"When I'm living with old man Jones, I'm Scrub Jones, and when I'm with Mr. Foster, I'm Scrub Foster, and that way. I don't belong to n.o.body, an' I just live around doing ch.o.r.es for my keep. Just now I ain't got no place to stop, and I'm sleeping in hay-stacks and living on apples and turnips and potatoes, when I make a fire and bake 'em, and once in a while I trap a rabbit. But, gee, what a good time you must have!"

"How would you like to go with me out to Moon Valley?"

"Aw, quit your kiddin'."

"I mean it I'd just like to take you out there and give you a good time for once in your life."

"Would you? By golly, you can."

"Then I'll tell you what to do. Go around to the front door and come in, and back to this room, and unlock the door and let me out, and we'll go together."

"Gee, I wouldn't go into that house for four thousand barrels of h.o.a.rhound candy. Say, are you a prisoner?"

"I am, and if you don't come in and let me out I can't take you with me to Moon Valley."

"That's so. But I'm scared of the ghost."

"Oh, so you're afraid, are you?"

At this the boy flushed and fiddled with his toes in the gra.s.s.

"No kid that's afraid could live in Moon Valley. He'd be scared to death in a week."

"Are there ghosts there?"

"There are no such things as ghosts. Bet you never saw one yourself."

"No, I never did. But all the folks around here say there is ghosts in that house."

"Well, say there are, they wouldn't come out in the daytime, would they?"

"I reckon not. Gee, I'll come in."

The boy disappeared like a flash, and in a few moments Ted heard the front door open, then a scream.

"I'll bet he's found the dead man," said Ted, aloud, in a tone of annoyance. "That's just my luck."

The door slammed, and all was silent. The boy evidently had run away, and Ted was left alone in the house with the dead man.

Once more darkness descended upon the earth, and Ted took up another hole in his belt, and tried to believe that he was not hungry.

About nine o'clock Ted, who was lying on the couch looking at the ceiling, saw a faint flicker of light pa.s.s across it, and sprang to his feet. It was the light cast by a lantern somewhere outside.

He sprang to the window and looked out.

Behind the brick wall he could see the reflection of a bobbing lantern, and hear the shuffle of many feet.

"Ho, there!" he cried.

The shuffle stopped, and a voice that was trembling with fear answered him.

"Come in here, and let me out," called Ted.

"We'll be thar in a minute," was the answer, and presently the front door was thrown open, followed by exclamations, as whoever had come in viewed the body in the next room.

Then the voices were outside his door.

"You open it an' go in," said a voice. "You're the constable."

"Well, supposin' he's got a gun?" asked the constable tremulously.

"Don't be afraid," said Ted. "I have no gun. They took everything away from me."

"There! Ain't that enough? Open the door."

Ted heard the bar being taken down, then the key grate in the lock, and the door was thrown open with a bang. He found himself looking into the barrels of a shotgun.

"If yer makes a motion, I'll blow yer head plumb off, blame yer,"

shouted the man with the gun.

"Honest," said Ted, "I'm not armed."

"How come yuh here?"

"I was made insensible by ammonia fumes and brought here last night."

"How come yuh ter kill that man in ther next room?"

"I didn't kill him."

"That's a likely story. I find yuh alone in ther house with him. Yuh'll hev ter answer ter ther magistrate fer this."

"See here, my friend, how could I have killed that man, then come in here, and locked and barred the door on the outside?"

"He's got yuh there, Si," said one of the men.

"Look here," said Ted, showing his star. "I'm an officer of the law. The fellows who captured and brought me here were robbers, and I was on their trail. That's all there is to it. Now, let me pa.s.s. I want to see what is in the next room."

CHAPTER XVIII.

STELLA ADOPTS A BROTHER.

Taking up a lantern, Ted entered the room. Beside the overturned table lay the body of a man. It was not Checkers. There was nothing in the room except the table, two chairs, a broken lamp, which lay in a pool of kerosene on the floor, and the body of the murdered man.

Wait, what was this?