The carriage passed the Fire Bird at that moment. Ned had slackened speed after his first spurt.
"That woman doesn't look as if she could throw anything—not even her voice," remarked Roland, when the carriage had passed. "But I fancy the old colored fellow is about ready to 'throw a fit,' at any rate."
"Wait till Abe tells it," said Joe, laughing. Abe had a reputation for "telling things."
"It certainly is queer," mused Ned. "I'm not exactly a ghost fiend, but there must be something uncanny up there in that old castle."
"Tavia says there are real magazine ghosts," spoke up Roger decidedly.
"What particular variety is that?" asked Tom.
"Oh, Tavia declares that in magazines scientific fellows are materializing the immaterial," said Nat quite learnedly. "That is what we call magazine ghosts."
"But that howl was never immaterial," persisted Tom. "I should say it emanated from a well developed thorax."
The Fire Bird was spinning along at a lively rate now, for as night neared it grew colder, and the party were anxious to get within doors.
"I hope the girls like the greenstuffs," remarked Roland as the home road was reached.