"Yes, sir," repeated Silas, after he had taken another brief look at his surroundings, to make sure that there was no mistake about it; "we're abreast of our wood-pile at this blessed minute, 'cause why—you see that leaning hickory up there on the top of the bluff? Well, I shot a squirrel off'n there about three weeks ago, and that there tree is only a quarter of a mile from the wood-pile. I wish you wouldn't look so scared-like, Dannie. The best part of this mean job is over now, and we ain't seen nothing to be afeard of yet. Look around, and see if you can find anything of that rope. If you can, there's the cave. Go ahead, Dannie, and when you feel yourself getting trembly all over, just say, 'breech-loading bird-guns and j'inted fish-poles,' and that'll put pluck into you."

Silas rattled on in this way simply to gain time, and Dan knew it; but before he could make any reply, the performance of the previous day, which had proved so trying to Tom Hallet's nerves and Bob Emerson's, was repeated for their benefit, followed by a new and startling variation. First, a dismal howl arose on the air, and the echoes took it up and threw it from one cliff to the other, until it seemed to the terrified Dan that every tree and hush within the range of his vision concealed some awful thing that was howling at him with all its might.

Gradually the sound grew into a scream; and at the same moment there arose above the bushes, not more than thirty yards in advance of him, a grotesque figure, clad all in white. Its head was concealed by something that looked like a night-cap; but its face was visible, and it was as white as chalk—all except the places where its eyes, nose and mouth were, or ought to have been, and they were as black as ink. It held its arms stiffly by its sides, and when the scream was at its loudest, it made a sudden dart forward as if it were on the point of jumping over the bushes, to take vengeance upon the daring fortune-hunters.

"Oh, my soul!" groaned Silas; and his legs refusing to support him any longer, he sat down among the rocks and covered his eyes with his hand.

But Dan was made of sterner stuff. For a moment or two he stared at the figure with eyes that seemed ready to start from their sockets, and then his gun came quickly to his shoulder, and two loads of shot went straight for the ghost's head.

This aroused his father, who was not a second behind him; but the four charges had no more effect upon the spectre than so many blank cartridges.

When the smoke cleared away, there he stood, and his actions seemed to indicate that he was about to assume the offensive. He began growing before their eyes; and when he had risen in the air until his height overtopped that of the tallest man they had ever seen, Dan, who did not care to wait until he had lengthened himself all out, uttered a yell that was almost as loud and unearthly as those that came from the direction of the cave, and turned and took to his heels.

He quickly gave his father the place of danger—the rear—and when Silas, lumbering along behind, and stumbling over rocks and barking his shins at almost every step, reached the first bend in the stream, Dan was nowhere in sight.

Knowing that it would be of no earthly use to call to him to come back, Silas took one quick glance behind him to make sure that the spectre was not coming in pursuit, and then darted into the bushes which fringed the base of the cliff, and climbed slowly and laboriously to the top.

He was a long time in reaching it, for his terror seemed to have robbed him of all his strength and agility, while it had just the opposite effect upon Dan, whom he found at last; sitting on a log near the wood-pile.

"Well, we know now for certain that the money's there, don't we?" said Silas, as soon as he could speak.

"Yes; and we know that the hant's there too," replied Dan. "If I'd known that he was such a looking feller as that, you can bet your bottom dollar that I wouldn't have gone nigh him. He didn't have them white clothes on yesterday. You needn't set down, thinking that I'm going to wait for you, 'cause I'm going straight home."

Tired and weak as he was, Silas was obliged to go, too, for he hadn't the courage to stay there alone until he was rested. He wasn't very steady on his legs, and by no means as sure-footed as he usually was; but he managed to keep along with Dan, who, as fast as his wind came back to him, increased his pace, first to a slow trot, then to a fast trot, and finally to a dead run, every fresh burst of speed calling forth a corresponding exertion on the part of his father, who, struggling gamely to keep up, was so nearly exhausted by the violence of his efforts that he was often on the point of falling in his tracks.

A Run for Home

This was the way they were moving when Mrs. Morgan discovered them approaching the house. She was greatly astonished when she saw the nervous haste with which they closed and locked the door, and witnessed their frantic but unsuccessful attempts to recharge their guns, and she was frightened when she caught a glimpse of their faces; but with all her questioning, she could not get a word out of them.

They stared stupidly at her, as they rocked about in their chairs, but did not seem to possess the power of speech.

"Our tongues were stiffer'n a couple of boards, and we couldn't nary one of us open our heads," was the way in which Dan wound up his story. "At first I thought the hant had put some kind of a spell or 'nother on to us; but it went away after a while, and now we can both talk as well as we ever could. I reckon you won't go back, will you, Joey?"

To Dan's utter amazement, the young game-warden replied with the greatest promptness:

"Of course I shall go back. What would Mr. Warren think of me if I should throw up my situation before I had fairly entered upon its duties? I haven't seen anything to get frightened at."

"But I have," exclaimed Dan.

"I don't doubt it in the least," answered Joe, who had a theory of his own regarding the strange things that had happened in the gorge. "If I don't bother the 'hant' I don't see why he should take the trouble to climb out of his cave to bother me. I don't want the treasure he is guarding. I never expect to get a dollar that I don't work for; and, Dan, if you and father would make up your minds to the same thing, and quit your foolish wishing and go to work in dead earnest, you would be better off six months from now. I wouldn't go near those woods again if I were in your place."

"You're right I won't," said Dan, earnestly. "I want my new gun and fish-pole awful bad, and I do despise to have to give 'em up; but I'll wait till that there hant dies or goes away, before I try that gulf again, I bet you. Be you going back to your shanty now?"

Joe said he was.

"Well, mebbe it's best so," continued Dan, reflectively. "You have got to earn all the money that comes into the family this winter, ain't you?"

"I suppose I shall earn all I get," said Joe, who saw very plainly what his brother was driving at, "and I know that you and father will earn every red cent you get."

"It sorter bothers me to see how we are going to do it," replied Dan. "Don't it you?"

"Not at all. Earn it as you did last winter—cut wood."

"Why, that would take us up there clost to the gulf," cried Dan, looking up in amazement. "And didn't I just tell you that I wasn't going there no more?"

"Now, Dan, that's only an excuse on your part. You know very well that Mr. Warren and Mr. Hallet are not the only ones who will want cord-wood this winter. I don't blame you for keeping away from the gorge; but you can find plenty to do elsewhere, if you are not too lazy to look for it. Well, good-by."

"What a teetotally mean, stingy feller, that Joe of our'n is!" soliloquized Dan, gazing after his brother, who was walking toward the cabin with a light and springy step. "He ain't a going to go halvers with me and pap, is he? I wish in my soul that the hant would run him outen the mounting this very night."

The young game-warden carried a very bright and smiling face into his mother's presence, and Mrs. Morgan felt immensely relieved the moment she looked at it. Instead of locking the door, as Dan and his father always did whenever they wished to hold a secret interview with each other, Joe sat down on the threshold so that he could talk to his mother and keep watch of Dan at the same time.

The latter was inclined to be "snooping," and it would be just like him, Joe thought, to slip up and crouch under the open window, so that he could hear every word he uttered. Dan had an idea of doing that very thing; but he straightway abandoned it when he looked up and saw his brother sitting at ease in the open door.

"Now, mother," said the latter, cheerfully, "throw your fears to the winds. I've got at the bottom of the whole matter, and know there's nothing to be afraid of."

Then he went on to repeat the story to which he had just listened, but he did not take up so much time with the narration as Dan did, because he used fewer words.

"Dan was so badly frightened that he didn't know whether he stood on his head or his heels," said Joe, in conclusion. "But it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, and this is the best thing that could have happened for me. I told you this morning that if father and Dan didn't behave and let my birds alone, I would find means to make them, but I guess the ghost has taken that most unpleasant job off my hands, and I should really like to thank him for it."

"Then you think there is some one hidden in the gulf?" said Mrs. Morgan.

"I am sure of it; and the reason that father and Dan did not do any damage with their four charges of bird-shot was, because they sent them into a dummy. If they had held a little lower, and fired into the bushes, there might have been another story to tell."

"Have you any idea who the man is?"

"Not the slightest; but—but—well I don't care who he is, or why he is hiding there, if he will only make it his business to drive away every market-shooter who goes into those woods."

It had been right on the point of Joe's tongue to say that he would know all about the mysterious party who was hiding in the gorges before he came home again; but he didn't say it.

His mother was smiling now, and he did not want to bring the old expression of fear and anxiety back to her face. He was none the less determined, however, to sift the matter to the bottom.

"I will see Tom and Bob to-morrow," he went on. "By the way, you didn't know that they are Mr. Hallet's game-wardens, did you? Neither did I, until this morning. I couldn't have better fellows for company, could I? You see, mother, the place where all these things happened is on the dividing line that runs between Mr. Warren's woods and Mr. Hallet's, and as the ghost will help Tom and Bob quite as much as he will me, I want to know what they think about letting him stay there."

There was another reason why Joe was anxious to have an interview with Mr. Hallet's game-wardens, but he did not think it best to say anything to his mother about it.