“That’s so.  But I’m scared of the ghost.”

“Oh, so you’re afraid, are you?”

At this the boy flushed and fiddled with his toes in the grass.

“No kid that’s afraid could live in Moon Valley.  He’d be scared to death in a week.”

“Are there ghosts there?”

“There are no such things as ghosts.  Bet you never saw one yourself.”

“No, I never did.  But all the folks around here say there is ghosts in that house.”

“Well, say there are, they wouldn’t come out in the daytime, would they?”

“I reckon not.  Gee, I’ll come in.”

The boy disappeared like a flash, and in a few moments Ted heard the front door open, then a scream.

“I’ll bet he’s found the dead man,” said Ted, aloud, in a tone of annoyance.  “That’s just my luck.”

The door slammed, and all was silent.  The boy evidently had run away, and Ted was left alone in the house with the dead man.

Once more darkness descended upon the earth, and Ted took up another hole in his belt, and tried to believe that he was not hungry.

About nine o’clock Ted, who was lying on the couch looking at the ceiling, saw a faint flicker of light pass across it, and sprang to his feet.  It was the light cast by a lantern somewhere outside.

He sprang to the window and looked out.

Behind the brick wall he could see the reflection of a bobbing lantern, and hear the shuffle of many feet.

“Ho, there!” he cried.

The shuffle stopped, and a voice that was trembling with fear answered him.

“Come in here, and let me out,” called Ted.

“We’ll be thar in a minute,” was the answer, and presently the front door was thrown open, followed by exclamations, as whoever had come in viewed the body in the next room.

Then the voices were outside his door.

“You open it an’ go in,” said a voice.  “You’re the constable.”

“Well, supposin’ he’s got a gun?” asked the constable tremulously.

“Don’t be afraid,” said Ted.  “I have no gun.  They took everything away from me.”

“There!  Ain’t that enough?  Open the door.”

Ted heard the bar being taken down, then the key grate in the lock, and the door was thrown open with a bang.  He found himself looking into the barrels of a shotgun.

“If yer makes a motion, I’ll blow yer head plumb off, blame yer,” shouted the man with the gun.

“Honest,” said Ted, “I’m not armed.”

“How come yuh here?”

“I was made insensible by ammonia fumes and brought here last night.”

“How come yuh ter kill that man in ther next room?”

“I didn’t kill him.”

“That’s a likely story.  I find yuh alone in ther house with him.  Yuh’ll hev ter answer ter ther magistrate fer this.”

“See here, my friend, how could I have killed that man, then come in here, and locked and barred the door on the outside?”