"Did you hear anything of that when you
were here before, Mr. Jenks?"
"No. Probably that is only a lightning rod, or it may be a
staff for a signal flag. But what surprises me is that those men
didn't suspect that we were seeking to discover their secret.
They took us for ordinary prospectors."
"So much the better," remarked Tom. "We have a chance now of
getting inside that cave. But we will have to go back to camp,
and make other plans. And we must hurry, or it will be dark
before we get there."
They hastened their steps, pausing only briefly to eat some of
the lunch they had brought along, and to drink from a spring that
bubbled from the side of the mountain. It was getting dusk when
they got back to their tent. They found nothing disturbed.
"I wonder if we'll see that phantom again to-night?" ventured
Tom, as they were sitting about the campfire a little later.
"Probably not," remarked Mr. Jenks. "I don't believe the ghost
will venture down the dangerous trail after dark, and the gang
may think that the warning given us by the two men on guard at
the cave will be sufficient. But if we don't leave here by
to-morrow I think we will have another visit from the thing in
white."
It was about an hour after this when Tom was collecting some
wood in a pile nearer the fire, so as to have it ready to throw
on, in case there was any alarm in the night, that he happened to
look up toward the summit of the mountain.
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