lots of creepy stories connected with spooks, but they never could get
me to believe in such silly things."

"Same here," added the Stallings boy, though his voice sounded a trifle
unsteady as Hugh could not help noticing.

"As for me," the scout master remarked, "I considered it a fine chance
for a little excitement. I, too, had heard some stories about this
gloomy make-believe castle that had been built in the lonely woods
by old Judge Randall when he married a young wife, and wanted to carry
her away from the rest of the world. They say it's getting to be an
interesting ruin by now, though perhaps Alec's aunt might choose to
patch the crumbling walls up, if other things suited her."

"Huh! takes all sorts of freaks to make this world," grunted Billy.
"The idea of anybody actually wanting to bury themselves away up
here, and never see a thing in the way of circus, baseball, winter
hockey, Boy Scout rivalries and other good happenings. The old Judge
must have been crazy."

"Well, lots of people suspected it when he started to build this
castle," said Alec, drily. "They felt dead sure after it happened;
for hold your breath now, fellows, because to be honest with you there
was a terrible tragedy, and after the poor young wife was buried the
judge lived as much as ten years in an asylum. He had become a maniac,
you see, from jealousy of his beautiful wife."

"I suppose it's all right, since there are four other fellows along,"
Billy finally went on to say, "but honest Injun, if I had known all
this at the start, I don't believe I would have been so anxious to