Galloping Ghost

J. Snell Roy

Description

Star college football player Red Rodgers awakes one night to find that his life has been turned upside down. Who is to blame for this sudden turn of events? The intrepid amateur detective Johnny Thompson is on the case again in Roy Snell's fast-paced mystery for younger readers, The Galloping Ghost.

Sujets

• Children's

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776535453
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE GALLOPING GHOST
A MYSTERY STORY FOR BOYS
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ROY J. SNELL
 
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The Galloping Ghost A Mystery Story for Boys First published in 1933 Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-545-3 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-546-0 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Chapter I - Kidnaper's Island Chapter II - Whispers in the Night Chapter III - "We Must Escape" Chapter IV - The Ghost Appears Chapter V - Red Wins to Lose Chapter VI - The Red Rover Gets the Breaks Chapter VII - A Journey in the Night Chapter VIII - "The Rat" Chapter IX - Red Goes into Action Chapter X - The Invisible Footprint Chapter XI - Hotcakes at Dawn Chapter XII - Johnny Gets a "Jimmy" Chapter XIII - Light on the Water Chapter XIV - Drew Lane Steps into Something Chapter XV - "Shootin' Irons" Chapter XVI - The Branded Bullet Chapter XVII - Johnny's Jimmy Chapter XVIII - Dreaming at Dawn Chapter XIX - Night on Isle Royale Chapter XX - Riding a Moose Chapter XXI - The Shoe Chapter XXII - On the "Sleeping Lion" Chapter XXIII - A Visit in the Night Chapter XXIV - Uncle Ned Does His Bit Chapter XXV - The Trail Leads North Chapter XXVI - Battle over the Waves Chapter XXVII - A Haunted Bay Chapter XXVIII - The Light that Failed Chapter XXIX - Silent Night Chapter XXX - Hollow Chuckles Chapter XXXI - "Play by Play" Chapter XXXII - "70,000 Witnesses" Chapter XXXIII - The Flea Flicker
Chapter I - Kidnaper's Island
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Red Rodgers rolled half over, squirmed about, then sat up. For a longtime he had felt the floor beneath him vibrate with the throb of powerfulmotors. His eardrums, beaten upon as they had been by the roar of thosemotors, now seemed incapable of registering sound.
Not the slightest murmur suggesting life reached his ears. "Not therustle of a leaf, nor the lap of a tiny wave; not the whisper of avillage child asleep," he told himself. "Can I have gone stone deaf?"Cold perspiration started out upon the tip of his nose.
And then, piercing the silence like a siren's scream in the night, came awild, weird, mad, hilarious laugh.
Startled by this sudden shock of sound, he shuddered from head to foot.Then, at once, he felt better.
"At least I am not deaf."
"That laugh," he mused a moment later, "it was almost human, but notquite. What could it have been?"
To this question he could form no answer. The wild places, wilderness,forest, lakes, rivers, were sealed books to Red. He had lived his life ina city, lived strenuously and with a purpose.
"Some wild thing," he murmured. "But where am I?" His brow wrinkled."I've been kidnaped, dragged from my berth in a sleeping car, thrown intoa speed boat, carried miles down a river, bundled into this airplane,whirled for hours through the air, and landed here. But where is here?And why am I here at all?"
"Hours," he whispered slowly. A stray moonbeam lighted a spot on hisknee. He placed his wrist there and read the dial of his watch.
"Yes, hours. It's five after midnight. And to-morrow, hundreds of milesaway, I was to have made at least two touchdowns. The crowd would expectat least one sixty-yard dash by the Red Rover."
"The Red Rover." That was the name the fans had given him. Well, the RedRover would not run. He smiled grimly. But, after all, what did itmatter? They were to play Woodville. What was Woodville? A weak team. OldMidway's cubs could beat them. It was a midweek game, mainly forpractice. He wasn't needed for that. But Saturday's game! Ah, well, thatwas another story.
"But kidnaped!" He brought himself up with a start. "I've been kidnaped!Dragged from my berth. Whirled all the way to some place where wildcreatures laugh at midnight."
Kidnaped. The whole affair seemed absurd to him. He had read ofkidnapings. There had been many of late. It had always made his bloodboil when some innocent child, some helpless woman had been carried awayto a dismal hole and held for ransom. "Low-lived curs," he had called thekidnapers.
"Ransom!" He laughed a low laugh. He was a college student, a footballplayer for two months of the year, a night clerk in a hotel the rest ofthe year, an orphan boy working his way through the university. Hethought there were three dollars in his pocket, but he could not be sure.
"Kidnaped! Must have got the wrong fellow this time. Tell 'em who I am,and they'll turn me loose; hustle me back, like as not."
He was wrong. They would neither turn him loose nor hustle him back.
"All right, Red. You can get out." These words were spoken as theairplane door swung open.
"Red!" the boy thought with a start. "So they do know who I am. Theydid mean to get me. I wonder why!
"Whew!" he whistled as a cold breeze struck his cheek. "Cold up here."
"Cold enough," the other grumbled. "Come on, shake a leg! This boatswings about."
"Boat." It's strange how a single word tells a long story. The whiff ofcold air had told him that they had flown north. Now he knew that theyhad landed on water. But what water? And where?
"There you are." A hand in the moonlight guided him to a seat in thestern of a small boat.
Red opened his eyes wide at the scene that lay before him, a broad, deepbay fringed by a black ribbon of spruce and balsam. The moonlight,forming a path of gold across the water, fell upon some dark object. Asthe oars of the boat creaked, the dark object made a splashing sound; itmoved.
As if reading the boy's thoughts, the oarsman ceased his labors to castthe circle of a powerful flashlight in the direction of the movingcreature.
With a quick intake of breath Red stared enchanted; for there, not twentyyards away, standing at the end of the small island which he had reachedat this moment, was a moose.
Nowhere in all his life had the boy beheld such complete majesty. Erect,silent, powerful, the monarch of the forest stood there defiant andunafraid.
"Where in all the earth could one find a spot such as this?" Red breathedto himself. "A spot so sheltered that even the shyest of the forest'sgreat ones shows no fear."
He had expected the oarsman to drag a rifle from the prow and firepoint-blank at this moose. Instead, he sat there for a second, his roughface disfigured by a semblance of a smile; then, pocketing hisflashlight, he once again took up his oars.
For Red there was little enough time for thought. The boat swung about.Before them lay a point of land, perhaps the end of an island. At itsextreme end was a little half-clearing where a score of girdled birchespointed their barren trunks, like dead fingers, toward the sky.
At the edge of this clearing was a small log cabin. From this a palelight gleamed. Toward this cabin the boat directed its course.
"'This is the forest primeval.'" The words sprang unbidden to the boy'slips. "'The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, bearded with moss, and ingarments green, indistinct in the twilight, stand like Druids of eld,with voices sad and prophetic, stand like harpers hoar, with beards thatrest on their bosoms.'
"And to-morrow was to have been—"
As he closed his eyes he saw what it was to have been: a wild, shoutingthrong; college songs, college yells, bands, waving banners. "Go, Midway!Go!" Two squads battling for victory. Wild scrambles. Futile dashes. And,with good fortune, a mad dash of fifty yards to triumphal victory.
"Life," he whispered, "is strange."
The boat bumped. A narrow landing lay beside him.
"We get off here." There was something impersonal in the tone of thisstrange pilot of the night. "This'll be home for you, son, for quite someconsiderable time."
"I hope you're wrong," Red thought.
The room he entered a moment later was small and very narrow. In onecorner was a cot, in another a table and chair. Across from the table wasa curious affair of sheet iron that, he guessed, might be a stove. Theplace was agreeably warm. There must be a small fire. On the table acandle burned.
Turning about to seek for an explanation of all that had been happeningand of his strange surroundings, he was not a little startled to findhimself alone. The door had been silently closed behind him. And locked?Well, perhaps. What could it matter? He was, beyond doubt, surrounded bywater, the merciless water of the north country—some north country inNovember; surrounded, too, by determined men, hostile men, perhaps, whohad apparently ordained that his stay in the cabin should be a long one.Once again, as he dropped into the chair, there came to his mind thatforceful interrogation:
"Why?"
As before, he could form no adequate answer.
His mind was busy with this problem when, with startling suddenness, hisattention was caught and held by the low sound of voices.
"Have you signed?" It was a man who spoke. The voice was not gruff; alow, smooth, persuasive voice, too smooth, too persuasive.
Quite in contrast was the answer. Unmistakably feminine, it came sharpand crisp as the crash of icicles fallen from the eaves. "I will neversign."
"But consider." The man's voice was not raised, still smooth, persuasive."You are on an island."
"An island. I thought so," Red whispered to himself. "But who can thisgirl be?" That the one beyond the partition was a girl he did not doubt.
"I will never sign!" the girl broke in upon the other's oily speech. "Myfather owes you nothing."
"Consider," the other persisted. "You are on a narrow island within abay. The water of the bay is icy cold. You might swim it in safety,though I doubt it. Should you succeed, it would be but to find yourselfupon a much larger