ghost, but we have heard those ghostlike voices and we want to
find out what it means."

"Oh, there's a real ghost---I heard about it before I left home,"
said Carl Dudder. "But I didn't think it would visit us."

"I'd stay, only the rest won't," said Ham Spink, thinking he must
put on a bold front before Snap and his chums.

"What are you talking about!" cried Ike Akley, indignantly. "Why,
you were the first to propose going home."

"That's true," said another boy.

"Well---er---I thought perhaps you didn't care to stay," stammered
Ham. "Anyway, I think it is much nicer down to Lake Cameron,"
he added, hastily, to change the subject. "The snakes are numerous
up here, and game is scarce."

"Well, if you are going you can have your boat and the canoe," said
Snap, after a consultation with his chums. "But you must give us
your solemn promise not to molest us again."

The others were perfectly willing to do that, and the rowboat and
the canoe were turned over to Ham, Spink and his cronies. Then
our friends rowed out into the lake and "hung around" until the
others loaded their craft and started away.

"Now remember," called Snap after them. "If you come back and
molest us you'll do it at your peril."

"We won't come back," muttered Ham.

"You can have that ghost all to yourselves," added Carl. "Hope
it visits your camp to-night---I guess you'll be leaving in the
morning just as we are doing." And that was all that was said
by the Spink crowd.

"That ghost must have been something awful to look at," was Shep's
remark, as he and his chums rowed back to camp. "If ever a crowd
was scared they were."

"Well, if the ghost visits us maybe we'll be scared too," answered
Giant. "I don't believe in bragging until I've experienced a thing."

"Giant doesn't want to be like the man who bragged of what he would
do in case of a fire at his house," said Whopper. "He was going to
be calm and careful and do things just so. When the fire came he
was the most excited fellow on the block, and he carried the
feather bed downstairs and then went up again and threw himself out
of the third story window."

The boys were content to take it easy for the rest of the day, and
for the balance of that week they did little but fish and "laze
around," as Giant put it. Shep shot several birds and tried his
skill at cleaning and stuffing them, for he took an interest in
taxidermy. Snap hung up the deer skin to be cured.