Chapter 5

Earlier that evening, Carter stood in front of his open locker with a towel over his shoulders when Corporal Boyle strode in the duty hut.

"Turning in early, Sarge?"

"After the day I had today, how can I not?"

"Well, some of the guys don't share your heavy eyelids," Boyle remarked.

"What makes you say that?"

"A couple of 'em came in here not too long ago asking for a pass."

"A pass, at this time of night? Who would do a crazy thing like that?"

"Pyle and Slater. They came in here asking for a pass with eyes bugging out of their skulls."

Carter snatched the towel off his shoulders and whipped around.

"Pyle and Slater! Did they say where they were going?"

"No, I didn't ask. Why, what's it to you?"

Pulling his uniform off the hanger, Carter muttered to himself, "It was probably Pyle's idea, the knucklehead. And after I told him to stay away from there."

"Stay away from where?" asked Boyle, hovering over Carter's shoulder, "what are they going to do?"

Carter ignored him as he hastily tucked in his uniform.

"I've gotta stop 'em before they really do something stupid!" Leaving the astonished Boyle behind, he grabbed his cap and scrambled out the door.

After pulling up beside the apartment complex, Carter sat in his car for a moment and stared up at the top floor of the building. A single, broken window marked the place of the attic. No light shone from this window, unlike the apartment windows below from which light emanated from between blinds or curtains. As he stared, a small beam of white light flickered across the broken windowpane. He shuddered, then angrily shook off the reaction.

"Those meatheads are starting to get to me," he gruffed, "I'm a Marine sergeant, not a boy scout. I don't run from a little light."

With that, Carter jumped out of his car and stomped up the apartment stairs, not stopping until he reached the attic door. He hesitated at the door before continuing. It had been left half-open. No doubt about it, the dumbbells were up there, which meant he would have to go drag them back down. Wonderful. A loud clatter sounded from above. Carter nearly jumped out of his skin. He barely saved himself from tumbling over backward. Now with his heart racing, he hurried into the dark staircase. He paused before he reached the last step. Straining his eyes in the darkness, he took one hesitant step forward. A series of low whispers reached his ears. He couldn't suppress a shudder at the disembodied sound. Something fluttered in the corner of his eye. Out of the darkness, a giant white figure rose out of the floor. With a series of blood-curling shrieks, it charged towards the opposite wall. Carter let out the loudest yell he could muster and stumbled backward. He tripped over a wooden handle and fell over a pile of garden tools. The tools clashed and clattered all around him.

"What was that?" grunted a familiar voice.

"It wasn't you?" answered an equally familiar drawl.

"Pyle! Slater!" Carter yelled.

"Why, it's Sergeant Carter!" said Gomer, "Hey, Sergeant! We didn't even know you were back there!"

"Gomer, help me out with these two guys, will ya?" Duke grumbled as he yanked both trembling thieves out from under the sheet. Carter scrambled out of the pile of tools and stumbled through the darkness to join the two privates. To his surprise, they each held a struggling bandit in their hands. Instant embarrassment turned to spite at the sight of them, not only safe and sound but triumphant while he'd made a fool of himself.

"Well?" he demanded, "what are you just standing there for? Quick, tie them up before they escape. Gomer glanced around.

"With what, Sergeant?"

Carter rustled through the piles of junk until he found a cord long enough to secure the hands of both thieves.

"Slater, go call the police," Carter said, "Pyle and I'll watch these crooks until they get here."

"Right, Sarge."

"Guess what, Sergeant?" Gomer began as Duke headed down the attic stairs, "It wasn't no ghost at all, it was these here bank robbers. But I guess you knew that all along, didn't you, Sergeant? Boy, that sure was a smart thang to do, lettin' us come up here by ourselves while you follered along behind. Why, if you hadn't hollered and made that noise when you did, these thieves might have gotten clean away."

Carter's spite melted away as a new window of opportunity opened up.

"Yeah," he laughed, "I knew it was the bank robbers all along. Thanks to my sergeant's intelligence, I knew it couldn't possibly be a ghost, so what else could it be?"

"Golly, Sergeant. Here I was just shakin' in my boots and you weren't even afraid. You sure are brave."

"That's right, Pyle. It all comes with being a Marine."