l boys who startled Marshal Crow from
his moping had gone down the river to skate instead of going to school.
They swore that the sound of muffled voices came from the interior of
the cabin, near which they had inadvertently wandered. Although Dave
Wolfe had been dead thirty years, one of the youngest of the lads was
positive that he recognised the voice of the desperado. And at once the
trio fled the 'cursed spot and brought the horrifying news to Anderson
Crow. The detective was immediately called upon to solve the ghostly
mystery.

Marshal Crow first went to his home and donned his blue coat,
transferring the stars and badges to the greasy lapel of the garment. He
also secured his dark lantern and the official cane of the village, but
why he should carry a cane on a bicycle expedition was known only to
himself. Followed by a horde of small boys and a few representative
citizens of Tinkletown on antiquated wheels, Mr. Crow pedalled
majestically off to the south. Skirting the swamp, the party approached
the haunted house over the narrow path which ran along the river bank.
Once in sight of the dilapidated cabin, which seemed to slink farther
and farther back into the dense shadows of the late afternoon, with all
the diffidence of the supernatural, the marshal called a halt and
announced his plans.

"You kids go up an' tell them fellers I want to see 'em," he commanded.
The boys fell back and prepared to whimper.

"I don't want to," protested Bud.

"Why don't you go an' tell 'em yourself, Anderson?" demanded Isaac
Porter, the pump repairer.

"Thunderation, Ike, who's runnin' this thing?" retorted Anderson Crow.
"I got a right to deputise anybody to do anything at any time. Don't you
s'pose I know how to handle a job like this? I got my own idees how to
waylay them raskils, an' I reckon I been in the detectin' business long
enough to know how to manage a gol-derned tramp, ain't I? How's that?
Who says I ain't?"

"Nobody said a word, Anderson," meekly observed Jim Borum.

"Well, I _thought_ somebody did. An' I don't want nobody interferin'
with an officer, either. Bud, you an' them two Heffner boys go up an'
tell them loafers to step down here right spry er I'll come up there an'
see about it."

"Gosh, Mr. Crow, I'm a-skeered to!" whimpered Bud. The Heffner boys
started for home on a dead run.

"Askeered to?" sniffed Anderson. "An' your great-grand-dad was in the
Revolution, too. Geminy crickets, ef you was my