CHAPTER XIII

THE COLORED MAN'S GHOST

The travelers found the town where Tommy's friend lived such a pleasant place that they spent several days there. It was a thriving place, and the auto was a source of endless wonder to most of the inhabitants, who had never seen one.

Had the boys wished they could have made considerable money taking parties out in the car for short trips, but they knew they had a long journey before them and they wished to save the machine all they could. It needed some repairs which were made by the local blacksmith, and then the travelers were ready to move forward again.

"I don't know how to thank you for all you did for me," said Tommy, as the boys were leaving. "You saved my life. Maybe I will have a chance to do you a good turn some day. If I have, you can bet I'll do it."

"We know you will, Tommy," said Jerry. "Well, good-by. I hope we see you again."

"Same here!" exclaimed Bob and Ned.

They did not know how soon they were to meet their friend again, nor in what a peculiar manner he was able to aid them in return for what they had done for him.

For several days the auto skimmed along through a somewhat lonely country. The roads were not very good and a number of times progress was so slow that only a few miles were made between sunrise and sunset. Now and then the travelers would come to a lonely cabin, where they could replenish their food supply or get a night's lodging. But, in the main, they had to depend on their own resources.

Occasionally they would reach a little settlement, where their arrival never failed to produce as much excitement as a fire and circus combined. Every day brought them nearer their gold mine, concerning which they were very anxious, as they had heard nothing further from Jim Nestor.

"The mine may have been taken away from him for all we know," chafed Jerry as he fretted at the delay caused by bad roads.

"We'll hope for the best," said Ned. "No use crossing a bridge until you come to it."

The travelers were well up among the lower mountains now, though compared with the heights they had still to scale the range was one of mere hills. One evening just at dusk, after a particularly hard day of travel, during which the auto had broken down several times, necessitating minor repairs, the Motor Boys came to a place where two roads divided.

"I wonder which we had better take?" asked Bob, who was at the wheel.

"The right," said Jerry.

"The left," advised Ned.

"Toss up a cent," suggested the professor. "Make it heads right and tails left."

They did so. The coin came down heads up, and Bob turned the machine to the right. It had not proceeded far on this road when, about a mile ahead, the travelers saw a couple of log cabins.

"Well, there's shelter for to-night, at all events," Jerry remarked, "and, I hope, supper as well. I'm getting a little tired of bacon and coffee."

They found one of the cabins occupied by a negro, his wife, and seven children, the oldest a boy of sixteen and the youngest a little girl, just able to toddle.

"Good evening," greeted the professor, "can we get supper and lodging anywhere about here?"

"I reckon I kin fix yo' up on th' eatin' question, boss," remarked the darkey as he stood in the cabin door as the auto drew up, "but I 'clare t' goodness I can't find no room t' stable that there rip-snortin' beast ye got."

"We don't expect you to take the auto in," spoke Jerry. "If you give us beds for ourselves, or even a room to sleep in we'll pay for it and glad to do it."

"Land sakes, I'd like t' 'blige yo', deed 'n I would boss," went on the negro, "but my cabin am jest crowded t' th' doah wif me an' my fambily. Yo' am welcome t' suthin' t' eat, but land a' massy whar I'se goin' t' have yo' sleep hab got me cogitatin'."

"What's the matter with that other cabin?" asked Ned.

"What other cabin?" asked the negro, not turning to look in the direction of the second shack, about a quarter of a mile down the road.

"That one," went on Ned, pointing to it. "There may be room in it."

"Oh I reckon there's room enough," replied the colored man, "only--well to tell you th' truff, boss, it ain't exackly healthy t' sleep in that cabin, er even t' talk about it. 'Scuse me but I don't want even t' look at it."

"Why not?"

The colored man seemed to hesitate. He fidgeted and seemed ready to go back into his house.

"Why not?" asked Ned again.

"Kase it's--it's got ghosts an' it's hanted!" exclaimed the negro, "an' it ain't safe fer any one to go near it, let alone sleep in it."

"Nonsense," remarked the professor. "There are no such things as ghosts."

"Yo' wouldn't say so if yo' went to that there cabin after dark," persisted the colored man. "'Tain't safe t' talk about it, so yo'll please 'scuse me."

"But what sort of a ghost is it?" asked Jerry.

"It's big an' it's white, an' it rattles chains an' groans sumthin' turrible," said the negro.

"Did you ever see it?" asked Ned.

"Did I ever see it, boss? Couse I done see it. Only t'other night it near skeered me to deff."

"How long has it been there?" asked Bob.

"'Bout a week I reckon," replied the negro. "Ever since Rastus Johnson moved away from th' cabin."

"I guess we'll take a chance with the ghost for the sake of spending a night under shelter," said Jerry. "Meanwhile we can get supper here."

And a fine supper they had. Mrs. Jones, wife of the colored man, proved an excellent cook. She fried some chicken, made some corn bread, and that, with preserves and some good coffee, made up a meal which the travelers voted one of the finest they had eaten in many months.

"Can we get breakfast here, also?" asked Jerry when supper was finished.

"If yo' am alive," replied Jones solemnly.

"If we're alive? What do you mean?"

"Well I reckon ef yo' sleeps in that hanted cabin, there won't be any of yo' left t' want a meal in th' mo'nin'," explained Jones. "It's takin' yo'uns' lives in yo' hands t' go nigh it suah yo' is boahn!"

All they could say did not induce the man to change his mind. He was plainly afraid of the cabin and the "ghost."

But the travelers were determined not to let a little thing like that interfere with a chance to sleep under shelter. Accordingly they covered the auto with the tarpaulin provided for that purpose, and moved their blankets into the deserted cabin, which was fairly clean and in good condition. One of the big oil lamps gave sufficient light.

The cabin contained only two rooms, one on the ground floor, and the other above it, reached by a movable ladder.

"I think we had better sleep upstairs," said Jerry. "The door doesn't fasten very securely, and besides I think it will be drier there."

So they mounted the ladder, spread their blankets out on the floor, and were all soon fast asleep. None of them expected to be disturbed, for they laid the story of the ghost to an overwrought imagination of the colored man.

So it was with a sudden feeling of terror that Jerry was awakened in the middle of the night by hearing a deep groan, seeming to come from the room below.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes to further awaken himself, and then he became aware that Bob was also sitting up. He could see because of the moonlight streaming in through a window.

"Did you hear anything?" asked Jerry.

"I thought so," answered Bob.

"I thought I did," put in Ned, who, it seems had been awakened at the same time the others were.

Once more there sounded an unmistakable groan. It came from the ground floor, and was so loud, penetrating and, in spite of the would-be bravery of the boys, so awful coming out of the darkness, that they shuddered.

"What's that?" asked the professor, who also, this time, was roused from his slumbers.

Before either of the boys could answer the groan was repeated and this time it was followed by the unmistakable clanking of chains.

"The colored man's ghost!" whispered Bob.

"Nonsense!" exclaimed the professor, but, no sooner had he spoken than there came another weird noise, and the chains rattled louder than ever.

"Light the lantern," whispered Jerry. "We must see what it is. Perhaps it's only some one playing a joke."

"Let me take a look before you make a light," suggested the professor. "I can look down the ladder hole."

Softly he crawled over to the opening and peered down. As he did so the noises were repeated. The professor uttered an exclamation.

"It bears the other descriptive marks of the creature the negro told about," he said, crawling back to where the boys were huddled together. "It is big and white and it seems to be trying to climb up the ladder."

"Wait until I get my revolver," whispered Jerry. "We'll soon see if it's a ghost or not."

"Don't fire," cautioned the professor. "It may be some one trying to scare us, but we have no right to fire at any one."

"I'll give 'em a warning, at any rate," said the lad. He went to the opening and called down:

"Tell us who you are or I'll shoot, do you hear?"

A groan and the clanking of chains was the only answer. This was followed by a violent agitation and shaking of the ladder.

"Bang!" went Jerry's revolver. He had fired into the air.

Succeeding the report there was a silence. This was broken by a further clanking of chains. Then came a crash, and when the echo of this died away the sound of feet running away could be heard.

"Pretty solid footsteps for a ghost," commented Ned.

"Look! Look!" cried Bob, pointing out of the window.

There, running down the moon-lit road the boys saw a big white mule, to the neck of which was fastened a chain that rattled with every step.

"There's the ghost," said the professor. "I thought I recognized the voice as that of a quadruped with which I was familiar. The animal has probably broken loose from the field and came here in search of food."

"Well it certainly scared me all right," admitted Bob. The others did not commit themselves, but there was no doubt but that they had several heart-flutters.

"I wonder what that crash was?" asked Ned.

The professor glanced down the hole leading to the first floor.

"The ghost made it by kicking our ladder away," the scientist replied. "I wonder how we can get down."

But the boys did not worry about this, being too sleepy. Soon they were all snoring again, and did not awaken until the sun was streaming in the window.