ntist and the eccentric man leaped forward.

The "ghost" heard the whistle, and heard the spoken words. The thing in
white hesitated a moment, and then raised one arm. There was a flash of
lire, and a loud report.

"He's firing in the air!" cried Tom. "Come on, we have him now!"

Undaunted by the display of firearms, Mr. Damon and Mr. Parker kept on.
They could hear Tom and Mr. Jenks running up in back of the figure.
The latter also heard this, and suddenly turned. Caught between the two
forces of our friends, the "ghost" was at a loss what to do.

The next instant Tom, who had distanced Mr. Jenks, made a flying tackle
for the figure in white, and caught it around the legs. Very substantial
legs they were, too, Tom felt--the legs of a man.

"Wow!" yelled the "ghost," as he went down in a heap, the revolver
falling from his hand.

"Come on!" cried Tom. "I have him!"

His friends rushed to his aid. There was a confused mass of dark bodies,
arms and legs mingled with something tall and thin, all in white.
Suddenly the moon came from behind a cloud and they could see what they
had captured--for captured the phantom was.

It proved to be a rather small man, who wore upon his shoulders a
framework of wood, over which some white cloth was draped. It had fallen
off him when Tom made that tackle.

"Well," remarked the young inventor, as he sat on the struggling man's
chest. "I guess we've got you."

"I rather guess you have, stranger," was the cool reply.

CHAPTER XVIII--BILL RENSHAW WILL HELP

They were all panting from the exertion of the run up the mountain and
the contest with the phantom--a phantom no longer--though, truth to
tell, the struggle was not nearly so fierce as Tom had expected. He
thought the "ghost" would put up a stiff fight.

"Got any ropes to tie him with?" asked Mr. Damon, who was helping Tom
hold the man down.

"Ropes? You aren't going to tie me up are you, strangers?" asked the
captive.

"That's what we are!" exclaimed Mr. Jenks. "We've had trouble enough in
this matter, and if I've got one of the gang, perhaps I can get some of
the others, and have my rights. So tie him up, Tom, and we'll take him
to camp.

"Oh, you needn't go to all that trouble, strangers," went on the man,
calmly. "If one of you will get off my chest, and the other gentleman
ease up on my stomach a bit, I'll walk wherever you want me, and not
make any trouble. I haven't got a gun."

"Bless my gloves! But