Nothing was to be seen!
As soon as his eyes became used to the dark he strained them in every direction. But there was nothing to reward his eager eyes.
Finally, after poking around in the brush just beyond the clearing in which the house stood, he returned to his friends. The colored boy was recovering slowly from the effects of his terror. Tom, too, had regained some of his usual steadiness, though he seemed to be much more excited than either of his chums. The older men had discovered the absence of the map but had thought that Nicky took it.
“No!” he panted, still laboring under his excitement and his exertions in running from one dump of brush to another, “it was gone when I looked around before I jumped through the window.”
“But where did it go?” demanded Cliff.
“That’s the puzzle,” replied Clarence Neale.
“De ghos’ done taken it!” gasped the small colored boy.
“Nothing of the sort! There aren’t any ghosts!” declared Mr. Gray.
The boy stared. “Yes, they is!” he retorted. “I seen it! It was white! It——”
“Where did you see it?” Nicky asked quickly.