ause he's a doubting Thomas. I
think the boys should go ahead with their investigation on the
assumption that the ghost is caused by someone."

Barby shook her head, more in sorrow than in anger. "I thought you had
more faith than that, Jan."

"It isn't a question of faith," Jan explained. "It's a question of where
you start. If we start by accepting the ghost as real, there's nothing
we can do. Anyway, we invited the boys down to try to solve a mystery,
didn't we? I guess that proves we didn't truly believe in the ghost."

Rick grinned at the dark-haired girl. "Okay, Jan. Now, to carry on where
Scotty left off, if we assume the ghost is man-caused, we have to assume
it isn't a practical joke, or that it is. What's the vote?"

"No evidence," Dr. Miller said thoughtfully. "It could be a practical
joke, although it's an elaborate sort of thing. More complicated
practical jokes than this have been pulled by expert jokesters. On the
whole, however, I'm inclined to vote against the joke assumption on the
grounds that it has been going on too long. Jokesters are not noted for
their staying power. By this time the secret would be out, or we'd be
having variations. The apparition wouldn't have fallen into a routine."

Dr. Miller had spotted exactly the thing that was troubling Rick. It was
routine, but ghosts are traditionally far from routine. That was
actually the biggest argument for assuming that it was man-made, and
that it was not a practical joke.

He voiced his thoughts aloud, then asked, "If man-made, and not a
practical joke, what's the motive?"

No one replied, because no one had a possible answer.

"Find the motive and you find just about everything else," Scotty
commented.

"True enough," Rick agreed. "But if we can't guess a motive, let's try
another tack. When did the ghost first appear?"

Barby answered. "Right after the Civil War."

Rick was patient. "I know. I mean, when did the ghost start making his
recent appearances?"

"About a month ago," Dr. Miller replied. "We first heard about it from
our tenant farmer when we arrived here from Spindrift. He was full of
the news, as you can imagine. The ghost first appeared at a Girl Scouts'
campfire. An annual event. The girls are supposed to camp overnight.
Needless to say, they didn't."

Rick had a quick mental impression of uniformed girls scattering like
leaves in a hurricane. "The appearances have been regular since then?"

"Yes. So far as we kno