“Tom, I guess you’ve got ’em.”
“Got what?”
“Got ’em bad, old man.”
“Didn’t you hear it?”
“I reckon you were the only man who heard anything, Tom.”
The others of the party began to laugh. They wanted to make out they didn’t hear, and at any rate they were prepared to make it merry for Atwood. All hands protested they had not heard anything, and finally Atwood said:
“You are all deaf and dumb with wine. Hang it, it was a wild cat I heard as plain as though I had stepped on its tail.”
“I guess you did, Atty, old boy,” said Murray.
The men resumed their seats and were talking over the scream Tom Atwood had heard, when suddenly there came a voice, as though some one stood in the doorway of the cottage, and the voice appeared like a groan. All the men heard the groans and they appeared a little bit dazed, and one of them said:
“By ginger, gentlemen, it looks to me as though the ghosts had come back.”