E-text prepared by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) THE GO AHEAD BOYS AND THE MYSTERIOUS OLD HOUSE THE GO AHEAD BOYSAND THEMYSTERIOUS OLD HOUSE BY ROSS KAY Author of “The Search for the Spy,” “The Air Scout,” “Dodging the North Sea Mines,” “With Joffre on the Battle Line,” “The Go Ahead Boys on Smugglers’ Island,” “The Go Ahead Boys and the Treasure Cave,” etc., etc. Copyright, 1916, by BARSE & HOPKINS PREFACE In almost every rural community in the older parts of our country there is a house which some of the country folk have believed to be “haunted.” As a rule this house is old and perhaps has fallen into partial decay. The children passing on the country road move to the opposite side when they draw near the building. Stories are current of scenes which have been witnessed and sounds heard in the vacant dwelling. Perhaps even the older people have not altogether outgrown their feeling of timidity when they are near it. How baseless all such stories are and how easily most of the unusual sights and sounds can be accounted for is of course clearly understood. In this story I have tried to interest my young readers in the attempts of four normal, go-ahead boys to solve the mysteries connected with a venerable house near the home of one of them, which was shunned by many of the simple country people. I have endeavored to avoid all sensationalism and yet to interest the boys and girls in a stirring story of the experiences of my heroes. I am not without hope that the final solution of the mystery of the old Meeker House may help my young readers a little more courageously to face other problems, perhaps equally mysterious or perplexing, which may be presented to them in