woodshed. Checkers were used as counters,
where in the outdoors pebbles would have served.

"It's like parcheesi," Scotty explained to the girls. "You try to beat
your opponent around the spaces on the board. The four sticks get thrown
into the air, and you can move one space for every stick that lands flat
side up. If all four land flat side up, that's a 'yoot' and you get
another throw on top of the four moves. You start, Barby, and I'll show
you the other rules as we go along."

At lunchtime Mrs. Miller broiled hamburgers on the charcoal grill out in
the woodshed, which connected to the kitchen. Then she used the glowing
coals to make coffee in the old-fashioned way, putting the grounds
directly into the pan of boiling water. Since the family coffeepot was
an electric percolator, this was the only means she had.

Rick would have enjoyed it thoroughly were it not for his impatience to
put his plan for catching the ghost into operation. It was certain by
now that the affair at the picnic grounds was called off, but with radio
and TV silent, there was no way of checking.

The storm continued through the afternoon and into the evening. Dinner
was broiled steak, with a tossed salad. If the storm continued for a
week, Rick told the group, they'd all get as fat as Collins from Mrs.
Miller's charcoal cooking.

Over coffee he outlined the plan that had been stirring in his mind.

"We don't know the motive for the ghost's appearance yet. We don't know
how he appears, either. But unless I'm way off, the Frostola man has
something to do with it."

"I don't see how you can say that," Barby objected.

"It's an assumption," Rick admitted. "But what else have we but
assumptions? We assume the ghost is man-made. All right. Who's the man?
I give you Frostola, the product that produces ghosts.

"Seriously, we have to make some assumptions about our chase of the
ghost. If it was a man, it was a tall one with some kind of lighted
thing on his head. That wouldn't be hard to rig. Plastic comes in all
shapes and sizes and colors, these days, including human heads that are
used in store windows. It would be a cinch to rig up a flashlight bulb
and battery inside one. Wouldn't take me five minutes if I had a little
wire and a soldering iron."

"That's true," Dr. Miller agreed. "Making the Blue Ghost the boys chased
would be absurdly easy."

"But leading us on took someone who was a good runner," Rick continued.
"He also had to kno