The Chums of Scranton High on the Cinder Path | Page 6

mention a donkey braying. Gee! but it was fierce!"
"But what would a donkey be doing away up here at the old quarry, where there hasn't been a stroke of work done these many years; tell me that?" demanded Julius defiantly.
"I don't believe it was a donkey," said Hugh, shaking his head, as though he, too, found himself exceedingly puzzled; "but I'm not in a position to explain the thing. That was certainly a queer noise, for a fact."
"Extraordinary!" assented Thad Stevens.
"Well, I should call it perfectly awful!" Horatio clipped in.
"Horrible would be a better word to describe it," eagerly followed Julius, who, it must be confessed, was trembling all over; of course, not with fear, or anything like that, but just because of excitement, he assured himself.
"And," continued the sensible Hugh, "if that's the sort of noises these farmer folks have been hearing right along, I don't wonder some of them have been nearly scared out of their wits. It was bad enough in broad daylight, with the sun shining; so what must it have seemed like in the moonlight, or when it was pitch dark?"
"Wow! excuse me from coming up here after dusk," muttered Julius. "I'm no ghost-hunter, let me tell you. I know my weak points, and seeing things in the night-time used to be one of the same. They had a great time breaking me of it, too. Even now I sometimes dream of queer things when I've got the nightmare, after eating too big a Thanksgiving dinner; and when I wake up suddenly I'm all in a sweat, and a poor old moth fluttering at the window will give me a start, thinking it's the tiger getting in my East Indian bungalow."
"Well, what's the program, Hugh?" asked K. K. "Shall I start up again, so we can continue our journey along this tough old road; or do you want to get out, and take a hunt around the quarry for the thing that gave those yawps?"
"Get out?" repeated Julius, in a sudden panic; "not for Joseph. Don't count on me for any such silly business. I came up here to get walnuts and such; and I'm meaning to stick close to my engagement. Side issues can't tempt me to change my mind. Guess I know when I'm well off."
"It's been several minutes since we heard that sound," Hugh went on to remark; "and, so far, it hasn't been repeated."
"Oh! it came three times, you remember, Hugh," suggested K. K.; "and, like in baseball, I reckon it's three times and out. Whatever it was let out those screeches it's certainly quieted down. How about going on now, Hugh?"
"If I was alone," mused the other, "I really believe I'd be half tempted to take a prowl around, and find out if I could what all the row meant. I never like to pass anything up, when my curiosity is excited."
"Oh, come back again some other time, Hugh, when you're not booked for getting home!" sang out Horatio. "If you put it to a vote I don't believe anybody in this bunch would seem wild to back you up right now. Fact is, I can hear our supper-bell calling me ever so loud. Hey! boys, how about that?"
"Let's get a move on!" Julius hastened to reply, so that there could be no mistaking his sentiments, at least.
Julius was followed by K. K., although the latter shrugged his shoulders as he added:
"Perhaps it looks timid in us doing what we mean to, but really this is none of our business, and we might get in some trouble bothering around here. I read about a house that was said to be haunted, which story a daring reporter said he'd investigate. He spent a night there, and actually captured the ghost, who turned out to be just an ordinary man, living on a place adjoining the haunted estate. He owned up to being the pallid specter that had been giving the house such a bad name; and said he wanted to buy the property in for a song, as it would find no other purchaser if it had such an evil reputation. Now, maybe somebody wants this quarry for thirty cents, and this is his way of scaring other would-be purchasers away. We don't want to butt in on any such game, you see."
Hugh and the others laughed at such a clever explanation.
"Whatever the truth may be," said Hugh, "I hardly believe it'll turn out anything like that, K. K. But you might as well start on. We're only losing time here, and it seems as though the thing doesn't mean to give as another sample of that swan song."
"For which, thanks!" sighed Julius. "I know music when I hear it, and if that's what they call a song of the dying