“We’ve got the mystery of the lost car and the mystery of the old Meeker House. That makes two. I don’t see where your third comes in.”
“The third is our mysterious friend, the tramp, that I saw in the old Meeker House.”
“What’s the mystery about him?” laughed George. “I don’t find anything very mysterious about an unwashed tramp you found in the old house. Very likely he had crawled in there to sleep and you waked him up.”
“He was awake all right,” declared Fred promptly. “There isn’t any question about that. He wasn’t moving around as fast as I have seen some, but he didn’t take it all out in motions, either.”
“It seems to me,” laughed Grant, “that you find in that tramp whatever you want to find, Fred. First you say he’s one kind of man and then you tell us he’s another.”
“Wait until you see him,” said Fred sagely. “Maybe he’s in the old house now. It can’t be far ahead.”
“Not more than a quarter of a mile,” suggested Grant.
For some reason the boys became silent as the car speeded forward in the dim light. The eyes of every one were turned toward the old house which had perplexed them in so many ways.
As they came near the corner John said in a low voice, “There’s not only a ghost of a man in that house, but there’s the ghost of the automobile. Do you hear that horn?”
All the boys listened intently and to their consternation the faint sound of a horn was heard, issuing from the old house.