"I'll go," said Jimmy.
"Me, too," said the Wee One. "I'm big enough to keep you all out of trouble, and if any ghost dare give me any of its lip"—he drew out his chest and squared off at the imaginary assailant.
"Lewis, you can stay here with David if you want to do your lessons, but be sure you shut the window, for I've known of ungentlemanly ghosts stepping right in through one if they happened to find it open," said Jimmy.
"Are you afraid, David?"
"No, indeed," said David. "Besides, I'm not alone. Isn't Lewis here to take care of me if anything should come? But I guess we'll be all right. You are the only fellows that are likely to get into danger."
The boys started off at once, and soon reached the field by way of the path down the hill. They headed for a clump of trees by the boat-house, near which they had first seen the Thing. The crescent moon had dropped considerably, and the light was dim enough, but they held bravely on. Once Jimmy stepped on a twig of something, which snapped under his foot, and the three boys almost leaped into the air.
"Gee! how you scared me," said Frank.
"I'd have run if I hadn't been stuck to the spot," said the Wee One. "Please watch out where you step and don't do it again. My nerves are bad, with all the hard work I've been through this fall." They got another start as a night bird whirred up from the branches of the big elm nearby, but as Frank was determined to go on, the other two would not leave him.
Presently they stood on the boat-house float and peered all around. There was no sound but the gurgle of the river as it flowed past, dark and silent. A little white mist was rising from the water, and the place was damp and chill. Even the song of the frogs, which might have lent a little cheerfulness to the place, was hushed. They listened and looked, but they might have been on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific.
"Gee whiz, it's a melancholy looking place; let's get back," said the Wee One. "Whatever the thing is, it isn't here. I'd rather be up on the hill. Let's go."