nk confessed. "I wish I did know."

"Of course, there are no such things as ghosts," he declared, when Bart
joined him. "But if ever a man saw one, I did just now--the ghost of
Barney Mulloy!"

Hodge stared at his friend as if wondering if Frank's mind was not
affected.

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I have said to you. I saw an apparition that resembled Barney
Mulloy. And I not only saw it, but I heard it. It came right along here,
and turned in there, and then I heard it in the corridor. I threw open
the corridor door before any one could have got out of there, and the
corridor was empty!"

"You must have been dreaming!"

"Not a bit of it, Bart. I hadn't gone to bed. I haven't been even a bit
sleepy. I was sitting at my window, and I saw it as plainly as I see
you."

"You certainly must have been dreaming, Merry!" Bart insisted. "Have you
looked all about?"

"Everywhere."

Bart walked over to the door which opened from the corridor on the lawn.
It was not locked.

"It couldn't have been Barney, of course; but whoever it was went
through here into the corridor."

"And how did he get out of the corridor?"

"Walked on through into the office."

"The office is closed. The landlord and all the servants retired long
ago."

"Well, it couldn't have been a ghost!"

"I am wondering if it could have been Barney himself?"

"He was--attacked near Sea Cove, not here!"

"I am going to rout out the landlord," Merriwell declared. "Perhaps he
can throw some light on the subject."

"He told you, when you inquired, that he had heard nothing except what
was in the papers."

"But he may be able to help us to clear away this mystery."

When summoned, the landlord came down into the little office looking
very sleepy, very stupid, and somewhat angry. Merriwell told what he had
seen and heard, and repeated the newspaper story about the murder of
Barney.

"Well, that was at Sea Cove," was the answer. "Ghosts always come back
to the place where the person was killed. Why should it come here? I
don't like this. If you tell it, it will give my house a bad name. No
one wants to board in a haunted house, and it will ruin my summer's
business."

"But I thought you might help us to an explanation," Frank insisted.

The sleepy and stupid look had passed away. The landlord had once been a
seafaring man, and he was a bit superstitious. Still, he was not willing
to acknowledge that Frank had beheld something supernatural