“Count me in on anything that promises an adventure, Hugh,” came the prompt reply.  “There is plenty of gas in the tank, and if we do get a puncture on the sharp stones we’ve got an extra tube along, with lots and lots of muscle lying around loose for changing the same.  That’s my answer, Hugh.”

“Thad, how about you?” continued the shrewd Hugh, well knowing that by making an individual appeal he would be more apt to receive a favorable response, because it goes against the average boy’s pride to be accounted a weakling, or one addicted to believing old wives’ fairy stories of goblins, and all such trash.

“Oh, count me in, Hugh,” responded the other, with an indifference that may possibly have been partly assumed; but then Thad Stevens was always ready to back his enterprising chum, no matter what the other suggested.

“Horatio, it’s up to you now!” Hugh went on remorselessly, as K. K. stopped the car at a signal from the other, and faint signs of what had once been a road were to be distinguished just on the left.

“Majority rules, you know,” said the wise Juggins boy, “and already three have given their assent; so it’s no back-out for little Horatio.”

“Course I’ll agree, Hugh,” quickly added Julius, when he saw that the other had turned toward him.  “I’m just as curious as the next fellow to see that old haunted quarry—­in the daytime, of course.  Besides, everybody knows there isn’t any such thing as a ghost.  All such stories, when they’re sifted down, turn out to be humbugs.  Sometimes the moving spectre is a white donkey browsing alongside the road.  Then again I’ve heard of how it was a swing that had a white pillow left in it by the children, and the night wind caused it to advance and retreat in a terrible way.  Hugh, let’s investigate this silly old business while we’re on the spot.”

And by these wonderfully brave words Julius hoped to dissipate any notion concerning his alleged timidity that may have lodged in the brains of his chums.

So K. K. started up again, and by another minute the old car had passed in among the trees, with the overgrown brush “swiping” against the sides every foot of the way.  It was necessary that they proceed slowly and cautiously, because none of them had ever been over that long disused road before, and all sorts of obstacles might confront the bold invaders of the wilds.

Hugh was using his eyes to good advantage, and at his advice the others did the same.  It was a good thing the car was old, and that it mattered nothing how those stiff branches scraped against the sides during their forward progress.  K. K. knew how to manage, all right, and, although the trail was quite rough in places where the heavy rains had washed the earth away, and left huge stones projecting, he was able to navigate around these obstacles successfully.

Twice they came to low places where water ran, and there was some danger of the heavy car becoming mired.  At such times several of the boys would jump out, and after investigating the conditions perhaps throw a mass of stones and pieces of wood in, to make what Hugh called a sort of a “corduroy road” across the swampy section of ground.