"Of all the nerve, you've got it to beat the band," commented Alec. "I thought I could stand for a good deal, but let me tell you I draw the line at creeping upstairs in this spooky old castle, and investigating such a fierce noise as that. Listen, will you, they're at it again, Hugh? Why, if Billy woke up and heard that he'd throw a fit."
"Then we want to quit talking and not wake him," cautioned the scout master, as he gathered the folds of his covering about him, much as a soldier of olden times might wrap his martial cloak around his body while settling down calmly to sleep on the battlefield.
Alec was chuckling as though something amused him.
"Tell you what," he presently whispered, as a last thought, "if my Aunt Susan is as dead set for silence as she says, those noisy owls are going to vacate their snug quarters up there in a hurry. I honestly believe, Hugh, this lonely old curiosity of a castle is going to please my queer relative a whole lot. The chances are she'll plank down the money to buy Randall's Folly when she gets my report, accompanied by the pictures I'm taking. Well, here goes for another nap, hoping the Owl family will settle down and not disturb us again to-night."
CHAPTER V
A STARTLING SURPRISE
"Hello! Is it safe to come out; and is the coast clear of ghosts?"
That was Billy addressing Hugh on the following morning, the scout master, as well as Alec Sands and Arthur Cameron, being up and around. They looked at Billy poking his head out from amidst the folds of his capacious red-and-black striped blanket, and laughed, for somehow he reminded them of a cautious old tortoise trying to spy out the land before entrusting his flippers beyond the confines of his shell.
"Nothing doing in the ghost line, Billy," Hugh told him, "so you can stretch yourself as much as you please. Hurry up a little! Alec here was just suggesting that as the morning looks so fine we might as well go outside and build a cooking fire under the trees for a change"
Billy thereupon threw the blanket aside and hopped to his feet.