So quiet and peaceful and like old times had the last two days seemed that the Radio Girls were quite unprepared for Burd’s announcement that he and Darry and Fol were about to desert the camp again.

“We feel we ought to go down to the swamp and investigate those spooks,” said Darry, in response to their protests.

“But we haven’t heard or seen anything lately,” said Amy.

“If you go down there you may just succeed in stirring up the animals,” added Nell.

“And I didn’t hear any invitation for us to go along,” said Jessie. “We want to, you know.” Darry smiled at her, but shook his head.

“We don’t think you girls had better go until we have a chance to look about first,” he said. “In our estimation, you are a great deal better off right here for the present.”

“There you go! Mysterious again, Darry Drew!” said Amy, with a frown. “What do you suppose could possibly hurt us down at that old swamp?”

“We don’t know, and because we don’t know we think it is better we prospect around a little by ourselves first,” replied Darry, firmly.

“We will probably be back by to-night, anyway,” said Fol, in what was meant to be reassurance.

“Folsom Duckworth, do you mean there is a possibility you won’t be back to-night?” demanded Nell, in surprise, and Fol looked sheepish.

“Not a chance in the world,” he answered. “What would keep us in a swamp overnight, I would like to know?”

“So would I!” retorted Nell, adding, with a sigh: “You boys do interest me strangely!”

Under protest the girls finally consented to fix a lunch for the three boys. They felt uneasy about this sudden expedition to the swamp and would have dissuaded the boys from undertaking it if they could have done so. However, they knew Darry well enough to be sure there was no changing his mind when it was once made up, and in this case they felt sure that Darry had originated and planned the whole thing.

It was with vague misgivings then, that they watched the boys go off on the narrow path that led toward the swamp.

“I don’t understand it at all,” said Jessie. “The boys act so queerly and seem to have so many secrets from us.”

“Darry must have put them up to this ghost-hunting trip,” said Amy, voicing the thought that had troubled them all. “I caught him talking to Burd and Fol very seriously two or three times, and when they saw me they changed the subject—pronto. Oh, I know them—and I know Darry!”

“I used to think I did too,” said Jessie, plaintively. “But lately he seems like some one else, and so do Burd and Fol. I can’t make them out.”

“I think there is more behind this trip than just the scare we had the other night,” said Nell. “It seems to me the boys have some other reason for braving the horrors of the swamp just now.”

“I tell you what we can do,” suggested Amy, the ever-resourceful. “We can do some investigating on our own account!”

“You mean, follow the boys?” asked Nell, doubtfully.

“We will follow nothing but our own inclinations,” retorted Amy. “I want to find those ghosts.”

“Good! Suppose we pack us a lunch and get started right away!” from Jessie. “We may find out more about Phrosy’s ghosts than the boys do before we get through.”

Miss Alling helped them pack a lunch—though they really had not the slightest intention of being gone more than an hour or two—and they were soon ready to start on their own prospecting expedition.

“This is the life!” cried Amy, as they swung along a rock-strewn sloping trail that led in the direction of the swamp. “The boys thought they would leave us at home to twiddle our thumbs, did they? We’ll show them!”

But as they approached closer to the swamp and were enveloped by the damp, unpleasant vapor rising from it, their spirits underwent a decided slump. Nell and Amy held back, and finally Jessie was forced to wait for them to catch up to her.

“What is the matter? Not afraid of ghosts, are you?” she teased them. “Why, you haven’t even seen any yet.”

“I keep expecting to have them jump out at me from behind the bushes,” confessed Nell. “I have a horrible feeling that those ghostly white figures are chasing us.”

“Goodness, let’s hurry then,” said Amy, with a laugh and a nervous glance over her shoulder. “At the rate we are going they will surely catch up to us.”

“I guess this is about where the swamp begins,” said Jessie, sliding a foot about in the oozing mud. “See how rank the vegetation is.”

“Here’s a path—of a sort—that seems to lead through it, though,” observed Nell.

“Come on, then,” said Amy, with a nervous giggle. “It’ll be no worse to be swallowed up by the swamp than to be scared to death by the ghosts.”

Gingerly, they felt their way along the soft gr............