sense of humor.

"That ghost was plumb lucky," grunted Red, "an' so was the sea-captain,"
he finished as an afterthought, limping off toward the bar, slowly and
painfully followed by his disfigured companions. "One drink; then to
bed."

After Red had departed, Hopalong and Dent smoked a while and then,
knocking the ashes out of his pipe, Hopalong arose. "An' yet, Dent,
there are people that believe in ghosts," he remarked, with a vast and
settled contempt.

Dent gave critical scrutiny to the scratched bar for a moment. "Well,
the Greasers all say there _is_ a ghost in the San Miguel, though I
never saw it. But some of them have seen it, an' no Greasers ride that
trail no more."

"Huh!" snorted Hopalong. "Some Greasers must have filled the Kid up on
ghosts while he was filling hisself up on mescal. Ghosts? R-a-t-s!"

"It shows itself only to Greasers, an' then only on Friday nights,"
explained Dent, thoughtfully. This was Friday night. Others had seen
that ghost, but they were all Mexicans; now that a "white" man of
Johnny's undisputed calibre had been so honored Dent's skepticism
wavered and he had something to think about for days to come. True,
Johnny was not a Greaser; but even ghosts might make mistakes once in a
while.

Hopalong laughed, dismissing the subject from his mind as being beneath
further comment. "Well, we won't argue--I'm too tired. An' I'm sorry you
got that eye, Dent."

"Oh, that's all right," hastily assured the store-keeper, smiling
faintly. "I was just spoiling for a fight, an' now I've had it. Feels
sort of good. Yes, first thing in the morning--breakfast'll be ready
soon as you are. Good-night."

But the proprietor couldn't sleep. Finally he arose and tiptoed into
the room where Johnny lay wrapped in the sleep of the exhausted. After
cautious and critical inspection, which was made hard because of his
damaged eye, he tiptoed back to his bunk, shaking his head slowly. "He
wasn't drunk," he muttered. "He saw that ghost all right; an' I'll bet
everything I've got on it!"

At daybreak three quarrelling punchers rode homeward and after a
monotonous journey arrived at the bunk house and reported. It took
them two nights adequately to describe their experiences to an envious
audience. The morning after the telling of the ghost story things began
to happen. Red starting it by erecting a sign.

NOTISE--NO GHOSTS ALOWED

An exuberant handful of the outfit watched him drive the last