"Well!"

"I know what it means," Liz said, solemnly. "Yes, I do."

"What _does_ it mean?" demanded Laura, doubtful whether to laugh or be serious.

"He's dead," said the odd girl.

"Dead?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"But why should he appear to you, even if he _were_ dead?" demanded Laura, seeing that she must never let this superst.i.tion take root in the camp. "Do you suppose he's come to try to get his five dollars back?"

"My goodness to gracious!" said Liz. "No. The ha'nt of a man that owned a bank wouldn't come to bother a poor gal like me for money, would he?"

CHAPTER XII

THE "KLEPTOMANIANTIC" GHOST

The other girls crowded around then and wanted to know what had happened. Laura pinched Liz and said:

"She dropped those plates. Guess we won't make her pay for the broken ones, girls. Go on, now. I'll finish helping Liz wipe them."

So the matter of the "ha'nt" did not become public property just then.

In fact, Mother Wit talked so seriously to the maid-of-all-work that she hoped the "ha'nt" had been laid, before they sought their cots that night.

But in the morning there was a most surprising sequel to the incident.

The larder had been robbed!

"It can't be," said Laura, who heard of the trouble first of all when she popped out of the sleeping tent. Lizzie Bean had awakened Mrs.

Morse and that lady--bundled in a blanket-robe--had come to the cook-tent to see.

"I ain't never walked in my sleep yet--and knowed it," stated Lizzie, with conviction. "And there's the things missin'----"

The remainder of the big ham, a strip of bacon, coffee, sugar, syrup, canned milk, and half a sack of flour were among the things which had disappeared.

While the three stood there, amazed, Bobby came. "Bet it was those boys," said she. "Playing a joke on us. They're over here somewhere."

The sun was just rising, and its early beams shone on the camp across the lake. Laura ran for the binoculars and examined the boys' camp.

Both powerboats were there, and the five canoes. The boys were all disporting themselves in the water--Laura could count the six.

"If they did it," she said, "they got back to their camp very early."

"See this!" shrieked Bobby, suddenly.

She was pointing to the table, set as usual for breakfast. Pinned to the red and white checked table-cloth was a crisp ten dollar bill.

"Whoever robbed us paid for the goods," Mrs. Morse said, feebly.

"It was that ha'nt!" declared Liz.

At that the story of the man's face she had seen at the edge of the wood the evening before, came out. All the girls heard the story, and at once there was a great hullabaloo!

"A man on the island!" gasped Nellie. "I'm going home."

"Pooh!" said Bobby. "Liz says it's a ghost. A kleptomaniac ghost at that."

"He can't be a kleptomaniac, Bobby," said Laura, laughing, "or he wouldn't have left money for the goods."

"He's a kleptomani-_antic_ ghost, then!" giggled Bobby.

"How ridiculous!" said Jess. "Whoever heard the like?"

"The fact remains," said her mother, "that some stranger has been here while we slept, and taken the provisions--and we shall have to get more."

"The ten dollars will more than pay for what's missing," said Laura, slowly.

"What of that?" demanded Nellie. "I don't like the idea."

Lizzie was somewhat flurried. "And me--I was sleepin' right behind that canvas curtain. Not again! never! I'm goin' back to town."

At this the girls all set up a wail. "Oh, Liz! you mustn't! You promised to stay! We're paying you good wages, Liz! Don't leave us to do all the work!" was the chorus of objections.

"Well! I ain't goin' to stay right here where that ha'nt can get me,"

declared Liz.

"But," put forth Laura, seriously, though her eyes twinkled, "you shouldn't be afraid of _that_ haunt if he was such a nice young man as you say he was."

"Huh!" grumbled Lizzie Bean, practically. "No young man is nice after he's dead."

There seemed to be no answer to this statement. But Mrs. Morse came to the rescue.

"You can bring your cot into the cabin, Lizzie," she said. "You will not be afraid if you sleep there with me, will you?"

"No, Ma'am. I reckon not," admitted the girl.

"But how about _us_?" cried Lil Pendleton. "Surely, we won't stay here if there are men on the island?"

"It's big enough for them and us, too, I guess," said Bobby, doubtfully.

"Maybe the man--or men--who stole our food, is no longer on the island," Laura said, slowly.

"And they paid for it!" exclaimed Dora.