“Tell you what,” he presently whispered, as a last thought, “if my Aunt Susan is as dead set for silence as she says, those noisy owls are going to vacate their snug quarters up there in a hurry.  I honestly believe, Hugh, this lonely old curiosity of a castle is going to please my queer relative a whole lot.  The chances are she’ll plank down the money to buy Randall’s Folly when she gets my report, accompanied by the pictures I’m taking.  Well, here goes for another nap, hoping the Owl family will settle down and not disturb us again to-night.”

CHAPTER V

A STARTLING SURPRISE

“Hello!  Is it safe to come out; and is the coast clear of ghosts?”

That was Billy addressing Hugh on the following morning, the scout master, as well as Alec Sands and Arthur Cameron, being up and around.  They looked at Billy poking his head out from amidst the folds of his capacious red-and-black striped blanket, and laughed, for somehow he reminded them of a cautious old tortoise trying to spy out the land before entrusting his flippers beyond the confines of his shell.

“Nothing doing in the ghost line, Billy,” Hugh told him, “so you can stretch yourself as much as you please.  Hurry up a little!  Alec here was just suggesting that as the morning looks so fine we might as well go outside and build a cooking fire under the trees for a change”

Billy thereupon threw the blanket aside and hopped to his feet.

“When you say anything about eating,” he observed as he started to finish his dressing with feverish haste, “seems like my whole system responds.  Alec, I want to tell you the idea isn’t half bad either.  Dining in this musty old room seems too much as if we were still at home, you know.  Nothing like being under the trees when you’re taking an outing.  I haven’t got any gypsy blood in me that I know of, but I do like the big outdoors a heap, better than anything else going—–­that is, except eating.”

Monkey Stallings was by this time also awake and fixing himself to defy the chilly morning atmosphere.

They abandoned the castle, taking their belongings with them.  At the time it was looked upon only as a little incident, and no one dreamed that afterwards they would find themselves very thankful for having done this very thing.

Back of the building the trees grew thickly, and it did not take the scouts long to discover a very good location for a temporary camp, where they could build a fire and cook breakfast.

“Another thing,” said Alec, “if the weather holds good I’m going to suggest that we hunt a place back there, half a mile, perhaps, away from the castle, to spend the night in.  Like Billy here, I don’t fancy sleeping under a roof when I can have a chance to camp out under the stars and hear the whispering of the trees.”

The others were quick to seize upon the idea.