"Listen to the long-winded lawyer talk! Of course we want to hear. That's what we're sitting around this blessed fire for, in our pajamas, shivering to beat the band. Out with it, you!" exclaimed Jerry.
"Original things cut no figure with some people. They want to read about all they learn, or have other persons tell them; but about this brilliant thought of mine: It's mighty evident that whoever the ghost is, he wants to be left alone. Now what kind of people dislike to have strangers come prowling around their secrets? Why, down in Kentucky and Tennessee it would be moonshiners. Up in the Maine forests, like as not timber-grabbers. Here it might be counterfeiters."
"Hear! hear! Bluff has spoken the last word!" exclaimed Jerry excitedly.
"What do you think about it, Frank?"
Will, as he put the question, turned toward the one upon whom the rest were accustomed to depend to settle all disputes.
"I don't know. The suggestion Bluff made might turn out to be the true solution of the mystery. At any rate, it's barely possible, and worth remembering. Later on we may be able to see light in this dark puddle, and then know how near he came to hitting the bullseye," he replied thoughtfully.
To him it appeared a serious matter, and one that should not be treated with too much levity.
"Well, I'm sleepy again, in spite of all this excitement, and as my turn comes last, I'm going to turn in. A bully old blanket feels good to me, fellows," saying which, Jerry crawled under the khaki-colored canvas.
The others followed suit. It would do no good to continue the conversation at such an unseasonable hour. All that was to be said could hold over until breakfast time, when they would be able to look at matters in a different light.
Frank sat out his watch, and then put Bluff on the job. In turn he roused Jerry, who stood it out until the dawn began to light up the east, when he started the fire into new life, put the coffee on to boil, with cold water, as was their wont, and busied himself in doing various things until the rest should appear.