ong those same lines himself, so that he felt in

dered down the pike. Most fellows experience a regular rut, and never run up against anything out of th

wheel of the mill will never run again with the water that is past. So I forget the things that are gone

clapping his hands, "Alec is ge

s, for one of Alec's weak spots was a love of flattery, "that our latest ve

ur Cameron. "We've run across the lonely castle your aunt

ures, you tell us, are turning out dandies at that. You ought to be as happy as a clam at

quawk of a crow, or the, crow of a squawking rooster can be heard the livelong day. Still, somehow I seem to feel a queer sense of oppression bearing

laughed a

h for your side,

nd a purchaser in a coon's age. Who would ever want to come away up here to bury themselves from civilization, and in s

limb which he had been eying longingly for some little time, he bolted up the trunk of the overspreading tree, to hang by

ens that did better work than anything he had ever known in all his experience was enough in itself to make his boyish heart thrill with joy. And then the singular char

irection of the deserted building about a quarter of a mile away. Alec had finished his work and had the well-developed films hanging to dry, securely fa

d Monkey Stallings, sitting bolt upri

hich the color deserted his ruddy cheeks one might have imagined he feared

hard to believe his senses, for the absolute quiet and dead calm brooding all day long over that retired spot in the wilderness had been rudely

re swelled to an amazing extent, after which

s though he really began to believe he must be asleep, an

with sudden excitement, for which in truth he co

elf. He shook his head in a way that brought

proposition when you ask me tha

ve a guess, can you, Hu

e had possibly begun to suspect he might be a victim of some delusion,

, yes, three dozen men shouting l

egan Billy, sta

!" urged the impatient Alec. "I'll be hanged if I c

illy!" ad

r kind, meaning to take possession of the castle. Now, you needn't all jump on me and say that's silly, because I happen to know those

ld him, reassuringly, "it will have to stand until we can strike on a better. It se

while the others showed by their actions that

off by any wandering wild animal, though they had no reason to believe there was anything larger than a 'coon' or a 'possum' around that region. The blankets and

now that they're wet and sticky they can't be packed away.

y to stay behind and protect the films by his presence, which

. You don't catch me sticking to this camp by my lonely. Stay back yourself if somebody has just got to hold the fort. My duty lies in the front rank. History tells that t

the secret of all that terrible clamor of human voices raised in angry sho

ad left the camp behind them, "we're a unit in saying that r

gs. "The sounds came right down the wind, and any one can

Billy, "only you know they say spirits never show themselves in the daytime. An

e'll know more about it before three minutes more have passed, because, unless I miss my guess, we can glimpse the castle when we strike that rock yon

n, will you?" excl

unison, and, besides, there were other odd sounds such as might be made by a small arm

several faces. It would have puzzled smarter people than they pretended to

have the mystery cleared up without further loss of time. If Billy's footsteps were inclined to make him linger behind his mates he

anything it grew more and more maddening, causing t

ot discover that there was not the slightest sign of a living human being in sight. He was rapidly coming to believe there might be something ghostly about these sounds. Billy was just then in a fit conditio

amazement, were turned toward the region where those sounds still welled forth, shouts and blows and shrieks making a conglomeration