“Rats!” cried Jack. “Nothing of the sort.”
“It’s getting shivery,” murmured Alice. “Haunted mills—and hermits——”
“Blake has it all twisted,” declared Phil. “Old Hanson does live in a deserted mill somewhere back of here, but it was his daughter who ran away—not his sweetheart. And it was years ago. He’s a little crazy I guess, and sometimes he imagines strangers do look like her. But he’s harmless.”
“Perfectly so,” chimed in Jack. “He often helps us around camp, when we’re too lazy to work. And he’s the best fisherman for miles around. Knows where all the big bass are.”
“But is the mill really haunted?” demanded Natalie.
“Stop, Nat!” commanded Alice. “Do you want us all to have bad dreams to-night?”
“It looks old enough, and deserted enough, to be haunted,” went on Blake, “though of course it isn’t. We’ll go over and see it sometime.”
“In broad daylight,” stipulated Marie, and the boys laughed.
Then the girls told of how they had been helped by the aged man, and how they had made camp after a fashion. In turn the boys related how they had gone to the end of the lake, where the trains came in, to meet their sisters, but had evidently made a mistake in the time.
“But we’re all here now, and ready for glorious fun,” added Mrs. Bonnell. “We expect you young gentlemen to give whatever aid is needed in time of trouble.”
“Call on us whenever you need us,” urged Blake. “Give your camp cry, or fire three shots from a revolver——”
“Oh!” screamed Marie. “Don’t mention those horrid pistols again!”
“What! Haven’t you a gun?” asked Blake, and he seemed in earnest.
“Look!” cried Mrs. Bonnell dramatically, and she held out something on which the firelight gleamed.
“Put it away! Put it away!” murmured Alice, covering her face with her hands.
“It’s only an ammonia squirt-gun,” explained the Guardian, with a merry laugh. “I saw them advertised and bought one. They are good for man or beast, the paper said. It’s just a rubber bulb on a sort of hollow lead tube. You press the bulb and the ammonia spurts out.”
“Good!” exclaimed Jack. “I don’t know that you could have anything better. Still, if you do need us, a loud call will carry to our camp, and we can get here in three minutes coming by the lake-shore path.”