talking the deep voice
of the foreman endorsed the promises he had just heard made, for Buck
had entered the gallery without being noticed. The joke had come to an
end.

When Johnny rode in that evening he was surprised to find Hopalong
waiting for him a short distance from the corral and he replied to his
friend's gesture by riding over to him. "What's up now?" he asked.

"Come along with me. I want to talk to you for a few minutes," and
Hopalong led the way toward the open, followed by Johnny, who was more
or less suspicious. Finally Hopalong stopped, turned, and looked his
companion squarely in the eyes. "Kid, I'm in dead earnest. This ain't
no fool joke--now you tell me what that ghost looked like, how he acted,
an' all about it. I mean what I say, because now I know that you saw
_something_. If it wasn't a ghost it was made to look like one, anyhow.
Now go ahead."

"I've told you a dozen times already," retorted Johnny, his face
flushing. "I've begged you to believe me an' told you that I wasn't
fooling. How do I know you ain't now? I'm not going to tell--"

"Hold on; yes, you are. Yo're going to tell it slow, an' just like you
saw it," Hopalong interrupted hastily. "I know I've doubted it, but who
wouldn't! Wait a minute--I've done a heap of thinking in the past few
days an' I know that you saw a ghost. Now, everybody knows that there
ain't no such thing as ghosts; then what was it you saw? There's a game
on, Kid, an' it's a dandy; an' you an' me are going to bust it up an'
get the laugh on the whole blasted crowd, from Buck to Cowan."

Johnny's suspicions left him with a rush, for his old Hoppy was one man
in a thousand, and when he spoke like that, with such sharp decision,
Johnny knew what it meant. Hopalong listened intently and when the short
account was finished he put out his hand and smiled.

"We're the fools, Kid; not you. There's something crooked going on in
that canyon, an' I know it! But keep mum about what we think."

Johnny lost his grouch so suddenly and beamed upon his friends with such
a superior air that they began to worry about what was in the wind.
The suspense wore on them, for with Hopalong's assistance, Johnny might
spring some game on them all that would more than pay up for the fun
they had enjoyed at his expense; and the longer the suspense lasted the
worse it became. They never lost sight of him while he was around and
Hopalong had to endure the same surveillance; and it was no