Sure enough, as the car hummed along, through the thick foliage they glimpsed weather beaten walls and parts of a roof covered by roughly rived boards, with gaps here and there, and all brown with age. It looked as if it might be eighty to a hundred yards back from the mere wagon trail the road had now become. "Shall we stop and take a look?" asked MacLester, gradually slowing up. "It's bright, noonday sunshine and if there are any haants about, I reckon now's the time of day when they take a rest." But as the car slowed down Nan's alarm began to increase. Phil watched her curiously. She did not look like a girl unduly afraid of ghosts, at midday especially. Yet it was plain enough to see that she was vaguely uneasy. After all, why stop now? They knew where the old tavern was and could begin their investigations later. Besides, they did not want outside witnesses. "Better drive on, Davy," said Phil. "We must take Miss Nan home." The girl's relief was evident at once when Dave increased the speed. In another minute or so the house was no longer visible. Paul, looking back, said half to himself: "It's a cinch, Phil! By Ned! I'm going to see more of it before night, or bust a trace!" "Ugh!" shuddered Nan. "You can't mean that you want to go back there, do you?" "Why not? We're strangers round here and when we find something curious yet unknown, that scares off the folks that have lived by it for years, it's only natural to get our curiosity up to a point that we've just _got_ to do something." The car sped on through the woods, then past open fields and soon they came up to a rather battered farmhouse with sundry outbuildings near it and stacks of hay which had been cut evidently from the neighboring marshes that jutted in and out of the timbered lands. At the gate Nan sprang down, and at the same time out came the farmer, followed by the same boy they had before seen on the hay-load. Being invited inside, the boys entered the sitting-room, where two other men, garbed more like town dwellers, were seated. The farmer greeted the boys warmly, recalling to them their kindly behavior along the side-hill road a day or so before. At the same time the two men got up to leave, giving the farmer a modest price for their dinners and remarking that they might be back again shortly. "Keep a bright lookout, Mr. Feeney. No knowing what you might run up against," one said and they were gone. After this the boys had a sociable chat with Feeney, who pressed them to stay all night. "Shan't cost you a cent, boys, for you were good to us when Jack and Jill might have balked and dumped us over that bluff." "Well, it is possible we may come back. But in the meantime we want to have a look round at the timber." "Int'rested in timber, are ye? How'd ye come to meet up with Nan?"