Case History: A bank guard driving through the evening countryside stops to move a log out of the road; from out of the bushes a green-faced, monstrous figure rises and stalks him. Meanwhile, the gang is on its way to a school dance which is being held in a barn. They happen upon the scene of the bank guard's accident. He has been knocked out and his car ransacked. The guard regains consciousness long enough to thrust a blank piece of paper at Freddy and mutter "The flame will tell… the Creeper!" The gang take the guard to the nearby house of Mr. Karswell, the bank president, who explains that the Creeper is a phantom who has been robbing the bank. He agrees to look after the guard and sends the kids along to the dance.

At the barn everyone is having fun until the lights go out; not wanting to dance in the spooky barn, everyone drives off to the malt shop, except for the Mysteries gang who stay behind to clean up. But as Shaggy and Scooby are taking the garbage outside they run into the Creeper, who demands the "paper" of them. The Creeper chases the kids about the countryside; Freddy, Daphne and Velma wind up in a ditch with a horse and cart, while Scooby and Shaggy crash into a henhouse. After the Creeper leaves, Shaggy and Scooby start to go too, but a baby chick hatches and immediately attaches itself to Scooby. Meanwhile, Freddy and the girls have found a car hidden in the bushes; it has no identification papers, but they find torn-up photograph negatives on the floorboards.

After running into Shaggy and Scooby (still fleeing the Creeper) they find some footprints which lead to a rope bridge spanning and chasm and plunging into a cave. The cave is the home to the "hermit of the hills" (whose cooking disgusts even Shaggy and Scooby). They escape from the hermit (who is all-too-eager for their company) and make their way back to the Mystery Machine, only to find the Creeper waiting behind the wheel for them. The Creeper chases them; everyone (except Scooby) falls into the haybale-making machine, leaving the Creeper (and the rest of the gang) neatly bundled up. The Creeper is unmasked as Mr. Karswell, who had been robbing his own bank and using the Creeper disguise to throw people off the track. But the security guard had installed a camera that caught Karswell in the act, and so Karswell had acted to silence the guard. The blank paper was actually a photograph (activated by heat) that showed Karswell looting the safe.

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