this mean?" questioned Whopper. "Is it another trick?"

"Maybe they are at our camp this minute!" cried Giant. "We ought
to have left somebody on guard."

But he had hardly spoken when they saw a handkerchief waving from
down the lake shore. They pulled in that direction and soon reached
a small, cleared spot. Here the raft was beached and here lay
the whole Spink outfit in confusion.

"What brought you fellows here?" asked Shep, curiously, for he could
see that all those on shore were greatly excited.

"Did you see it?" demanded one of the boys.

"We are going home," declared Ike Akley, and his manner showed that
he was frightened almost out of his wits.

"Let us have the boat and the canoe and we won't bother you any more,"
said Carl Dudder. "You can have the whole lake to yourselves."

"Did we see what?" asked Giant, of the youth who had first spoken.

"The ghost," was the unexpected reply. "It came into our camp last
night and we don't want to see it again. We are all going back to
Lake Cameron."

CHAPTER XXV

JED SANBORN BRINGS NEWS

That the Spink crowd was thoroughly frightened there could not be
the slightest doubt. Even when they told their story many looked
behind them, as if they expected the ghost to pop out of the woods
and clutch them by the shoulder.

It seemed that the ghost had appeared shortly after they returned
to their camp. It came up over the lake silently, a figure in
yellow, with waving horns of red. It had stopped directly in
front of the camp and had waved a menacing arm at the boys. Then
it had disappeared into the gloom of the night.

"It uttered some terrible things," said Carl Dudder. "It said
something about being dead and about being buried."

"Yes, and then it uttered a hideous laugh," said Ike Akley. "I
shall never forget that---it was awful, and it seemed to go right
through a fellow."

"Why didn't you shoot at it?" asked Snap. "That is what I should
have done."

"Humph! I guess if you saw that ghost you'd be paralyzed," said
Carl Dudder. "Why it was enough to make your hair raise on ends!"

"I thought it was coming ashore and murder the lot of us," said
Jack Voss.

"Then you are not going to stay here?" asked Giant.

"Not much! I am going down to Lake Cameron as quick as I can
get there!"

"So am I!" said another.

"You had better go down, too," said a third.

"No, we are going to stay here," answered Shep. "We haven't seen
the