"Might as well get loaded up, as hang around here any longer?" suggested Toby.
"I think the same," added George, "for there's no telling who'll be seeing all sorts of queer things next. Must be in the air. Once that sort of thing begins to get around, and it takes a solid mind to ward it off. Never bothers _me_, though."
"I'll bring the horse up," suggested Toby, with a grin; for in spite of finding himself the target for these shafts of ridicule on the part of the scoffer, Toby dearly loved to hear George offering objections.
"Guess you'd better, because Nancy knows you more'n she does any of the rest of us; and a hoss is a rantankerous creature," said Chatz.
"Particularly a mare," added Toby, as he hurried away; but they noticed that he cast many side glances at the surrounding dense foliage as he went in the direction of the spot where they had left Nancy and the wagon when approaching the grove of nut trees, as though he did not wholly fancy finding himself alone amidst such weird surroundings.
Once the wagon was brought up it did not take the scouts long to get all the sacks of nuts loaded. When they saw what a splendid showing the collection made it caused a fresh outbreak of congratulations all around.
"There never was such a grand lot of nuts brought into town from the day the first cabin was built away back!" declared George, who could not see any reason to throw cold water on this positive fact, with the evidence plainly before him.
"That's what comes of having an idea," remarked Toby, proudly; "if I hadn't engineered this plan we might have spent a hard day in the woods, and only brought home a single bag to show for it. Just look at that wholesale lot, will you?"
"Yeth, and we're all ready to thay you did it with your little hatchet, Toby; it taketh you to hatch up plans, thure it doeth," admitted Ted.
"Wonder what's keeping Elmer?" Chatz observed, as he turned to look toward the house, glimpses of which they could catch through small openings in the dense growth of trees; to immediately add: "there he comes right now."
"Hope he found what he was looking for," George ventured, and nothing further was said in regard to the matter.
Elmer quickly joined them. Chatz looked keenly at his face, and fancied that he could detect something like a faint smile there; but even if the scout master had made any sort of discovery on his last visit to the haunted house, he did not seem ready to take his chums into his confidence.
"Well, that looks like something, boys," he remarked, as he surveyed the great load of filled bags that occupied nearly every bit of space in the wagon bed.
"Oh! we believe in doing a wholesale business when we get started,"
laughed Toby; "the only thing that's bothering me is where Chatz, Ted and George can find room to sit. Guess they'll have to fix it so as to stretch out on top of our load."
"Ted can crowd in with the two of us on the front seat, if he wants,"
explained Elmer; "and if somebody gives me a hand we'll soon arrange a place for the other seat back here on top of these four partly filled sacks."
"Consolation prizes, you mean!" muttered George, who did not exactly like the idea of their going to all the trouble of carrying the extra sacks home just to drop them in the yards of the members of the Mallon crowd; George was inclined to be proud, and it seemed to smack too much of pulling "chestnuts out of the fire" for others.
"Well, after all, suh, they worked hard enough to knock those nuts down to be entitled to a share," Chatz remarked, that fine Southern sense of justice cropping up again, despite his dislike for Connie Mallon and all those who trained in his camp.
"Not to speak of the bruises and black eyes some of them must have picked up when they conducted that masterly retreat," Elmer added; "I'll never forget that panic; for I don't believe I ever saw fellows more frightened than they were."
"Well, do you blame them?" asked Ted; "if I got it in my head that bunch of ghosth had it in for me on account of my breaking in on their haunt I'd run like a whitehead too, and thatth right."
"I'd like to see Connie's face when he discovers that sack of nuts in his yard to-morrow A. M.," George continued, actually pursing up his lips in a smile, something he was seldom guilty of.
"Reckon he'll think it rained down in the night," chuckled Chatz.
"More'n likely he'll begin to believe he's only been dreaming that these things happened, and that he did fetch the nuts home with him, after all," Toby volunteered.
"But when the other counties are heard from, and they all compare notes, won't they get on to the game then?" George asked.
"How about that, Elmer?" Toby inquired, turning to the scout master.
"I don't see how they can help but figure it out as it stands," came the reply.
"That is, they'll guess we fetched back their bags for 'em, and not wanting to turn the same over empty, just chucked a lot of nuts in to make 'em stand up," and George as he said this looked as consequential as though he had solved some great problem.
"All I'm afraid of," resumed Toby, "is they'll get the idea in their dense heads that we're only doing this because of fear; that is, we're offering a bribe, hoping they'll forgive us for frightening them, and won't hold us to a reckoning. I don't like knuckling down that way. I wish we thought to put a note in each sack telling them we only turned these nuts over because we had more than we could use ourselves, and thought they'd worked hard enough to earn some."
Elmer, however, shook his head.
"That wouldn't be worth while trying!" he declared. "I think it'd only make them more bitter against us. The best way to do is just to leave the bags in their yards, and say nothing. If they ever ask us why we did it, let's say we thought it only fair they should have some of the proceeds of the raid on the Cartaret grove, because they worked hard enough for it. If they want to make trouble after that why we'll have to accommodate them, that's all."
That settled the matter. When Elmer clinched an argument he seldom left any ground for the others to stand on; and in this case all of the boys seemed to be satisfied to let him do as he proposed, though several privately disliked the idea of carrying that additional weight back home, just to turn over to that turbulent, trouble-making crowd.
"There's nothing more to keep us here, seems like," suggested George; "so what do you say to going home?"
"It's time," admitted Chatz, "and if Nancy is able to draw such a heavy load, we ought to get there before dark, which comes along about five, these November days."
"It's mostly down-grade," Toby went on to say, as he climbed to his seat, and took up the lines; "besides, I told you the animal needed a good haul to take some of that extra spirit out of her. All aboard, fellows; those who can't get a board find a rail. Homeward bound, and with the greatest load of bouncing big nuts ever harvested along Hickory Ridge."
They were a merry lot as they found places on the wagon.
"Hope Nancy behaves herself going home," George remarked, as he tried to fix himself firmly in his seat; "if she took a notion to cut up all of a sudden where d'ye think we'd land back here, with the wagon so full?"
"Plenty of room on the road, George; and believe me you wouldn't have to question where you'd dropped, because it'd be a convincing argument,"
Elmer told him.
So they started, and all of them turned to take a last look in the direction of the haunted house, as they caught a glimpse of it through the trees.
"Good-bye old ghost!" cried Toby, waving the hand that did not hold the reins; "we'll come again and interview you, mebbe. Take care of yourself, and don't play any mad pranks while we're away."
As they rode off, making their way among the trees, and heading for the vicinity of the road, Chatz turned to Ted, who was sitting in the middle again, having decided to cast his fortunes with the comrades of the rear seat, and remarked in what he meant to be a low tone:
"I'd give something to know, suh, whether Elmer _did_ find out about that _thing_ when he went back into the old house again!" but Ted only shook his head in reply, as though the subject was too deep for him, or else he believed Elmer would take them all into his confidence when he saw fit to do so.
CHAPTER VIII
HOW ELMER'S PLAN WORKED
"HOW had we better arrange about the nuts, Elmer?" asked Toby, when they were drawing close to the border of the town, with the twilight gathering around them.
"I've been thinking about that, Toby," replied the other; "and the best way all around would be for you to keep the whole lot in your barn. Some day we'll get together and divide up, because, as they stand now some bags have only walnuts, others hickories, while a couple have got most of the chestnuts in them."
"Are the rest agreeable, and do they trust me as far as that?" demanded Toby.
"Trust you with my pocketbook, Toby," George assured him.