been removed. Because of the Frostola man's apparent interest, we are of the opinion he took the bags."
Jan Miller giggled. "You sound like a lawyer."
"I feel like one," Rick returned with a grin.
"Third, the Blue Ghost led Scotty and me on a wild chase that ended up with me dropping into the quarry. The facts are that the ghost somehow triggered the plane alarm. We will not argue whether or not a real ghost could have set off a purely physical, nonspiritual alarm."
Barby nodded soberly, but there was a twinkle in her blue eyes.
"Continuing with the facts of that incident, the ghost stayed ahead of us without difficulty. A real ghost could have done that, I suppose, but so could any person in reasonable physical shape who knew the terrain. Now, the ghost's light went off as he reached the edge of the quarry, or somewhere in the vicinity of the edge."