"And you don't think it could be that Peters crowd?" went on Bluff.
"They wouldn't be equal to a thing like this. As I said before, it is the work of a clever schemer. The object is all that puzzles me," said Frank.
"You watched the thing carry on pretty closely, I suppose?" ventured Will.
"Had my eyes glued on it every second that it stood there, waving its long arms in such a theatrical fashion. Now, I can remember reading once how a man played ghost in a haunted house, and when he was caught it turned out that he wanted to buy the place, and that was his way of depressing the price."
"Talk to me about your bulls and bears, that way of knocking down prices takes the cake!" ejaculated Jerry, greatly amused.
"Wall Street wasn't in it with that man; but I think they sent him to jail for trespass or something," continued Frank.
"But there's no house up here, so that couldn't be his game," remarked Bluff.
"Now I remember hearing my father tell about a man who carried on this way once to scare people away from a certain locality. Come to find out afterward, he was boring for oil, and believed he had made a ten-strike," remarked Jerry.
"No oil around this section, that I ever heard of, so that explanation fails to hold good," laughed Frank. "Next!"
"It's my turn now. I never heard of anything that might cover the ground, but an idea came to me when I was thinking the old thing over, and perhaps you fellows might care to hear it," said Bluff.