“Don’t all speak at once,” begged Harry Durfee. Joe Chambers responded to the call and followed Alf to the door. Presently they came back with two poles about seven feet long, each sharpened at one end, and a roll of cotton sheeting. Alf also carried a smaller bundle which, when opened, revealed two dozen sandwiches.
“Refreshments,” he announced. “Who wants a sandwich?”
Everybody did. Alf opened the package and laid it on a rock by the roadside, and they stood around and munched the sandwiches. Suddenly Tom said:
“Look up the road, Dan. Don’t you see something near the fence there?”
Dan looked and so did the others, and there was a moment’s silence. Then,
“Sure,” said Roeder, “there’s something moving up there. Maybe it’s a fox.”
“It’s a person,” said Tom, “and I vote we get out of sight until he gets by. Now you can see him.”
“Right-o,” agreed Alf. “Let’s step inside the mill until the prowling pedestrian passes.”
“Gee, I don’t want to go in there,” objected Durfee.
“Come on,” Dan laughed. “Seven of us are enough to match any ghost that ever walked.”