"I remember this hollow now," answered Dave. "We haven't got much
further to go."

It was a clear December day and quite light under the leafless trees.
There were a few evergreens scattered about, but not many, and these
hung low with their weight of snow. All was intensely silent.

"This ought to be lonely enough to suit anybody," observed Henshaw. He
turned to Roger. "How would you like to come out here some dark night
all alone?"

"None of that for me," was the quick answer.

"Might meet a ghost," said Dave, with a smile.

"Talking of ghosts puts me in mind of a story," said Shadow. "A boy once
had to go through a dark woods all alone----"

"Shadow wants to get us scared," interrupted Dave. "Oh, Shadow, I didn't
think it of you! It's bad enough as it is," he went on, in seeming
reproach. "Don't you know this island is haunted by the man who
committed suicide here?"

"A suicide, Dave?" cried the school story-teller, forgetting all about
the tale he had been on the point of relating.

"Sure. That man tried to kill his wife and seven children, and then hung
himself from a tree not far from here. They say that twice a month his
ghost appears."

"It's about time for the ghost now," added Roger, scenting fun. "Listen!
Didn't I hear a groan!"

"Must have been that," went on Dave. "There it is again!"

"I--I didn't hear anything," faltered Shadow. He was not an excessively
brave lad at the best.

"It's getting pretty dark," continued Dave. "That is when the ghost
shows itself, so I've been informed. If we---- Look! look!" he yelled,
pointing over Shadow's left shoulder.

The story-teller gave a leap forward and glanced around hastily. Dave
was pointing to a clump of bushes.

"Wha--what did you see?" asked Shadow, in a shaking voice.

"I don't know. It was tall and white----"

"The ghost! The ghost!" yelled Roger. "It's coming for us!" And he began
to run back.

Shadow gave a scream of terror and started to run also. As if by
accident, Dave allowed his foot to trip the boy up, and down went the
story-teller of the Hall on his face in the snow.

"Hi! hi! Don't leave me behind!" he bawled, as the others all ran.
"Don't leave me!" and he scrambled up and tore along through the
brushwood as if possessed. The others speedily halted and set up a shout
of laughter, at which Shadow looked very sheepish.

"I--I only ran for the fun of the thing," he explained, lamely. "I knew
all along there wasn't a ghos