“Where do you suppose he went to?”
“Search me! He has certainly dropped out of sight entirely.”
“Perhaps he slid out through one of the doors and went back to the house and is now laughing at us,” suggested Andy. He was busy wiping the mud from his hands with an old salt bag.
“No, he couldn’t have left by any of the doors, for they’re all bolted on the inside,” declared Jack.
“Maybe he went up in the loft and dropped from one of the windows,” suggested Randy.
The three boys took another look around, shouting Fred’s name several times as they did so. Then they went up in the loft. Here a grimy window stood half open.
“That window has been opened since we came,” declared Andy. “Just the same, he could easily drop out of it to the pile of hay below,” he added, looking down.
“We might as well go back to the house and see if he’s there,” said Jack, and thereupon the three boys descended to the lower floor of the barn, unlocked one of the doors, and made a quick dash for the farmhouse.
“I’m going to wash up a bit before I look for him,” said Andy. “I feel as dirty as a sewer digger.”
“And you look worse than that,” added his twin, with a laugh. “Come on, Jack, let us find Fred and make him tell us his secret,” he added to his cousin.
A few minutes after the three boys left the barn Aleck Pop entered the place to get a peach basket which the cook wanted. The colored man had been told that the baskets were in the far end of the barn where Jack Ness had placed them.
“I don’t see why Jack couldn’t’ve brung dat basket,” mumbled Aleck, as he stumbled along in the semi-darkness of the barn. He considered that all work around that place belonged to the hired man and not to himself, he being employed principally around the house and on outside errands.
The colored man was still some distance from the back end of the barn when he heard a strange thumping. He came to an abrupt halt and began to scratch his woolly pate.
“What’s dat knockin’?” he demanded. “Who’s dar?”
The thumping ceased and all was quiet around the barn except for an occasional sound from the stalls where several of the horses were munching hay. Then Aleck took another step or two forward.
At once the thumping started up again, coming so loudly and seemingly so near that the colored man gave a suspicious jump.
“Who’s dar?” he cried again. “Who’s dat knockin’? Is some of you boys playin’ a trick on old Aleck?”
Again the thumping ceased, and now it was so quiet in the darkened barn that Aleck seemed to feel his scalp rising. He was naturally superstitious, and at once began to imagine all sorts of things.
“You can’t play no tricks on me!” he exclaimed rather weakly. “You come out o’ hidin’, whoever you is!”
“Goof! Goof! Kerchoo! Goof!” came in muffled tones, and this was followed by a thumping that made poor Aleck turn as if to run. “Goof! Goof!”
Straining his eyes in the semi-darkness of a back corner of the barn, Aleck made out a long and heavy box, the lid to which was tightly closed. Then, as he stood stock still but ready to run away if necessary, he became aware that the strange thumping and other noises were coming from this receptacle.
“Must be a dog or a hog in dat box,” he muttered. “But why don’t he raise de lid and pop out?”
As the strange sounds and thumping continued, Aleck timidly and fearfully took several steps forward, and then, by peering closer, saw that not only was the lid of the box tightly closed but a hasp used for a padlock had fallen into place over a staple, so that the lid could not be pushed up from the inside.
“Dat dog or hog or whatebber it am, am sure a prisoner,” he murmured, and then something like a grin came over his ebony face. Stepping closer, he unclasped the hasp and threw back the long and heavy lid of the box.
“Goof! Goof! Kerchoo! Goof!” came in a splutter from the bottom of the box, and a moment later there arose to the astonished gaze of Aleck Pop a tall figure in white, waving two ghostlike arms wildly.
“Land of Abraham!” shrieked the colored man, and began to tremble from head to foot. “It am a ghost! It sure am!” Then he turned to flee.
“Goof! Goof! Kerchoo!” came from the ghostlike figure. “Kerchoo! Say, somebody—kerchoo—dust me—kerchoo—off—kerchoo—will you? Goof! Goof!” and the figure continued to splutter and make all sorts of mysterious movements.
“It’s a ghost! It’s a hant!” shrieked Aleck, and rushed out of the barn and toward the house as fast as his aged legs would carry him. He burst into the kitchen, rolling his eyes wildly.
“Aleck! Aleck! What is the matter with you?” cried Aunt Martha, in consternation.
“Der am a ghost in de barn, Mrs. Rober!” was the scared reply. “A great big white ghost!”
“Oh, Aleck, there are no such things as ghosts,” was the ready reply of the old lady. “You are surely mistaken.”
“But I done saw it! It rose out of a box and waved long white arms at me!”
“What’s that about a ghost, Aleck?” questioned Jack, as he came in, followed by the twins.
“I done saw a ghost in de barn. Came out of a big box down in a back corner. It was all white and groanin’ and moanin’ something terrible. I think somebody’s gwine to die!” and Aleck rolled his eyes in fright.
“It must be Fred,” declared Randy. “Aleck, it’s Fred, and he’s playing a trick on you.”
“How could dat be Fred? Who locked him in dat box?”
“Was he locked in?” questioned Randy quickly.
“He sure was. De hasp of de lid was slipped over de staple.”
“Then there’s the answer to the riddle,” announced Andy. “Fred got in the box and couldn’t get out again.”
“But dat ghost am all white—jest as white as a ghost could be,” declared Aleck emphatically.
“If he was locked in the box, why didn’t he make some kind of a noise when we called him?” questioned Jack.
“Let’s go and make sure!” cried Randy.
Regardless of the rain, the three boys hastened once again to the barn and rather sheepishly Aleck Pop followed them. A ludicrous sight met their gaze as they entered. Standing in the middle of the barn floor was Fred trying with a handkerchief to get a whitish substance from his face, and especially from his eyes and nose. He was spluttering and sneezing and coughing all at the same time.
“Goof! Goof! Kerchoo! I’m almost—kerchoo—dead with this—this stuff!” he spluttered. “Here, lend me a handkerchief or—kerchoo—something. I—I can’t get my breath!” and he continued to splutter for several minutes.
In the meantime Jack thumped him on the back and the others did what they could think of to relieve him. His clothing was covered with a fine, light, flour-like substance, and this had gotten into his ears and hair, as well as into his eyes and nose.
“I know what that is,” declared Randy. “It’s the new stuff Uncle Randolph bought for spraying in the garden. It takes the place of arsenic and things like that. It’s sprayed on dry, and then the rain does the rest.”
“My gracious, Randy, do you suppose it’s poisonous?” questioned Jack quickly.
“If dat stuff am poison, Fred am a dead boy,” prophesied Aleck solemnly. Now that he saw that what he had supposed was a ghost was really Fred he felt more like himself.
“I’m going to hunt up Uncle Randolph and find out about this,” said Randy, and ran off without further ado. A little later he came back to find the others dusting Fred off with a whiskbroom and a cloth.
“Uncle Randolph says he doesn’t think the stuff will do any harm,” Randy announced. “But he thinks Fred had better take a bath and change his clothing and be careful not to swallow any of the powder and not to breathe any of it up into his nose.”
“You bet I’ll take a bath, and do it right away!” was Fred’s answer, as he continued to cough and sneeze.
“But how in the world did you come to jump into the box? Didn’t you see the stuff in there?” questioned Jack.
“It wasn’t there when I jumped in—at least, it wasn’t there to bother me,” answered Fred. “It was in a couple of big paper bags. I was all right when you tramped around the barn calling for me, and so I kept quiet. But after you left I tried to get out of the box and found I couldn’t. Then I began to thump around, and first thing I knew I kicked the bags apart and then the powder flew all over, and I was almost smothered. Then I began to splutter and kick for all I was worth, and then Aleck opened the box.”
“Well, it’s a good thing Aleck came,” declared Randy. “If he hadn’t come, you might have been smothered to death.”
“I guess that’s right. Aleck, I owe you a good deal for this.”
“Dat’s all right, Massah Fred,” answered the old colored man. “Jest de same, jest don’t you scare dis darkey to death de next time you get in a box.”
“The next time I get in a box I’ll keep out of it,” declared the youngest Rover, and then hurried to the house to get his bath.
When the girls heard of the mishap that had befallen Fred they were much concerned, even Ruth taking a great interest.
“Oh, Fred, you must be more careful!” cried his sister. “Why, you might have smothered to death!”
“It’s just like the old story,” said Ruth. “Don’t you remember, where the bride hid from her husband and got locked in a trunk in a garret and her skeleton was not found till years and years afterwards?”
“Oh, Ruth, what a horrible story to tell!” burst out Martha.
This happening seemed to bring the young folks together again, and for the time being the little coldness between Jack and Ruth was forgotten. After supper the young folks gathered around the piano for a while and played and sang, and then listened in on a radio which the boys had brought from the city.
“There is something wrong with this radio set,” declared Jack, after they had made a number of attempts to get distant stations. “I think the best thing we can do is to look over the aërial to-morrow and see if we’ve got it just right.”
“I think that big elm tree interferes with it,” declared Randy.
A little later the boys prepared to make some prints from the films taken of the horse race, using a battery light for that purpose. It had now grown darker and Aunt Martha was going around lighting up.
The boys were still at work over the films, and the girls were in the sitting room with Ruth at the piano, when suddenly Martha let out a scream, and this was followed by a scream from Mary.
“What is it? What’s the trouble?” questioned Jack, as he came rushing in, followed by the others.
“Somebody looked in at the window!” declared Ruth.
“It was Slugger Brown!” gasped Martha.
“And he made the most awful face at us you ever saw!” added Mary.