“Very likely,” agreed Tom, coolly.  “But we’re not going to be frightened by anything like that; are we?”

“Not much!” exclaimed Mr. Jenks.  “I expected this.  A ghost can’t drive me back from getting my rights from those scoundrels!”

“Suppose it uses a revolver to back up its demand?” asked the scientist.

“Wait until it does,” answered Mr. Jenks.  But the figure in white evidently had no such intentions.  It came on a little distance farther, still waving the long arms threateningly, and then it suddenly disappeared, seeming to dissolve in the misty shadows of the night.

“Bless my suspenders!” cried Mr. Damon.  “That’s a very strange proceeding!  Very strange!  What do you make of it, Tom?”

“It is evidently some man dressed up in a sheet,” declared Mr. Jenks.  “I expected as much.”

“The work of those diamond makers; do you think?” continued Mr. Damon.

“I believe so,” answered Tom, slowly, for he was trying to think it out.  “I believe they are the cause of the phantom, though I don’t know that it’s a man dressed in a sheet.”

“Why isn’t it?” demanded Mr. Jenks.

“Because it was too tall for a man, unless he’s a giant.”

“He may have been on stilts,” suggested Mr. Parker.

“No man on stilts could walk along that way,” declared Tom, confidently.  “He glided along too easily.  I am inclined to think it may be some sort of a light.”

“A light?” queried Mr. Damon.

“Yes, the diamond makers may be hidden in some small cave near here, and they may have some sort of a magic lantern or a similar arrangement, for throwing a shadow picture.  They could arrange it to move as they liked, and could cause it to disappear at will.  That, I think, is the ghost we have just seen.”

“But the diamond makers have only been in this mountain recently,” objected Mr. Jenks, “and the phantom was here before them.  In fact, that was what gave the place its name.”

“That may be,” admitted the lad.  “There are many places that have the name of being haunted, but no one ever sees the ghost.  It is always some one else, who has heard of some one who has seen it.  That may have been the case here.  I grant that this place may have been called ‘Phantom Mountain’ for a number of years, due to the superstitious tales of miners.  The diamond makers came along, found the conditions just right for their work, and adopted the ghost, so to speak.  As there wasn’t any real spirit they made one, and they use it to scare people away.  I think that’s what we’ve just seen, though I may be wrong in my theory as to what the phantom is.”

“Well, it’s gone now, at any rate,” said Mr. Jenks, “and I think we’d better get back inside the tent.  It’s cold out here.”

“Aren’t some of us going to stand guard?” demanded Mr. Damon.

“What for?” asked Mr. Jenks.

“Why—­er—­bless my key-ring!  Suppose that ghost takes a notion to come down here, and use his gun, as he did on the miners?”