"We'll get into the car," said Matt, "and go on a hunt for La Vita Place."
Matt stepped to the crank. As he bent over it, Carl gave a frightened shout.
"Look vonce!" he quavered, pointing along the road with a shaking finger. "Dere iss some more oof der shpooks!"
Matt started up and whirled around. Perhaps a hundred feet from where the three boys were standing, a dim figure could be seen, silvered uncannily by the moonlight.
"Great guns, Carl!" muttered Matt. "Your nerves must be in pretty bad shape. That's a man, and he's been walking toward us while we were talking."
"Vy don'd he come on some more, den?" asked Carl. "Vat iss he shtandin' shdill mit himseluf for? Vy don'd he shpeak oudt und say somet'ing?"
"Hello!" called Ferral. "How far is it to La Vita Place, pilgrim?"
The form did not answer, but continued to stand rigid and erect in the moonlight.
"Ve'd pedder ged oudt oof dis so kevick as ve can," faltered Carl, crouching back under the shadow of the car. "I don'd like der looks oof dot feller."
"Let's get closer to him, Ferral," suggested Matt, starting along the road at a run.
"It's main queer the way he's actin', and no mistake," muttered Ferral, starting after Matt.
Matt was about half-way to the motionless figure, when it melted slowly into the black shadow of the cliff. On reaching the place where the figure had stood, it was nowhere to be seen.
"What do you think of that, Ferral?" Matt asked in bewilderment.
Ferral did not reply. His eyes were bright and staring, and he leaned against the rock wall and drew a dazed hand across his brows.
"I'm all ahoo, and that's the truth of it," muttered Ferral. "This is the greatest place for seein' things, and then losin' track of 'em, that I ever got into. There was certainly a man standing right there where you are, wasn't there?"
"That's the way it looked to me," answered Matt. "It can't be that we were all fooled. Imagination might have played hob with one of us, but it couldn't with all three."
Ferral peered around him then looked over the shelf into the gulch, and up toward the top of the cliff.
"Well, sink me, if this ain't the queerest business I ever ran into! Some one must be hoaxin' us."
"Why should any one do that?" asked Matt. "What have they got to gain by such foolishness?"