“I thought you was so anxious to go first!” exclaimed Anderson with fine tact.  “Go ahead yourself, ef you’re so derned brave.  I dare you to.”

Bonner laughed loud enough to awaken every ghost in Bramble County and then strode rapidly toward the house.  Anderson Crow followed slowly and the rest straggled after, all alert for the first sign of resistance.

“I wish I could find that derned lantern,” said Anderson, searching diligently in the deep grass as he walked along, in the meantime permitting Bonner to reach the grim old doorway far in advance of him.

“Come on!” called back the intrepid leader, seeing that all save the marshal had halted.  “You don’t need the lantern.  It’s still daylight, old chap.  We’ll find out what it was you all saw in the window.”

“That’s the last of him,” muttered Isaac Porter, as the broad back disappeared through the low aperture that was called a doorway.  There were no window sashes or panes in the house, and the door had long since rotted from the hinges.

“He’ll never come out.  Let’s go home,” added Ed Higgins conclusively.

“Are you coming?” sang out Bonner from the interior of the house.  His voice sounded prophetically sepulchral.

“Consarn it, cain’t you wait a minute?” replied Anderson Crow, still bravely but consistently looking for the much-needed dark lantern.

“It’s all right in here.  There hasn’t been a human being in the house for years.  Come on in; it’s fine!”

Anderson Crow finally ventured up to the doorway and peeped in.  Bonner was standing near the tumbledown fireplace, placidly lighting a cigarette.

“This is a fine job you’ve put up on me,” he growled.  “I thought there would be something doing.  There isn’t a soul here, and there hasn’t been, either.”

“Thunderation, man, you cain’t see ghosts when they don’t want you to!” said Anderson Crow.  “It was a ghost, that’s settled.  I knowed it all the time.  Nothin’ human ever looked like it, and nothin’ alive ever moaned like it did.”

By this time the rest of the party had reached the cabin door.  The less timorous ventured inside, while others contented themselves by looking through the small windows.

“Well, if you’re sure you really saw something, we’d better make a thorough search of the house and the grounds,” said Bonner, and forthwith began nosing about the two rooms.

The floors were shaky and the place had the odour of decayed wood.  Mould clung to the half-plastered walls, cobwebs matted the ceilings, and rotted fungi covered the filth in the corners.  Altogether it was a most uninviting hole, in which no self-respecting ghost would have made its home.  When the time came to climb up to the little garret Bonner’s followers rebelled.  He was compelled to go alone, carrying the lantern, which one of the small boys had found.  This part of the house was even more loathsome than below, and it would be impossible to