The Boy Scouts with the Motion Picture Players | Page 7

Stallings led them around to one side of the rambling building.
As they went, they were loud in their expressions of amazement and
even delight, for really, it was an impressive sight to the eyes of
American lads not accustomed to crumbling ruins of old-time castles,
where doughty knights of the Middle Ages may have fought in
tournament with lance and sword.
"Wait up a bit, please, fellows!" suddenly exclaimed Alec. "I couldn't
find a better view of the castle than right here, with that sun blazing
along the walls, the turrets and that magnificent donjon tower. I want
every one of you to be in the picture at that, so place yourselves as I tell
you."
Alec was something of a photographer, and had many good views in a
book at home. He fully expected to do wonderful things with this
expensive outfit, since the lens alone cost three times as much as his
other camera complete.
When he had snapped off several views he declared himself satisfied.
"In the morning, if the weather holds good," he remarked as he gave
them the "high sign" that he was through, and that they need not pose
any longer, "I mean to pick up a couple of views from the other side.
The morning sun will allow me to do that, you understand. And now,
Monkey, where did you climb inside?"
They were soon able to gain the interior after the same manner in which

the pilot of the exploring expedition had accomplished it. Monkey's
sharp eyes had discovered a small opening that might be called a slit in
the solid wall, after the fashion of those to be seen in the dwellings of
Moors and Arabs and Turks. It was easy enough for each boy in turn to
squeeze himself through that slender gap, though once there arose a
serious doubt in Billy's mind as to whether he would not stick fast, and
have to be pushed through with a rammer, much to his bodily
discomfort.
Two fellows behind assisted his progress, while the others in advance
gave him a helping hand, so that finally Billy gained his end, though he
could long afterwards be seen ruefully rubbing his elbows and hips as
though they had been scraped in the passage.
After that they left their packs in one of the lower apartments, while
they roamed all through the wonderful interior. Apparently money had
not been spared in the erection of an imitation castle, though Hugh
found, in some places where what was supposed to be solid rock,
proved to be only wood, skillfully painted to resemble the more lasting
material.
"Whew! it has about forty rooms all told, I should say," observed the
steaming Billy after they had wearied of wandering about the strange
place, and came back to the apartment where their blankets and packs
had been deposited.
"Wonder how Aunt Susan will like the blooming old shack?" Alec was
heard to say as though some doubt had already commenced to enter his
mind.
"You, said, she wanted it quiet, you know, Alec," observed Hugh. "I
defy any one to find a place that fills that bill better than this one. Why,
not even the peep of a bird can be heard; it's just a brooding silence that
would get on the nerves of most people and make them shout out loud."
"Let's hope it stays that way while we're up here," said Billy, and then
noticing that some of the other fellows were smiling broadly he
hastened to add: "Oh! it isn't that I really expect anything like a ghost to

walk when it comes midnight, you understand, but I don't always sleep
as sound as I would like, and I hate to have anything screechy wake me
up. So, Monkey, please keep that goose-call of yours in your pocket the
rest of the time."
"Perhaps, we had better get ourselves comfortably fixed before night
finds us," suggested Hugh. "We can make a blaze in that fireplace and
cook supper here as nice as any one would want. It's going to turn out a
novel experience for the lot of us."
"You bet it, will," asserted Monkey Stallings stoutly. "I always did
think I'd like to spend just one night in a house they said was haunted.
To tell you the honest-truth I'm real glad you asked me to come along,
Alec, even if there does seem to be a queer feeling running up and
down my backbone. I never knew the like before save that time I was
dared to walk through the graveyard at midnight, and some fellows
tried to scare me with their old sheets. Huh! I had made sure to carry
Tige, my bulldog, hid under my coat, and I just let him loose. It