“I seen a-a-ghost-out-thar”—Noisy’s voice trembled like the palsy.
“Oh, to hell with your ghosts! There ain’t no such thing!” said Jim, roaring with laughter.
“Go on with your message,” ordered Hanks.
“I’ll be damned if I will,” said Noisy, frightened out of his wits.
“What!” said the foreman; “well, you go or you’ll lose your job.”
“I wouldn’t go past that grave to-night for forty jobs,” said Noisy, with desperate determination in his shaking voice.
“Get off that horse, then, you cowardly son of a shotgun,” said Jim, “and give me the message. I’ll carry it through, ghosts or no ghosts.”
The boys who had caused the mischief stopped to listen to all this talk as they were stealing back to the shack, holding their mouths for fear of laughing too loud and giving their fun away.
Hearing Jim’s decision to go, they dashed back to the grave again to try it out on him.
Hardly were they settled when up Jim came on a swift gallop toward the grave. And up came the ghost as before.