“A ghost?” queried Captain Putnam. “Yes, sir.” “It was worse than a ghost,” came from Paxton, when he was able to speak. “Oh, I hope it doesn’t come this way!” And he glanced over his shoulder apprehensively. “This is nonsense, boys! There are no ghosts.” “Who fired that shot?” asked George Strong, while a crowd of cadets gathered around to learn what the new alarm meant. “I did,” said a guard named Leeks. “I called on those fellows to halt, but they didn’t, so I fired to arouse the corporal of the guard.” “Which was quite right, Leeks,” returned the master of the school. He turned again to Paxton and Sabine. “Now, give me your stories. Where have you been? You had no permission to leave the grounds. We missed you an hour or more ago.” At these words Paxton and Sabine hung their heads. Sabine looked thoroughly miserable. As my old readers know, he was not naturally bad but was a lad easily led into wrongdoing. “Cannot you answer me?” demanded the master of the school, after a painful pause. “Paxton got me to go to a hotel down the lake shore, sir,” said Sabine in a low tone. “I am very sorry I went, sir, and I hope you’ll forgive me, sir. I won’t do it again.” And he gazed pleadingly at Captain Putnam. “How about this, Paxton?” “I—er—I went to the hotel because I thought some of my friends were stopping there,” was the lame reply. “As soon as I—er—found my friends weren’t there I came back.” “Do you usually make calls after midnight?” demanded the master of the school, with fine sarcasm. “I—er—I didn’t know it was so late, sir. But we would have been back long ago if it wasn’t for that—er—ghost, or worse!” continued Paxton. “What did you see? Now no fooling, Paxton, or it will go hard with you,” and Captain Putnam’s voice grew extra stern. “We saw a ghost, or demon, or something, sir. It was horrible!” “The most frightful thing one could possibly imagine,” broke in Sabine, and his voice commenced to tremble again. “Oh, Captain Putnam, you may not believe it, but it was awful, sir, awful!” “But what was it?” persisted the master of the school, seeing how much in earnest both cadets were. “It was like a half-man and a half-beast,” answered Paxton. “It was very large and had a terrible voice. It chased us with a stick that was full of flashes of fire, and both of us thought we were going to be killed.” “Maybe a trick of some of the cadets,” suggested George Strong. At this suggestion Paxton and Sabine looked up quickly. “Oh, could it have been some of the cadets?” questioned Sabine. “But no, it couldn’t be—it was too awful!” And he shook his head positively. Evidently he had been almost frightened out of his senses. “The cadets have all been accounted for,” said Captain Putnam. “I don’t think any of them are responsible for this.” “Where did this happen, over in yonder woods?” questioned George Strong. “Back of the woods, sir.” “Back of the woods?”