In the past those who lived in the pine woods cabin probably stored their pelts up there until the spring came, and it was time to get them properly stretched and dried as they had been before packing away, to market.
He carried with him another candle that with shaking hands he had managed to light from the first one. Upon gaining a position where he could peer over the edge of the flooring of the loft, Crawley was heard to give vent to a sigh of relief.
“Ain’t nawthin’ doin’ up here, Gabe; the place is empty as all git-out,” he remarked, and as if deeming his duty done Crawley came down much faster than he had ascended.
His arrival below seemed to be the signal for another outburst of groans, this time more than ever of a nature to chill the blood of any one given to superstition.
Crawley had a failing that way, though how he ever came to take lodgings in this said-to-be haunted cabin under such circumstances would always be a mystery.
Big Gabe had himself never taken much stock in such things as ghosts. But then that may have been simply because up to now he had never happened to run across anything bordering on the supernatural.
He looked very much shaken, and seemed disposed to lay the blame on the shoulders of poor Amos.
“See wot yer pesky scrouchin’ hes gone an’ done,” he shouted, angrily. “Even the ghostes hes ris’ up an’ howled agin sech n’ises. I knowed sumthin’d happen, as sure as thunder, when ye let loose all them caterwaulin’ sounds. Now we gotter vamose outer here right speedy, an’ make a camp in the open. Crawley, it’s all yer fault, encouragin’ sech crazy doings. Now! hear thet! would ye? Hole on thar Mister Ghost, we’re a-goin’ peaceable like, if ye gives us harf a chanct,” as a terriffic shriek rang through the cabin accompanied by a pounding that seemed to make the floor tremble.
Dolph could not keep out of the game; the temptation to join in was too much for him. And so he began to kick upon the wall wherever a board had been used to cover up some broad chink, where the dried mud between the logs had fallen away.