xclamation of
surprise.

Both the purloined hats lay in the middle of the floor.

"There, didn't I told you?" exclaimed Carl, in an awed voice.

Bud simply stared at the hats.

"Nopody but a ghostes could haf did dat."

Bud looked around the room, and then up at the ceiling.

Then he burst into a roar of laughter.

"Thar's ther ghost," he shouted, grasping Carl by the arm and twisting
him around so that he could see.

In the corner just below the ceiling were two sharp, green points of
light that glowed in the faint radiance cast by the fire, which had sunk
to embers.

"Ach, mutter, save your liddle Carl. It vor der ghostes."

"That ain't no ghost," said Bud scornfully. "Ain't you never hear tell
how ghosts look? They're all white an' long an' skinny, an' when they
walk they carry chains what clanks, an'----"

"Oh, Pud, stop. Don't say it some more. My plood vas chilling now so I
ain't aple to svallow in my troat alretty. I vas so scared as nefer vas
I."

"Yer a cheerful roommate, I must say. See, ther ghost is gone."

"I ain't nefer goin' ter be happy some more. I haf seen a ghost. I vill
die, I am sure."

"Yer kin bet on that ez a shore thing, an' I reckon I will, too."

"Listen!" Carl grasped Bud by the arm with the clutch of despair.

There was a faint and stealthy noise on the roof.

Both stood for a few moments listening breathlessly.

Then they heard a faint, far-away wail, like that of a banshee.

Carl threw his arms around Bud in an agony of fear.

"Dere it iss. Ve are gone. All iss lost."

Again the gruesome wail came to them, this time louder and clearer, and
in a moment or two a hand was at the door. The latch clicked softly, and
the door swung slowly open.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BIG COON TREE.

"Hello, what's the matter with you fellows? Are you going to have a
waltz, or is it going to be a two-step, or a catch-as-catch-can
wrestling match? Perhaps you've suddenly grown very fond of one
another."

It was Ted who spoke, standing in the doorway, laughing as if he would
burst his buttons off, at the strange tableau in the middle of the
floor, Carl clinging to Bud, who was trying to shake him off.

"Let loose o' me," shouted Bud. "Why, ther feller's plumb daffy on
ghosts. He says as how this shack is haunted, an' he's plumb loco."

"Yah. Didn't we just hear der ghostes yell mit der outside?" said Carl,
who had been thrust away from his clutch on Bud, and was standing in the