"You've hit something, I see," remarked his chum.
"I reckon I have, pard. It may sound foolish, but all the same, as my dad would say, it seems like a logical sequence to me," he ventured.
"You think, then, there is some connection between this hiding of Thaddeus Lasher in the hills and something that has puzzled us? Suppose you say plainly just what you believe. What do you lay at his door, Jerry?"
Jerry raised his heavy eyebrows and uttered a couple of words that brought a smile to the face of his companion and a quick nod of the head.
"The ghost!"
CHAPTER XVI
A TIME FOR QUICK ACTION
"What would he want to play ghost for, Frank?" asked Jerry presently.
"Give it up. There might be one of a dozen reasons. You know the old story about Columbus and the egg, and how easy it seemed to stand it on end after being shown? Well, this is something the same. I've no doubt that after we learn all about the matter, if we ever do, all of us will say, 'how easy,' just as those Spanish grandees did at the court of Philip."