h you?" shouted Jack. He ran
after the boy at top speed. But the faster he ran the faster the
youngster sped along the road.

"Oh-h-h-h-h! Help! Mum-muh!" he yelled, as he ran, in terrified tones.

At length Jack gave up the chase. He leaned against a fence and gave way
to his indignation.

"Bother it all," he said. "What can be the matter with these people?
Everyone I speak to runs away from me, as if I had the plague or
something. Anyhow, that youngster can't be very far down this road. I
guess I'll keep right on after him, and then I'm bound to come to some
place where there are some sensible folks."

As he assumed, it was not long before he came in sight of a neat little
farm-house, standing back from the road in a grove of fine trees. He
made his way toward it. In the front yard an old man was trimming
rose-bushes.

"Can you tell me----" began Jack.

The old man looked up. Then uttering an appalling screech, he ran for
his life into the house. "Mandy! Mandy! Thar be a ghostess in the yard!"
he yelled, as he ran.

Jack looked after him blankly. What could be the matter?

CHAPTER XVII.

ONE MYSTERY SOLVED.

"Well, I'll be jiggered!" exclaimed Jack. "What _can_ be the matter? It
beats me. I----"

"Hey you, git out of thar. I don't know what of critter ye be, but you
scared my old man nigh ter death. Scat now, er I'll shoot!"

Jack looked up toward an upper window of the farm-house, from which the
voice, a high-pitched, feminine one, had proceeded. An old lady, with a
determined face, stood framed in the embrasure. In her hands, and
pointed straight at the mystified Jack, she held an ancient but
murderous looking blunderbuss.

"It's loaded with slugs an' screws, an' brass tacks," pleasantly
observed the old lady. "Jerushiah!" this to someone within the room,
"stop that whimperin'. I'm goin' ter send it on its way, ghost or no
ghost."

"But, madam----" stammered Jack.

"Don't madam me," was the angry reply. "Git now, and git quick!"

"This is like a bad dream," murmured Jack, but there was no choice for
him but to turn and go; "maybe it is a dream. If it is I wish I could
wake up."

He turned into the hot, dusty road once more. He felt faint and hungry.
His mouth was dry, and he suffered from thirst, too. Before long he
found a chance to slake this latter. A cool, clear stream, spanned by a
rustic bridge, appeared as he trudged round a bend in the road.

"Ah, that looks good to me," thou