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Rh party, keeping them in sight by the waving rays of the lamp and lantern ahead, as they danced over the rocks and among the trees and bushes. They kept about a hundred feet to the rear.

"I've got a plan," said Tom, as the party ahead came to a halt to make sure of the trail. "Can't we cut in somewhere and get ahead of them and then scare them back?"

"Let's try it!" exclaimed Sam. "I am sure if we play ghosts, or something like that, we'll scare Tad Sobber out of his wits."

"It's a risky thing to do," mused the eldest Rover. "We might get caught at it."

Nevertheless, he was rather in favor of the plan, and when the Merrick party stopped again, for Cuffer to take a stone out of his shoe, they "cut into" the woods and pushed forward with all speed. It was hard work, but they were in deadly earnest, and did not let the vines and brushwood deter them.

"Now, the question is, How are we to scare them?" said Dick, after they had regained the trail, well in advance of Sid Merrick and his followers.

"Let us play ghosts?" said Sam.

"We might black up and play niggers on the warpath, with big clubs," suggested Tom.