CHAPTER VII
FACED BY A MYSTERY
To tell the truth, Hugh was thinking something along those same lineshimself, so that he felt in a mood to quite agree with the enthusiasticBilly.
"Take it all in all," he remarked, reflectively, "we're one of theluckiest lot of scouts that ever wandered down the pike. Most fellowsexperience a regular rut, and never run up against anything out of theway. But I have to shake myself very time I look back over our calendar,for fear it's only a dream."
"We certainly have had more than our share of things happening to us,"admitted Alec, proudly, "but the wheel of the mill will never runagain with the water that is past. So I forget the things that aregone, and keep looking hopefully forward to other glorious events thatlie waiting for us in the dim future."
"Hear! hear!" exclaimed Billy, clapping his hands, "Alec is gettingquite poetical these days."
"I only hope," continued the other, with a gleam of satisfaction inhis eyes, for one of Alec's weak spots was a love of flattery, "thatour latest venture will turn out just as successful as many othershave done before it."
"No reason that I can see why it shouldn't," spoke up Arthur Cameron."We've run across the lonely castle your aunt is negotiating for, andit seems to fill the bill to a dot."
"Yes," remarked Monkey Stallings, anxious to have a hand in thediscussion, "and your pictures, you tell us, are turning out dandiesat that. You ought to be as happy as a clam at high tide, as theysay, though I never asked one of the bivalves just why he felt thatway."
"Oh, I am!" declared Alec; "and I reckon the chances are three to oneAunt Susan is going to enjoy this delightful quiet up here, where noteven the squawk of a crow, or the, crow of a squawking rooster can beheard the livelong day. Still, somehow I seem to feel a queer senseof oppression bearing down on me. I hope now it isn't a bad omen ofcoming trouble, and that, after all, my rich aunt is doomed to loseout in the deal for Castle Randall."
The others laughed at the idea.
"Why, it's a cinch for your side, Alec," said Hugh.
"The owner of this ancient and half-ruined pile of stone and make-believerocks," Arthur told the doubter, "couldn't find a purchaser in a coon'sage. Who would ever want to come away up here to bury themselves fromcivilization, and in such a silly old rookery as this? Well, it was onechance in a thousand that a nervous wreck like your aunt heard of it."
"Don't worry, Alec, you've got a snap, believe me," chuckled Stallings;and then unable to longer resist a certain alluring limb which he hadbeen eying longingly for some little time, he bolted up the trunk ofthe overspreading tree, to hang by his toes, and swing daringly to andfro as some of them had seen a yellow-headed, green-bodied poll-parrotdo from his perch.
Alec continued his work, and from time to time announced that everyroll was indeed turning out superbly. No one had ever seen him quiteso happy. The possession of a lens that did better work than anythinghe had ever known in all his experience was enough in itself to makehis boyish heart thrill with joy. And then the singular character ofthe film subjects added to the sense of satisfaction, for they weresure to enhance the attractiveness of his collection, as well asplease Aunt Susan immensely.
It must have been about one o'clock when the boys received their firstrude shock. Hugh had just been thinking of giving orders for anotherwalk in the direction of the deserted building about a quarter of amile away. Alec had finished his work and had the well-developedfilms hanging to dry, securely fastened to his stout cord with snapclothes-pins, so there was no danger of any unfortunate catastrophehappening to them before they were thoroughly dry.
"Listen, will you?" suddenly exclaimed Monkey Stallings, sitting boltupright, and raising one hand impressively.
"Oh, my stars! what do you call that?" gurgled Billy. From themanner in which the color deserted his ruddy cheeks one might haveimagined he feared they were about to be attacked by a host of savagepirates bent on plunder.
Alec and Arthur could also be seen to stare vacantly at the distancewhile they strained their ears to listen. As for Hugh himself hefound it hard to believe his senses, for the absolute quiet and deadcalm brooding all day long over that retired spot in the wildernesshad been rudely shattered by a most astonishing noise as of many hoarsevoices, making a jumble and roar of sound unlike anything save theconfusion of battle.
It rose, it died away again, and then once more swelled to an amazingextent, after which it finally stopped as suddenly as it had begun.
Five scouts stared at each other. Billy rubbed his eyes as though hereally began to believe he must be asleep, and passing through a vividdream bordering on the nightmare.
"Hugh! what can it be?" demanded Alec, a bit pale with sudden excitement,for which in truth he could not be at all blamed under the circumstances.
For once the scout master seemed puzzled himself. He shook his headin a way that brought new consternation to the heart of Billy Worth.
"You've got me up against a hard proposition when you ask me that, Alec!"was what Hugh declared.
"Then you can't even give a guess, can you, Hugh?" Billy besought him.
"We all heard the racket, that's sure," muttered Stallings, as thoughhe had possibly begun to suspect he might be a victim of some delusion,and wished to make certain the others were in the same boat as himself.
"And it sounded just like a dozen, yes, three dozen men shouting likeanything," Arthur assured him.
"I wonder-----" began Billy, starting up eagerly.
"If you've got an idea hurry and tell us what it is!" urged the impatientAlec. "I'll be hanged if I can grapple anything, it's given me sucha bad shock."
"Go on, Billy!" added Arthur.
"Why," explained the fat scout, "you see, I was thinking that p'r'apsthose tramps we scared off had come back with a big bunch of theirkind, meaning to take possession of the castle. Now, you needn'tall jump on me and say that's silly, because I happen to know thosehoboes often gather in regular armies about this time of year, headingfor the cities. Hugh, it isn't such a bad idea, after all, is it?"
"Since none of us seem able to think of any other explanation," thescout master told him, reassuringly, "it will have to stand until wecan strike on a better. It seems to me the sooner we hike over thatway the quicker we'll learn the real facts."
"True enough, Hugh," assented Alec, readily, while the others showedby their actions that they were perfectly willing to make the start.
Their preparations for leaving their camp were few and simple. Whatfood they had left was thrust up in the crotch of a big tree, so thatit might not be carried off by any wandering wild animal, though theyhad no reason to believe there was anything larger than a 'coon' ora 'possum' around that region. The blankets and a few other thingsof value were also placed in safety, while Alec again tested the supportsof his "clothes line" on which those precious films were strung to dry.
"I hate to leave them," he told the others, mournfully, "but now thatthey're wet and sticky they can't be packed away. I almost wish Ihadn't been in such a hurry to develop them."
He stared at Billy as though almost tempted to beg that worthy to staybehind and protect the films by his presence, which Billy absolutelyrefused to do, rightly interpreting the look.
"Not on your life, Alec, much as I would like to oblige you!" assertedthe fat scout, positively. "I want company when there's all sorts ofstrange things happening around. You don't catch me sticking to thiscamp by my lonely. Stay back yourself if somebody has just got to holdthe fort. My duty lies in the front rank. History tells that theWorths were always found in the van when danger loomed up. Sorry notto oblige you, Alec, but it's simply impossible. William Worth willsink or swim with his comrades."
As Alec could not think of staying back when the rest were bent onlearning the secret of all that terrible clamor of human voices raisedin angry shouts and whoops, he took his place alongside Hugh, andthey all started forth.
"One thing sure, to begin with,"
remarked Hugh, after they had leftthe camp behind them, "we're a unit in saying that racket came fromwhere we happen to know the old castle lies."
"Oh! that's an easy nut to crack!" declared Monkey Stallings. "Thesounds came right down the wind, and any one can see it's blowingsoftly straight from the haunted mansion."
"We might guess that the ghosts were having a hop all by themselves,"ventured Billy, "only you know they say spirits never show themselvesin the daytime. Anyway, those whoops were more like wild Injuns onthe warpath than just spooks."
"Well, as we don't happen to have any Indians left in this regionnowadays," added Hugh, drily, "we can put that explanation down asimpossible. But we'll know more about it before three minutes morehave passed, because, unless I miss my guess, we can glimpse the castlewhen we strike that rock yonder. I remember taking a look back aswe came along, so as to impress distances and direction on my mind,and could see the whole structure looming up."
"Whee! listen again, will you?" exclaimed Billy, aghast.
The strange noise had again broken out. They could hear many huskyvoices shouting in unison, and, besides, there were other odd soundssuch as might be made by a small army of desperate assailants beatingwildly against that stout door of the lonely castle.
No wonder the five boys stared at one another, with vacant looks ontheir several faces. It would have puzzled smarter people than theypretended to be to analyze such a remarkable jumble of noises as theirears now caught.
Hugh would not let them stop for a second. Indeed, if anything, hehurried them along faster than ever, as though fully determined tohave the mystery cleared up without further loss of time. If Billy'sfootsteps were inclined to make him linger behind his mates he bestirredhimself to assume a faster gait, for at such a critical moment the fatscout did not wish to find himself left in the lurch.
The horrid din continued as they hurried forward. If anything it grewmore and more maddening, causing the boys to shiver with mingledimpatience and alarm.
Now they were close on the rock mentioned by Hugh. In another tenseconds they would be able to at least see the walls of the grim castlein the near distance. Billy wondered whether, after all, they mightnot discover that there was not the slightest sign of a living humanbeing in sight. He was rapidly coming to believe there might be somethingghostly about these sounds. Billy was just then in a fit conditionto believe anything, no matter how absurd, for his poor heart wasfluttering in his manly bosom just as you have doubtless felt thetiny organ of a bird throb when you held the frightened thing in yourhand.
They all kept in a bunch, and thus arrived at the rock at the sametime. Every scout came to a sudden stop. Their eyes, dilated withamazement, were turned toward the region where those sounds stillwelled forth, shouts and blows and shrieks making a conglomerationthat was simply appalling. So stunned were Hugh and his mates thatfor a brief time their tongues clove to the roofs of their mouths.
Boy Scouts with the Motion Picture Players Page 7
