The Room with the Tassels

by Carolyn Wells · English · Gutenberg #46008 · 360,454 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Room with the Tassels

Author: Carolyn Wells

Release date: June 17, 2014 [eBook #46008]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46008

Credits: E-text prepared by Mardi Desjardins, Stephen Hutcheson, and the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team (http://www.pgdpcanada.net)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROOM WITH THE TASSELS ***

THE ROOM WITH THE TASSELS

CAROLYN WELLS

Author of "The Bride of a Moment,"
"Faulkner's Folly," etc.

New York
George H. Doran Company

WITH LOVE AND HOMAGE
_This Book is Dedicated_
TO
HATTIE BELLE JOHNSTON

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Wanted: A Haunted House 11
II. The Old Montgomery Place 26
III. Black Aspens 41
IV. The Story of the House 56
V. Eve's Experience 71
VI. At Four O'clock 86
VII. The Mystery 101
VIII. By What Means 117
IX. Conflicting Theories 131
X. Was It Supernatural? 146
XI. The Heir Speaks Out 161
XII. The Professor's Experience 176
XIII. Pennington Wise 192
XIV. Zizi 207
XV. Tracy's Story 222
XVI. What Happened to Zizi 237
XVII. Stebbins Owns Up 252
XVIII. Another Confession 267

THE ROOM
WITH THE TASSELS

CHAPTER I
Wanted: A Haunted House

"But I _know_ it's so,--for Mrs. Fairbanks saw it herself,--and heard it,
too!"

The air of finality in the gaze levelled at Braye defied contradiction,
so he merely smiled at the girl who was doing the talking. But, talking
or silent, Eve Carnforth was well worth smiling at. Her red hair
was of that thin, silky, flat-lying sort, that spells temper, but
looks lovely, and her white, delicate skin,--perhaps the least bit
hand-painted,--showed temperament while her eyes, of the colour called
beryl,--whatever that is,--showed all sorts of things.

Then from her canna-hued lips fell more wisdom. "And Professor Hardwick
believes it, too, and he's----"

"A college professor," broke in Landon, "don't try to gild _his_
refinement! But really, Eve, you mustn't believe in spooks,--it isn't
done----"

"Oh, but it is! You've no idea how many people,--scientific and talented
people,--are leaning toward spiritualism just now. Why, Sir Oliver Lodge
says that after the war great and powerful assistance will be given by
spirit helpers in matters of reconstruction and great problems of
science."

Milly Landon's laugh rang out, and she politely clapped a little, fat
hand over her mouth to stifle it.

Milly Landon was an inveterate giggler, but don't let that prejudice you
against her. She was the nicest, dearest dumpling of a little woman who
ever giggled her way through life. And as hostess on this present Sunday
afternoon occasion, she sat, one foot tucked under her, on the davenport
in her long, narrow parlour, on one of New York's East Seventieth
streets.

It was a parlour like thousands of others in the city, and the quartette
of people talking there were much like the people talking in those other
parlours, that Sunday afternoon. Their only superiority lay in the fact
that they constitute part of the personnel of this absorbing tale, and
the other people do not.

Milly and her very satisfactory husband, Wynne Landon, were affably
entertaining Rudolph Braye and the herein-before described Eve Carnforth,
two pleasing callers, and the talk had turned on psychological matters
and then, by inevitable stages, to the supernatural and spiritualism.

"It is all coming in again," Eve declared, earnestly. "You know it was
taken very seriously about thirty or forty years ago, and then because of
fake mediums and fraudulent séances, it fell into disrepute. But now,
it's being taken up in earnest, and I, for one, am terribly interested."

"But it's so old-fashioned, Eve," and Milly looked at her guest in
disdain.

"It's gammon and spinach, that's what it is," declared Landon, "very
rubbishy gammon and a poor quality of spinach!"

"Queen Victoria didn't think so," Eve informed them. "She may have been
old-fashioned, but she believed thoroughly in the spiritual reappearance
of her friends who died, and especially took comfort in the communion and
visitation of her dead husband."

"It's this way, I think," offered Braye; "it seems to me it's like that
old 'Lady or the Tiger' story, you believe or not, according to your
character or disposition. You know, it depended on your own nature,
whether you think the Lady came out of the door, or the Tiger. And so
with spooks, if you want to believe in them, you do."

"Don't say spooks, please," begged Eve; "say phantasms, or even ghosts."

"Is that the usage in the best mediumistic circles?" and Braye smiled.
"Well, I think I could more easily believe in a spook than a phantasm.
The latter sounds so unreal, but a good honest Injun spook seems sort of
plausible."

"They're all unreal," began Landon, but Eve interrupted. "They're not
unreal, Wynne; they're immaterial, of course, but that isn't being
unreal. You have a real soul, haven't you, although it is immaterial? and
I suppose you don't call your mind material, even if your brain is."

"Now you're quibbling, Eve," and Landon grew a bit more serious. "When I
say unreal, I mean imperceptible to the senses. I hold that a departed
spirit cannot return to earth and be seen, heard, or felt by mortal human
beings. All the stories of such things to the contrary notwithstanding.
If you or any one else has power to show me a visible spook,--I beg
pardon, phantasm,--I'll be glad to see it, but I'm from Missouri. I
wouldn't be a bit afraid of it, but I'd have to be jolly well convinced
of its integrity. No faked-up spectres would go down with me!"

"But how can you know?" asked Milly. "I'd be scared to death of one, I'm
sure, but if Wynne wants to see one, I do. Let's all go to a séance, or
whatever they call the things. Shall us?"

"No, indeed!" cried Eve. "Professional séances are always fakes. And I
don't aspire to _see_ one. If we could get some messages from the beyond,
that would satisfy me."

"Get messages how?" asked Braye.

"Oh, by a Ouija board, or some such way."

"Ouija!" derided Landon; "that's the biggest fraud of all!"

"Only in the hands of frauds. If we tried it here by ourselves and if we
all trusted each other not to stoop to deception of any sort that would
be a fair test."

"I'd like that," and Milly giggled in pleased anticipation. "That
wouldn't frighten me, and I'd promise to play fair."

"There'd be no reason for not playing fair," said Eve, seriously. "We're
not a pack of silly children who want to trick one another. If we could
get together some evening and have an earnest, serious test, I'd agree.
But not if there's to be the least suspicion of anybody trying trickery."

At this point two more callers arrived, and Milly jumped up to greet
them.

"Mr. Bruce!" she exclaimed, "how nice to see you! And Vernie,--my
goodness, how you've grown!"

"Indeed, yes," and Vernie Reid, a most lively and energetic sub-deb of
sixteen, darted from one to another, greeting all with interest.

"Hello, Cousin Rudolph, what are _you_ doing here? Mooning after Miss
Carnforth, I s'pose. Dear Mrs. Landon, let me sit here by you. I want to
show you my graduating gifts."

"Oh, yes, you've just had commencement, haven't you?"

"Yes, and Uncle Gifford gave me this heavenly wrist-watch, and my
respected Cousin Rudolph, over there, sent me this pendant. Isn't it
stunning? Oh, I had beautiful presents. I'd like to graduate every year!"

"Aren't you going to school any more at all?"

"Dunno yet. Uncle Gifford says I am, I say I'm not. It remains to be
seen. Though I don't mind confiding to you that I usually get my own way.
And, too, out in Chicago, you know, we're not such terrible highbrows.
Something tells me my schooldays are over. I think Uncle Gif needs the
pleasure of my society at home. And, too, I want to get acquainted with
Cousin Rudolph. Until this week I haven't seen him for years."

"He isn't your cousin, Vernie."

"Same as. He's a son of Uncle Gif's half-brother, and I'm a daughter of
Uncle's own sister, so it sort of evens up. Anyway, I like Cousin
Rudolph, because he's such a good-looking young man, and he's promised to
take me round New York some. That's why I'm so jealous of Miss Carnforth
or any other girl."

Vernie was so pretty that her chatter amused the whole crowd. She was
brown-haired and brown-eyed, and somewhat of a browned complexion, by
reason of much tennis and outdoor life at the school from which she had
just been graduated. And after a summer spent among the Eastern resorts,
she and her Uncle were to return to their Chicago home, where they had
lived all of Vernie's orphaned life. Gifford Bruce idolized the girl and
though often short and crabbed in his manner to others, he was never
cross or stern to his dead sister's child.

"What were you talking about when we came in?" Vernie asked, smiling at
Milly. "You were all so in earnest, it must have been something
important."

"Of ghosts," answered Braye, looking at the pretty child. "Do you enjoy
them?"

"Oh, don't I!" cried Vernie. "Why, at school we just ate 'em up! Table
tippings and all such things, as soon as lights were out!"

"We don't mean that sort," said Eve. "We were talking seriously."

"Count me out, then," laughed Vernie. "Our ghosts weren't a bit real. I
did most of 'em myself, jogging the table, when the others didn't know
it!"

Eve's scarlet lips came together in a narrow line, but the others laughed
at Vernie as she babbled on.

"Yes, and we tried the Ouija board. I can make it say anything I want
to."

"Good for you, Kiddie," cried Braye, "I believe I like your notion of
these things better than the ideas of the psychologists. It sounds a lot
more fun!"

"And comes nearer the truth," declared Mr. Bruce. "I've looked up these
matters and I've read all the best and most authoritative books on the
subjects. There are many writers more diffuse and circumstantial, but
Andrew Lang sums up the whole situation in his able way. He says there
are no ghosts, but there are hallucinations. And that explains all."

"It doesn't to me," and Eve's beryl eyes took on a mystic, faraway look.
"I, too, have read a lot of books----"

"Scientific or psychic?" interrupted Mr. Bruce, acidly.

"Psychical and Theosophic----"

"Rubbish! The Theosophic bunch have been in the discard for years."

"That's what I say," put in Milly, "the whole business is old-fashioned."

"It isn't a question of fashion," and Gifford Bruce spoke assuredly; "the
subject is one that recurs in waves, as many such things do. Why, there
have been ghosts and haunted houses in people's imagination ever since
there has been man and a house for him to live in. Some are spoken of in
the Bible, the primitive Australians had legions of ghosts, the awful
Dyaks record them, and there is scarce a castle or palace of the middle
ages that hasn't its Woman in White, or a Little Gray Lady or the Man in
Black. And in an old Egyptian papyrus, there's an account of a defunct
lady who insisted on haunting her husband to his great distaste."

"My goodness, Uncle Gif, you do know a lot about it!" and Vernie went
over and sat on the arm of his chair. "Tell us more. I like this sort of
ghost stories better than the fool stunts we did at school."

"I'm not telling ghost stories, child, I'm only declaring that ghost
stories are merely _stories_, and in no case a true relation of
happenings. Lang investigated thousands of cases, and in ten out of every
eleven, he states, fraud was proved."

"Quite so," said Eve, "and it is that eleventh case that interests the
real thinker, the true inquirer."

"But the eleventh case was simply not proven, it never has been shown
that it was really a ghostly visitation."

"But they do say, Uncle Gifford," observed Braye, "that the very fact of
the frauds being perpetrated proves that there was something to imitate.
If no spirit had ever returned to earth and made itself manifest, no one
would have thought of pretending that one did."

"Nonsense and super-nonsense! Why, Rudolph, perpetual motion is not a
real thing, but how many times has it been pretended! You don't remember
the Keeley Motor, but that deceived thousands into believing that
perpetual motion was at last discovered, but it wasn't; and that fraud
doesn't prove that perpetual motion, without adequate cause, exists."

"Here comes Professor Hardwick," exclaimed Milly, "splendid to have him
come just now! Sit down, Professor, and get right into the game. You know
all these people, except this angel child, Miss Vernie Reid."

"I am an angel," declared Vernie, "but I'm no child! I've just graduated
with honours and diplomas and lots of presents. Now, I'm out in the great
world, and glory, but I love it! But don't mind me, Professor, go right
on and tell us all you know about ghosts and ghostesses."

"Bless my soul! I don't know anything about them."

"Well, do you believe in ghosts?"

"What do you mean by ghosts? How do you define a ghost?"

"Ah, there's the rub," said Landon. "These people are all talking at
cross purposes. Mr. Bruce means a scarecrow phantom rigged up in sheets,
Miss Carnforth means a supernatural being of some sort, but I take a
ghost, in the proper sense, to mean the visible soul of some one who has
died."

"What do you mean by visible soul? Disembodied?"

"No," considered Landon, "I suppose I mean clothed in a body,--that is an
apparent body."

"And raiment?" asked the old Professor.

"Yes, certainly. I never heard of a nude spook!"

"Then your visible soul is concealed by a body of flesh, and clothes, of
fabric, or, at least, apparently so. The soul, I take it, would show but
low visibility."

"Good, Hardwick!" cried Mr. Bruce. "Give them a jolt, they need
it,--talking such rubbish!"

"Rubbish, Bruce? What do you mean by rubbish?"

"Why, all this ghost gabble----"

"How do you know it's rubbish? Have you personally disproved it? Do you
mean intentional rubbish? Are they talking deceptively, or are they
themselves deceived?"

"By the Lord Harry, Hardwick, I had forgotten you were such a stickler
for words! I must choose my diction carefully. Do you, then, believe that
so-called supernatural appearances are caused by psychical influences or
are hallucinations of the senses? There, I think I've put it clearly."

"Fairly so. But I can't answer clearly. I never express an opinion on a
grave question----"

Milly's hand flew up to her mouth to repress an involuntary giggle. "A
_grave_ question!" she exploded. "It surely is."

The Professor looked at her thoughtfully. "It is," he went on, "and it is
no laughing matter. As I was saying, I never state an opinion without
being sure of my facts. Now, I've had no experience, personally, with
supernatural matters, and so am unfit to discuss them. But, I admit I
should be very glad to have some such experience. Yes, I certainly
should."

"Really," and Eve Carnforth looked interested. "I can arrange it for you,
Professor Hardwick."

"No, no, my dear lady, I do not mean that I want to go to a séance, where
the so-called medium throws flowers and things out of a cabinet, or toots
trumpets and bangs cymbals! No, thank you, I've seen such often."

"What would you choose as an experience?" asked Landon.

"I'd like to go to a house that is reputed haunted, and in circumstances
that preclude all possibility of fraud, see the haunting spirits or hear
them, for myself."

"Me, too!" cried Vernie. "Oh, I do think that would be the rippingest
fun! If you ever do it, Professor, mayn't I go with you?"

"I'll go along," said Eve. "Wouldn't that be a splendid proof! To have
such a scientific and open-minded man as the Professor, and a few others
who are in earnest and anxious to learn. You couldn't go, Mr. Bruce. You
are too sceptical."

"I'm just the one you need," he laughed. "A balance wheel to keep you
enthusiasts straight. But haunted houses are not to be found on every
bush in America. If we were in England now,--or Scotland."

"They do have some over here," Landon asserted. "I read of one recently,
and I've heard of others."

"Let's find one," suggested Eve, "and spend our summer vacation in it!
Wouldn't that be a lark?"

"Oh, do!" exclaimed Vernie. "I'd just love it! May I go, Uncle Gifford?
Oh, please let me."

"Only if I go myself, child. The spooks,--I beg their pardon, phantasms,
might carry you off. I'll have to go along to rescue you."

"Phantasms don't carry people off," said Eve, contemptuously. "And though
I'd like to consider this plan, I'd only do so, if we were all in earnest
as investigators, whatever our opinions may be."

"Come on, let's go," said Landon. "I think it a great little old scheme.
Make up a party, you know, but every one who joins must promise to be
earnest and honest. Must promise to do nothing to fool or mislead the
others, but keep a fair and open mind for any developments. Of course,
there won't be any developments, but we can have a jolly time and we can
have wild discussions."

"Wynne would rather have a discussion than eat," said his wife. "I'll go,
and I'll be the housekeeper and chaperon of the crowd, if, as Wynne says,
there'll be no developments. I'd love the outing, and I think this a
splendid party to belong to. And let's take Norma Cameron. She's a
sensitive, or whatever you call it, and she'll help you out, Eve."

"Why make the party any larger?" asked Eve, a little petulantly. "The
crowd here now seems just right and congenial and all that."

"Why lug in Norma?" said Braye, smiling. "I don't know said Norma, but I
agree with Eve that the party here is just sort of complete."

"Yes, I will take Norma. The poor child never gets an outing, and she'd
just love this chance."

"You talk as if we were going to a summer resort," said Landon. "In the
first place, Milly, I doubt if we can find a properly haunted house in a
pleasant locality, that is for rent."

"Of course we can't," declared Mr. Bruce. "The whole scheme is idiotic.
But if you can work it out, Landon, I'll go along, and take this little
piece of property." He looked smilingly at the eager-eyed Vernie. "She's
due for some fun after her school work, and if she likes this stunt,
let's try to put it over."

"How would you set out to find a house?" asked Braye.

"Advertise," said Landon, promptly. "I know a firm of real estate agents,
that I'll bet could manage it in short order. Say we try it?"

"I'm going to take Norma," insisted Milly. "Mayn't I, Wynne?"

"Take anything or anybody you wish, my cherished one. But then, oughtn't
we to have another man?"

"Yes," said Milly, decidedly. "I hate a bunch of hens, without plenty of
menfolks about. Who knows a nice, good-natured, all round adaptable
dinner man?"

"I know just the chap," said Braye, "but he's a minister. Or, at least,
he used to be. But he's an awfully good fellow, and most agreeable
parlour company."

"What's his name?" asked Landon.

"Tracy. I met him first in Chicago, some years ago, and I've always liked
him."

"All right, if Milly asks Norma, you ask your friend, but it's a case of
first catch your house!"

"It's got to be a nice house, and fairly comfortable," Milly stipulated,
"or I won't go."

"It's got to have a well-authenticated ghost, or I won't go," laughed
Braye. "I don't believe in the things, but I'd like to have a chance to
hear their clanking chains, or whatever they perform on."

"I'll go just for the fun of the thing," said Vernie, "and if we do catch
a ghost, so much the better!"

CHAPTER II
The Old Montgomery Place

At the Fisher and Hibbard Real Estate and Country House Agency, Wynne
Landon had a spirited interview with their Mr. Fisher, and finally
induced that somewhat unwilling gentleman to advertise for a haunted
house.

"It's a purely business matter," Landon argued, "and if you're any sort
of a live agency you ought to do your best to get for your clients any
such peculiar domiciles as they may desire."

"I understand that," patiently explained Mr. Fisher, "but it's such a
crazy thing to do. How would a dignified firm like ours look advertising
for a house warranted haunted?"

"Don't use your own firm name, then. Have answers sent to a fictitious
address. Oh, you can manage it, Fisher. I don't mean you can surely get
one, but you can manage to try. And if the house is pleasant and
attractive, it doesn't matter, between you and me, if there isn't any
ghost, after all. But I want a _bona fide_ story. I mean, I don't want a
house that the owner pretends is haunted, just so he can rent it. It must
be a well-known legend or ghost story connected with the place."

"There are plenty of such," and Fisher laughed. "I've struck them
occasionally, and because of that well-authenticated story, known to all
the neighbours, I couldn't rent them. To have one asked for is a new
experience here."

"Well, I've told you the whole state of the case. You see why we want it,
and though the ghost part is the primary factor with some of us, my wife
and I care more about a pleasant setting for a month's house party."

Landon's personality went far toward gaining his end, and Mr. Fisher
promised to do what he could. As a lawyer of fine standing, and a man of
ample means, Wynne Landon was a desirable man to please, and the order
was taken.

And when, a few weeks later, word came that a possible opportunity had
offered, Landon telephoned for Braye to go with him, and they went to
investigate it at once.

"It's this way," said Mr. Fisher to the listening men. "There's a big
house up in Vermont,--in the Green Mountain region, not so very far from
Manchester. But it's a lonely locality, quite high up, and near a lake."

"Sounds fine so far," commented Landon; "go on."

"A man named Stebbins is the owner. I haven't seen him, but here's his
letter. Read it, you'll get the idea better than I can tell you." So they
read:

"Fisher and Hibbard:
"Dear sirs:

"I've got a house, and it sure is haunted. It's up here in the
mountains, and it's a good house, and a big one, but in some disrepair.
Leastways, things is old-fashioned, and not, as you may say, up to
date. But nothing ornery. All high-toned and proper, only old and
somewhat wore out. It's the old Montgomery mansion, built along about
1700 and something. But it's been added to since, and it's a sort of
mixed up architecture. About forty rooms into it, I should judge,
though I ain't never counted them. And most of them haunted. But they
ain't no use going into particulars unless somebody really wants to
rent it. I've tried nineteen years, and nobody'll take it, cause it's
so lonesome like. It's called Black Aspens, mostly I guess, cause the
thick groves of aspen trees all around look black at night, and Lord
knows it's a fit place for ghosts. Anyway it's haunted and I can swear
to that. But the story of the haunt I won't set down until I hear from
you again. But you can take my affydavy it's a real haunt and there's a
real reason for it.

"Yours truly,
"Elijah Stebbins."

"Sounds good to me; what do you think, Rudolph?" said Landon.

"All right, if it's genuine. Some of us ought to go up there and size it
up before the whole crowd goes. Think so?"

"Yes, unless we can get a photograph, or some sort of a plan of the
place. And, you know, Braye, I don't care such a lot about a ghost, if we
can get a good intelligent crowd of people together. That's the only sort
of vacation I care for. I wouldn't give a picayune for a month in a big
summer hotel, or a little summer boarding-house, where you may meet good
talkers and you may not. But with Eve Carnforth and Norma Cameron and the
Professor and, pardon the bouquet, you, I foresee some good old
chin-chins. And, add to this, picturesque, even wild mountain scenery, I
somehow think we're in for a good time."

"I agree. Wish Uncle Gif and Vernie weren't going, though. He's a
dictatorial old chap, though a good sport, and as to Vernie, I don't
think it's the right place for a flapper."

"Oh, it won't hurt the kiddie. She's a mighty sensible little piece and
she's ready to eat up experiences. She may as well be with her own
people."

"That's just it. She's lived nearly all her life alone with Uncle, and he
isn't enough people for her. She ought to have a woman to look after her,
now she's out of school."

"Well, what's the matter with Milly? For this trip at least. Milly loves
the little girl, and will have a good influence over her."

"That's right as rain, but I'm not sure Eve Carnforth is desirable
company for Vernie."

"Oh, Eve isn't a bad sort. And with her strict Uncle, and you and Milly
and me to look after the child, Eve can't do much to counteract."

"She probably won't do anything. It's all right, Wynne. Now shall we
decide to take this Montgomery place?"

"Oh, no, we can't decide positively. I'm pretty sure we shall take it,
but I think we ought to call a confab of the whole bunch to discuss it."

Meantime, Eve Carnforth was talking it over with Milly Landon.

"I adore the plan," Eve said, "except your insistence on taking Norma
Cameron. I don't like her, Milly, and you know it."

"Now, Eve, cunnin' little cherub child, don't let the greeny-weeny-eyed
monster claim you for his own! You know perf'ly well," Milly giggled,
"that you don't want Norma along, because you think she will attract
Friend Braye."

"Why, Milly Landon! What nonsense! I don't care two cents for Rudolph
Braye----"

"Oh, I don't mean romantically, but I do know you want to be top of the
psychic heap, up there, and you think little Norma will get ahead of you
in phantasmagoria, or whatever you call it."

"No, it isn't that; but Norma does think she knows it all, and she puts
on such airs about her clairvoyance, and calls herself a sensitive and
all that."

"Well, let her. You can hold your own; and, too, Eve, if we carry out
this scheme, I think we ought all to pull together, and help each other.
And we can't do that, if there's antagonism or rivalry. Now, can we? And
if you're in earnest, as you've always insisted you are, you ought to be
glad of any help Norma can give. She feels that way about you. When I
asked her to go, she was delighted that you were to be in the party,
because, she said, you were so interested and so well up in all these
things we're going to discover."

"I suppose I am silly. I may as well confess I'm not sure of Norma. She
wouldn't be above pretending she heard or saw things, even if she
didn't."

"Fiddlesticks! There won't be any pretending! Or, if there is, it'll be
discovered right straight off. Why, Wynne is terribly in earnest,--about
having it all fair and square, I mean,--and so is the Professor, and I'd
like to see any one fool Gifford Bruce! And little Vernie is a real
wideawake. There won't be anything doing that that child doesn't know, if
it's fraud or foolery! Don't you believe it, my dear. Norma Cameron won't
pull any wool over anybody's eyes in our party. No, siree!"

The crowd came together that night to discuss the house that had been
offered, and to come to a decision.

Norma Cameron was present, and her manner and appearance were so exactly
opposite to those of Eve Carnforth, that it was small wonder the girls
were not congenial.

Norma was blonde, and had what her friends called a seraphic countenance
and her enemies, a doll-face. For Norma had enemies. She was prominent in
war relief work and public charities of many kinds, and it is seldom
possible for such a one to go through the world entirely peaceably. But
all conceded that her doll-face was a very pretty one, and few who
criticized it, would not have been glad to wear it.

Her golden hair was softly curly, and her sky blue eyes big and
expressive. But her complexion was her greatest beauty; soft as a rose
petal, the pink and white were so delicately blended as to make a new
observer suspect art's assistance. A second glance, however, removed all
such suspicion, for no hare's foot could ever have produced that degree
of perfection. Her softly rounded chin, and creamy throat were
exquisitely moulded, and her usual expression was gentle and amiable.

But Norma was no namby-pamby character, and her eyes could turn to deep
violet, and her pink cheeks flush rosily if she ran up against unjustice
or meanness. That was why her career of philanthropy was not always a
serene path, for she never hesitated to speak her mind and her mind was
of a positive type.

Always outspoken, though, was Norma. No slyness or deceit marked her
procedure, never did she say behind any one's back what she would not say
to his face.

And this was the principal reason why Norma and Eve could never hit it
off. For Eve frequently carried tales, and sometimes denied them later.
Milly, however, was friends with both girls, and secretly hoped that if
they could all get away together, the two warring natures might react on
each other for good. Then, too, both were immensely interested in
psychics, and if they were rivals in this field, so much better chance
for all concerned, to find out the things they were to look for.

"I think," said Norma, at the confab, "it would be better for two of the
crowd, say, Mr. and Mrs. Landon, to go up first and look at the house. It
sounds fine, but it may be impossible. So, why get us all up there, only
to come home again?"

"I don't think so," said Eve, promptly, while Milly giggled to hear the
two begin to disagree at once. "I think it would be a lot more fun for us
all to go and see it for the first time together. Then, if it isn't
livable, we can all come back, but we shall have had a sort of picnic out
of it, at least."

"Yes, I think that, too!" put in Vernie, who was beside herself with joy
at the outlook. "Oh, what a gorgeous party it will be! Do we go in the
train, or motors or what?"

"Hush, Vernie," said her Uncle, "we haven't decided to go at all, yet.
Where is this place, Landon?"

"The post-office is East Dryden. The house is about a mile further up the
mountain. I fancy it's a picturesque sort of a place, though with few
modern appointments. Fisher got a little more data, somehow, and he says
it's a hodge-podge old pile, as to architecture, as it's been rebuilt, or
added to several times. But I don't care about all that, I mean, if we
don't like the appointments we needn't stay. What I want is the ghost
story. Shall we send to Stebbins for that before we take the place, or go
on a wild goose chase entirely?"

"Oh, let's start off without knowing anything about it," and old Mr.
Bruce's eyes twinkled like a boy's at thought of an escapade.

"Good for you, Uncle!" and Vernie shouted with glee. "I didn't know you
were such an old top, did you, Cousin Rudolph?"

"Well, I've known him longer than you have, Flapper, and I'm not so
surprised at his wanting a sporting proposition. But, I say, Milly, if
we're going to take Tracy, you people ought to see him and give him the
once over first. Maybe you won't like him at all."

"Oh, your friends are sure to be our friends, Rudolph," said Landon, "but
telephone him to run up here, can't you? It's only fair to let him in on
the planning."

Tracy came, and he made good at once. His ministerial air was softened by
a charming smile and a certain chivalry of address that pleased the women
and satisfied the men.

"What about servants?" he asked, after the main details had been
explained to him.

"That's what I'm thinking about," said Milly. "I don't want to take our
servants, they'd be scared to death in such a place, and, too, we can't
go ghost hunting under Charles' nose! He'd sniff at us!"

"Right you are!" agreed Landon. "Charles is one estimable and valuable
butler, but he's no sort to take on the picnic we're out for."

"Don't let's take any servants," suggested Eve, "but get some up there.
Natives, you know."

"That would be better," said Mr. Bruce. "Then, they'll be used to the
place, and can tell us of the legends and traditions, you see."

"You're poking fun," said Eve, reproachfully, "but it's true, all the
same. Do we go in motors?"

"I think so," said Landon. "Two big cars would take us all, and we can
leave our luggage to be sent up if we stay."

"Of course we'll stay," asserted Milly. "I love that old house already,
and if there's no ghost at all, I'll be just as well pleased, and I'll
stay the month out, with whoever wants to stay with me."

"I'll stand by you," said Norma, "and I'll own up that I don't really
expect any spectral manifestations up there, anyway."

"It matters little what you expect," and Professor Hardwick looked at her
thoughtfully. "We're going investigating, not expecting."

"Don't you expect anything, Prof?" asked Vernie, gaily.

"What do you mean by expect, child? Do you mean wish or think?"

"Gracious, goodness, Professor! I never know what I mean by the words I
use, and I never care!"

Professor Hardwick's hobby was the use of words, and rarely did he fail
to question it, if a word was misused or uncertainly used in his
presence. But he smiled benignly on the pretty child, and didn't bother
her further.

Finally, the men drew together to make up the budget of necessary
expenses and the women talked clothes.

"Smocks all round," said Norma, who loved the unconventional in dress.

"Not for me!" said Eve, who didn't.

Milly giggled. "Let every one wear just what she chooses," she settled
it. "I'm at my best in white linen in the summer time, but what about
laundry? Well, I shall leave two sets of things packed, and then send for
whichever I want."

Norma, uninterested in clothes, edged over toward the men. Though a
friend of the Landons and acquainted with Professor Hardwick, she had
never met Braye or Tracy before.

Both succumbed to her sure-fire smile, but Tracy showed it and Braye
didn't.

"Sit here, Miss Cameron," and Tracy eagerly made a place for her at his
side; "we need a lady assistant. How much do you think it ought to cost
to provision nine people and two or three natives for a month?"

"It isn't a question of what it _ought_ to cost," returned Norma, "but
what it _will_ cost. But in any case it will be less than most of us
would spend if we went to the average summer hotel. So why not just put
down some round numbers, divide 'em by nine and let it go at that?"

"Fine!" approved Landon. "No food dictator could beat that scheme! I
wonder if ghost-hunters are as hungry as other hunters, or if we'll be so
scared we'll lose our appetites."

"I have a profound belief in ghosts," Norma asserted, "but I shall only
indulge in it between meals. Count me in for all the good things going,
three times a day."

"What do you mean by profound?" asked the Professor; "deep-seated or
widely informed?"

"Both," answered Norma, flashing her pretty smile at the serious old man.
"Profundity of all kinds is my happy hunting-ground, and on this trip I
expect to get all the profundity I want."

"And I'm the girl to put the fun in profundity," cried Vernie, coming
over to them. "My mission is to keep you serious people joyed up. Mr.
Tracy, your profession won't interfere with your having a jolly time,
will it? No, I see it won't, by that twinkly little smile."

"You may count on me," said the clergyman a bit stiffly, but with a
cordial glance at the girl.

"And I can wind Professor Hardwick round my finger," Vernie went on, "for
a companion on a gay lark, I don't know any one better than a dry-as-dust
old college professor!"

The object of this encomium received it with a benignant smile, but
Gifford Bruce reproved his saucy niece.

"I'll leave you at home, miss, if you talk impertinences," he declared.

"Not much you won't, my bestest, belovedest Uncle! Why, I'm the leading
lady of this troupe. And I expect the spectre will appear to me first of
all. That's my motto: 'Spect the Spectre! How's that? Then the rest of
you can inspect the spectre!"

"Vernie! don't be so excruciatingly funny," begged Braye, while Milly
Landon giggled at the pretty child, whose charm and sweetness took all
rudeness from her foolery.

"Perhaps we ought to call in an inspector to inspect the spectre,"
contributed Landon.

"There, there, Wynne," said Braye, "we'll take such stuff from an
ignorant little girl but not from a grown-up man."

"Ignorant, huh!" scorned Vernie. "I'll bet _you_ couldn't have passed my
examination in psychology!"

"Perhaps not," admitted Braye, "but after this trip of ours, we'll all be
honour men."

"I want it thoroughly understood," said Mr. Bruce, "that I range myself
on the side of the sceptics. I don't want to sail under false colours and
I wish to state positively that there are no ghosts or phantasms or any
such things. Moreover, I announce my intention of fooling you gullible
ones, if I can."

"Oh, that isn't fair!" exclaimed Landon. "I don't believe in the things
either, but I want an honest test. Why, you take away the whole point of
the experiment if you're going to put up a trick on us!"

"No, no, Bruce," said the Professor, "that won't do. Come, now, give me
your word there'll be no hocus-pocus or I refuse to go at all."

"If it's any sort of a real test, Hardwick, it oughtn't to be possible to
fool you."

"That's true," said Eve; "and I'm not afraid of any tricks. If they are
tricks, I'll know it----"

"I too," said Norma. "I'm sensitive to all psychical manifestations and
if I can't tell a real phantasm from Mr. Bruce's tricks, I deserve to be
fooled."

"I think it's a good thing that Mr. Bruce warned us," observed John
Tracy. "It puts us on our guard. But I think the rest of us ought to
agree not to do anything of that sort. We can expect and discount Mr.
Bruce's little game, but if others are going to do the same, it seems to
me the game isn't worth playing."

"Right you are!" declared Landon, and forthwith everybody present except
Gifford Bruce solemnly pledged his or her word to do nothing tricky or
fraudulent, and to preserve an open-minded, honest attitude toward any
developments they might experience.

"And with eight argus-eyed inquirers watching him, Mr. Bruce can't put
anything over," opined Landon, and the others agreed.

CHAPTER III
Black Aspens

Though mid-July, it was a chilly dusk through which the two motor cars
ascended the last stretch of mountain road toward the old Montgomery
mansion. The sun set early behind the Green Mountains and the house,
half-way up an eastern slope, appeared faintly through the shadows.

To the right, tall forest trees waved their topmost branches with an
eerie, soughing sound, or stood, menacingly silent, in black, sullen
majesty. Beneath them a tangled underbrush gave forth faint, rustling
hints of some wild life or suddenly ceased to a grim stillness.

Then the road lay through a thick grove of aspens, close, black and
shivering as they stood, sentinel like and fearsome, only dimly outlined
against the dark, clouded sky. Once in the grove, the shadows were dense,
and the quivering sounds seemed intensified to a muttered protest against
intrusion. A strange bird gave forth a few raucous notes, and then the
dread silence returned.

A quick, damp chill foreboded still water and the road followed the
margin of a small lake or pond, sinister in its inky depths, which
mirrored the still blacker aspen trees.

Suddenly, in a small clearing, they came upon the house. In the uncertain
light it seemed enormous, shapeless and beyond all words repelling. It
seemed to have a personality, defiant and forbidding, that warned of
mystery and disaster. Aspen trees, tall and gaunt, grew so close that
their whispering leaves brushed the windows, and crowded in protecting,
huddled clumps to ward off trespassers.

No lights showed through the deep caverns of the windows, but one faint
gleam flickered above the entrance door.

"Whew!" cried Landon, jumping from his seat with a thud on the stone
terrace, "I won't go through that woods again! I'll go home in an
aeroplane,--and I'm ready to go now!"

"So am I," said Milly, in a quivering, tearful voice. "Oh, Wynne, why did
we ever come?"

"Now, now," cheered Braye, "keep your heads, it's all right. Only these
confounded shadows make it impossible to know just where we're at. Here's
the house, and by jinks, it's built of marble!"

"Of course," said the Professor, who was curiously feeling of the old
ivy-grown stone, "this is the marble country, you know. Vermont marble
was plenty enough when this house was put up."

"Let's get in," begged Vernie. "It isn't as much fun as I thought it
would be."

They went, in a close group, up a short flight of broad marble steps and
reached a wide portico, in the centre of which was a spacious vestibule
indented into the building, and which stood within the main wall. Though
the walls of the house were of marble, those of this vestibule were of
panelled mahogany, and the entrance doorway was flanked on either side by
large bronze columns, which stood half within and half without the
mahogany wall.

"Some house!" exclaimed Tracy, in admiration of the beautiful details,
which though worn and blackened by time, were of antique grandeur. "These
bronze doors must have come from Italy. They're marvellous. I'm glad I
came."

"Oh, do get in, Wynne," wailed Milly. "You can examine the house
to-morrow. I _wish_ we hadn't come!"

Landon was about to make search for knocker or bell, when one of the big
bronze doors swung open, and a man peered out.

"You folks here?" he said, a bit unnecessarily. "Bring another lamp,
Hester."

"Yes, we're here," Landon assured him, "and we want to get in out of the
wet!"

"Rainin'?" and the man stepped out of the door to look, blocking all
ingress.

"No! that's a figure of speech!" Landon's nerves were on edge. "Open that
door,--the other one,--let us in!"

"Go on in, who's henderin' you?" and the indifferent host stepped out of
the way.

Landon went in first and Braye followed, as the others crowded after. At
first they could see only a gloomy cavernous hall, its darkness
accentuated by one small lamp on a table.

"Thought I wouldn't light up till you got here," and the man who had
admitted them came in and closed the door. "I'm Stebbins, and here's the
keys. This is the house you've took, and Hester here will look after you.
I'll be goin'."

"No, you won't!" and Landon turned on him. "Why, man, we know nothing of
this place. You stay till I dismiss you. I want a whole lot of
information, but not till after we get lights and make the ladies
comfortable."

"Comfortable! At Black Aspens! Not likely." The mocking laugh that
accompanied these words struck terror to most of his hearers. "Nobody
told me that you folks came up here to be comfortable."

"Shut up!" Landon's temper was near the breaking point. "Where's that
woman with the lamps? Where's the man I engaged to look after things?"

"Hester, she's here. She'll be in in a minute. Thorpe, that's her
husband, he's goin' to be a sort of butteler for you, he can't come till
to-morrow. But Hester, she's got supper ready, or will be, soon's you can
wash up and all."

Hester came in then, a gaunt, hard-featured New England woman, who looked
utterly devoid of any emotion and most intelligence.

Stebbins, on the other hand, was apparently of keen perceptions and
average intellect. His small blue eyes roved from one face to another,
and though he looked sullen and disagreeable of disposition, he gave the
effect of one ready to do his duty.

"All right," he said, as if without interest, "I'll set in the kitchen
and wait. Hester here, she'll take the ladies to their rooms, and then
after you get your supper, I'll tell you all you ask me. But I rented
this place to you, I didn't agree to be a signboard and Farmers'
Almanac."

"All right, old chap," and Landon smiled faintly, "but don't you get away
till I see you. Now, girls, want to select your rooms?"

"Y-Yes," began Eve, bravely, and then a glance up the dark staircase made
her shudder.

"What we want is light,--and plenty of it," broke in Braye. "Here you,
Hester, I'll relieve you of that lamp you're holding, and you hop it, and
get more,--six more,--twelve more--hear me?"

"We haven't that many in the house." Dull-eyed the woman looked at him
with that sublime stolidity only achieved by born New Englanders.

"Oh, you haven't! Well, bring all you have and to-morrow you manage to
raise a lot more. How many have you, all told?"

"Four, I think."

"Four! For a party of nine! Well, have you candles?"

"Half a dozen."

"And three candlesticks, I suppose! Bring them in, and if you're shy of
candlesticks, bring old bottles,--or anything."

"Good for you, Braye, didn't know you had so much generalship," and
Gifford Bruce clapped his nephew on the shoulder. "I'm glad I don't
believe in ghosts, for every last one of you people are shaking in your
shoes this minute! What's the matter with you? Nothing has happened."

"It was that awful ride through the woods," said Vernie, cuddling into
her uncle's arm. "I l-like it,--I like it all,--but, the local colour is
so--so dark!"

"That's it, Kiddie," said Braye, "the local colour is about the murkiest
I ever struck. But here are our lights, hooray!"

Hester brought two more small hand lamps, and after another trip to the
kitchen brought six candles and six battered but usable candlesticks.

A candle was given to each of the four women, and Norma politely selected
the oldest and most broken holder.

"Land sake!" exclaimed Stebbins, coming in, "you goin' to use _that_
candlestick? That's the very one the murderin' woman used!"

With a scream, Norma dropped it and no one moved to pick it up.

"Get out, Stebbins!" roared Landon, "you queer the whole business."

"I'll take this one," and Mr. Bruce picked up the old brass affair; "I'm
not afraid of such things. Here, Miss Cameron, take mine, it's new and
commonplace, I assure you."

White-faced and trembling, Norma took the cheap crockery thing, and
shortly they all followed Hester up the stairs to the shadows of the
floor above.

The place was silent as the grave. Hester's slippered feet made no sound,
and a voluntary scraping of Tracy's shoes stopped as soon as he realized
its enormous sound in those empty halls. A multitude of doors led to
rooms in all directions, there seemed to be no plan or symmetry of any
sort. The candle flames flickered, the small lamps burned with a pale
sickly light.

Hester paused midway of the main corridor.

"What rooms you want?" she asked, uninterestedly.

"Give me a cheerful one," wailed Milly. "Oh, Wynne, let us take a little,
cozy one."

"Of course you shall," said Braye, kindly. "Hester, which is the
pleasantest room in the house? Give that to Mr. and Mrs. Landon! And then
we'll put all you girls near them. The rest of us will camp anywhere."

"Let's all pretty much camp anywhere till to-morrow," suggested the
Professor. "I'd like to select my room by daylight."

"I've made up some of the rooms, and some I ain't," volunteered Hester.

"Then, for Heaven's sake, show us the made-up rooms, and get out!" burst
forth Landon. "I wish we'd brought our maids, Milly; that woman affects
me like fever and ague."

But after a time they were assigned to various more or less inhabitable
bedrooms, and as quickly as possible, all reappeared in the great hall
below, ready for supper.

The dining room, toward the back of the house, was not half bad, after
all the available lights had been commandeered for the table.

"You knew there were no electrics," said Braye to Eve, who was bewailing
the fact.

"Of course I did, and I thought candles would be lovely and picturesque
and all that; and kerosene gives a good soft light, but--well,
somehow,--do you know what I thought as we came through that dreadful
wood?"

"What?"

"Only one sentence rang through my mind,--and that was,--The Powers of
Darkness!"

"That isn't a sentence," objected the Professor, a little querulously,
and everybody laughed. Also, everybody blessed the occasion for laughter.

But Eve went on. "I don't care if it's a sentence or a syllogism, or what
it is! It just rang in my ears. And I tell you this whole place is under
the Powers of Darkness----"

"Do hush, Eve," pleaded Milly. "I was just beginning to pull myself
together, and now you've upset me again!"

"But Milly,----"

"Let up, Eve! For the love of Mike, let up! You're enough to give anybody
the creeps." Landon glared at her.

"It's only a question of light," Tracy broke in, in his pleasant way.
"Now, we've light enough for the moment, and to-morrow we'll make this
the house of a thousand candles and a hundred lamps, and a few lanterns
if you like. Incidentally, Friend Hester makes first-rate doughnuts."

"Aren't they bully!" chimed in Vernie. "I've eaten six, and here goes for
another."

"Lucky they're small," said her uncle. "But seven doughnuts are enough to
make you see the ghost of old Montgomery himself!"

"And all the Green Mountain boys," added Tracy, who was determined to
keep conversation away from fearsome subjects.

By the time they had finished the meal, every one felt more at ease,
Landon had recovered his poise, and Milly her cheerfulness.

"Now, then," the Professor asked, as they left the table, "shall we
explore the house to-night----"

"Lord, no!" cried Braye. "Leave it lay till daylight. Also, don't quiz
old Stebbins as to who's who in Black Aspens! Let's turn on the Victrola
and dance, or let's play poker or sing glees, or anything that's a proper
parlour trick. But nothing, I insist, pertaining to our mission up here.
That'll keep."

"As you like," and now Landon could smile. "And you mollycoddles may
pursue those light-minded pleasures. But I'm going to have it out with
Steb, because I want to know some several Laws for Beginners. But, don't
let me interfere with your plans. Go ahead, and have play 'Hide and Seek
All Over the House,' if you choose. That used to be my favourite indoor
game."

"Oh!" squealed Vernie, "what an awful suggestion! In this house!"

"I move we hear the story of the house to-night.--right now," said Eve.

Milly clasped her hands over her ears, instead of, as usual, over her
mouth, and cried, "No! I forbid it! Don't let 'em, will you, Wynne?"

"Seems to me," remarked Mr. Stebbins, "you folks don't know your own
minds! You want a ha'nted house, then when you git it, you're too scared
to hear the story of the ha'nt."

"I'm not scared," asserted Norma, "but somehow, a ha'nt sounds so much
worse than a haunt. Doesn't it, now?"

"It sure does," agreed Braye. "A ha'nt is concrete, while a haunt is
abstract."

"Good!" and Hardwick nodded approval. "Now, I suggest that we look around
a bit, get the general lay of the house and then all go to bed early. A
good night's sleep will put our nerves and muscles in condition again.
I'm delighted with the place, and I foresee a first-class vacation ahead
of us."

"I wish it was behind us, and we were just starting for home," murmured
Milly, but Eve reprimanded her.

"Don't be a spoilsport! I like the place too, Professor, and I'm going to
investigate a little. What room is this?"

Eve's graceful figure crossed the great square hall, where they were all
standing about, and paused at the closed door of a room just at the right
hand as one entered the house.

"Why, it's locked!" she exclaimed. "That won't do, Mr. Stebbins! This
whole domain is ours, now, you know. Open this door, please."

Eve wore the light gray skirt of her travelling costume, and a thin sheer
white silk blouse, whose V'd neck fell away from her long, slender
throat. Her hand on the door knob, she suddenly turned her strange beryl
eyes toward Stebbins, her face turning whiter and her thin lips redder as
she gazed.

"This is the room--isn't it?" she breathed, and her hand slowly fell from
the knob and hung loosely at her side.

"Yes, ma'am," replied Stebbins, stolidly. "How'd you know?"

"How could I help knowing!" and Eve's voice rang out like a clarion. "I
see it! I see it all!"

She rushed across the hall and fell trembling on a settee. Tracy flew to
her side, and took her hand.

"There, there, Miss Carnforth, brace up! We're all right here. Nothing
can hurt you."

"Beats all how she knew!" muttered Stebbins. "You see that's the
room----"

A cry from Milly stirred Landon to action.

"Drop it, Stebbins," he said, and took a step toward him. "None of that
to-night. We do want your haunted house, but the long journey up here,
and your confounded negligence in the matter of lights and servants and
general good will, has got on the ladies' nerves. Beat it now, to the
kitchen, or wherever your quarters are, but you stay here to-night and be
ready to report in the morning. You hear me?"

"Yes, sir," and shrugging his shoulders, the man disappeared among the
shadows in the back of the hall.

The great main hall was so large that the lights they had were all
insufficient for illumination. There seemed to be innumerable doors and
openings of side corridors, also a second staircase, far behind the main
one.

"Here's a good-looking room, let's go in here," said Tracy, stepping
through some old, faded draperies to the room on the left of the hall as
one entered the house.

Hardwick followed, and the others with lamps and candles pushed in. It
was a large, dignified apartment, evidently a parlour or ballroom of the
old mansion. The furniture was of old, carved rosewood, its upholstery
worn, but fairly decent. Oil portraits were on the walls and massive
ornaments of imitation bronze stood about, showing white here and there
where the coating was chipped off.

Yellowish onyx vases graced the mantels, and the windows were hung with
heavy rep curtains which, however, veiled no lighter ones.

"Ghastly!" cried Norma.

"What do you mean by ghastly?" began the Professor, and Tracy laughed.

"She didn't mean it at all, Professor," he said, "Miss Cameron meant to
say hideous. Now, don't ask me what I mean by hideous, just look at the
interior decorations here and draw your own conclusions as to my meaning.
But though not to be called æsthetic, this furniture is fairly comfy. The
springs of this sofa are intact,--come sit by my side, little darling."
This last to Vernie, who was wide-eyed and alert, lapping up these
strange, new impressions.

"All right," and she flung herself down beside him. "You're a real
comfort, Mr. Tracy,--you're so,--so--unministerial!"

"Thank you, my child. One needn't carry one's pulpit voice into social
life."

"Oh, I don't mean you do or say anything that a man of your calling
oughtn't to, but you're so nice about it."

"I think so too," chattered Milly, "I do think a clergyman with a sense
of humour makes a fine combination."

The mental atmosphere gradually lightened and when Landon suggested they
all retire, it was a composed and merry hearted group that obeyed the
summons.

When twelve sonorous strokes boomed from the tall clock in the upper
hall, the men beneath the roof of Black Aspens were all sleeping more or
less soundly.

Milly, with only occasional little quivering shudders, slumbered in
Landon's arms. Vernie slept with the sound dreamless sleep of youth.

But Eve and Norma were wide awake, and unable to close their eyes.

In adjoining rooms, the communicating door ajar, they could hear one
another toss restlessly, but they said no words.

Norma's blue eyes were wide open, her thoughts rambling over the strange
surroundings in which she found herself, and her mind leaping forward,
speculating on what might happen.

Eve, her long, glittering eyes half closed, listened for any sound; her
nerves alert, her thoughts darting from material things to the
supernatural, every muscle tense with a nameless apprehension.

More hours were rung out by the old clock, and at last dawn began to
creep in at the deep narrow windows of the old house.

With a shrug and a stretch Vernie awoke. Drowsily, in the half light she
tried to make out her surroundings, and then, suddenly remembering where
she was, she dove her head under her blanket, in a quick rush of fear.
Then curiosity conquered, and she came to the surface again, and looked
about. The light, growing gradually stronger, showed the appointments of
the room, the ugly old four-poster bedstead, of light wood,--apple or
hickory,--the heavy rep lambrequins, that seemed to be a feature of the
house, and the scantily appointed dresser, on which, the night before,
she had set her extinguished candle.

Shadows still lurked in the corners of the room, still hung round the
draperies and furniture, yet through the gloom Vernie saw something that
made her eyes stare and her flesh creep. Clenching her hands till her
sharp nails bit into her palms, she gave a shriek that rang through the
silent house.

CHAPTER IV
The Story of the House

From their nearby rooms Eve and Norma rushed to Vernie's room.

The child was huddled beneath the bed clothes and at their entrance shot
her head out, crying wildly, "Look! look! the old candlestick!"

Milly came running, in dressing-gown and slippers, and from distant
regions came the voices of the men.

"What's the matter?" asked Gifford Bruce. "Wasn't that Vernie's voice?"

"Yes, Uncle Gif," Vernie called out. "Oh, did you do it?"

"Do what?" and in his hastily donned bath robe, old Mr. Bruce appeared.

"Why," and Vernie was calm now, "there's that old candlestick, the one
the--the murderer used--on my dresser! Last night I had a little china
one!"

"What are you talking about--a murderer! Wake up, child!"

"I'm not asleep. But I see, now. You had this old one, Uncle Gif, and,
you know you said you were going to fool us if you could, and so you
sneaked it in here to pretend the haunt did it!"

"What! What nonsense! I did nothing of the sort!"

"Who did, then? You know you had this one last night."

"I certainly did. Wonder what's in my room now."

Mr. Bruce ran back to his room and returned with the little china
candlestick Vernie had carried to her room the night before. They had
certainly been exchanged during the night.

Everybody stared at the two candles, so worthless in themselves, but so
inexplicably transferred, if, as he declared, Gifford Bruce had not
exchanged them.

"Of course I didn't do it," he repeated, angrily. "I did say, in fun,
that I meant to trick you, but when I saw how nervous and wrought up all
you women were last night, I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing! Why,
Vernie, I think too much of you, dear, to add to your fear or discomfort
in any way."

At last everybody concluded it was the work of some one of their number,
and there were varying opinions as to the identity of the perpetrator of
what must have been meant for a joke.

But at breakfast time the matter was discussed very seriously and each
avowed in all honour that he or she knew nothing of it.

"I can speak not only for myself," said Professor Hardwick, gravely, "but
for Mr. Tracy and Mr. Braye. They would have had to pass my door to move
around the halls, and I was awake all night, looking and listening, and I
know they did not leave their rooms."

"I speak for myself," said Gifford Bruce, haughtily. "I declare on my
oath that I did not leave my bed. Somebody exchanged those candles,--but
it was not I."

The Landons spoke for each other, and no one, of course, could suspect
Wynne or Milly. And naturally, the two girls, Eve and Norma, would not go
to Mr. Bruce's room to play a trick like that.

"I don't mind now," said Vernie, "when it's all light and cheerful and
you're all around me, and the breakfast is so good and all. I think it's
the beginning of these experiences we came up here to look for. Why are
you all so surprised? Because I had the first party?"

The merry-eyed girl was unafraid now, but Hardwick shook his head.

"I don't like it," he said. "We can't investigate if there's a trickster
among us. You didn't do it yourself, did you, Vernie?"

"No, Professor," and the pure truthful gaze of the brown eyes left no
room for disbelief. "Honest, I didn't. But," she laughed mischievously,
"if I had, I should _say_ I hadn't!"

"Vernie! This won't do!" and Eve glared at her, "You little minx, I
believe you did do it!"

"Don't you look at me like that, Eve Carnforth! Stop it! You scare me."
Vernie fairly cowered before Eve's basilisk eyes. "I believe _you_ did
it!"

"There, there, girls," broke in Tracy, with his gentle smile, "don't get
to hair-pulling. If we've all finished breakfast, let's now hear the
story of the house, and then we can tell if its patron ghost is the sort
given to exchanging bedroom furniture o' nights."

"Yes," agreed Norma, "I'm crazy to hear the story. Where's Mr. Stebbins,
does anybody know?"

"I'll dig him up," Landon assured them. "Where shall we congregate?"

"In the drawing room," said Milly, "that's the only room I'm not afraid
of."

"I'm fearfully afraid of that!" said Tracy, in mock terror. "Those rep
lambrequins get on my nerves!"

"Aren't they awful!" and Norma laughed. "They don't frighten me, but they
jar my æsthetics terribly."

"No," said Elijah Stebbins, firmly, as the conclave began, "not in that
there parlour. Here in the hall. You folks want this house, you want the
story of this house, now you sit here to hear it."

"Very well," said Braye, agreeably. "Just as you say, Mr. Stebbins. Now
begin at the beginning, but don't drool too long a spiel."

The whole party grouped themselves in the great hall, and for the first
time began to take in the details of its appointments. Though in
disrepair as to walls and cornices, the lines of its architecture were
fine and it was of noble proportions; the staircase was beautifully
planned; and the wonderful bronze doors, which they had not examined the
night before, were truly works of art.

"The old Montgomery who brought them doors from Italy, pretty much built
the house behind 'em," Stebbins volunteered, "and them colyums, of
course, come with the doors. They're some valu'ble, I'm told. You see,
the doors is the same outside and in, and the colyums is, too. Well,
then, he had the vestibule of murhoggany, to sort o' set off the bronze,
I s'pose, and the rest of the walls is marble,--solid old Vermont marble,
which Lord knows was to be had for the pickin', up here."

"Get along to the story, Steb," urged Landon.

"Yes, sir. Well, the Montgomery that built this house,--though, it was
part built before, he added on to his father's house,--well, he was a
daredevil, and a tyrant. Little mite of a man, but full of the old Nick.
And, as those little men will do, he married a reg'lar Hessian of a
woman. Big, sort o' long and gaunt, they say she was, and a termagant for
sure! She led him a life, and also, he led her one. For he was a terror
and so was she. What he lacked in size he made up in temper, and she had
both. Well, here's the story.

"He took sick, and she nursed him. They didn't have trained nurses and
specialists in them days. Now some says, he was jest naturally took sick
and some says, that she give him slow poison. But, be that as it may, one
night, she give him prussic acid, and he died. She threw a shawl over her
head, and ran screamin' to the village for the doctor. I s'pose remorse
got her, for she confessed, and said 'I killed him! I killed him! At four
o'clock I killed him!'

"She went crazy, they say, then and there. Well, the doctor he said he'd
come right away, but she ran home first. And he followed's fast's he
could, and--when he come, here was the woman,--and she was a washin' the
dead man's lips,--she said, to get the smell of the bitter ammonds
off,--you know, prussic acid is for all the world the smell of bitter
almonds. The doctor, he found the man was really dead, and he was for
havin' her arrested, but she was so plumb crazy, he decided to take her
to an asylum instead.

"He had to go off to get help, and he left her,--here alone in this house
with the body. They was in that room," Stebbins pointed to the room with
the locked door, at the right hand of the hall as one entered, "the room
with the tassels, it's called."

"Why is it called that?" broke in Eve, whose piercing eyes were fairly
glittering with excitement, "what sort of tassels?"

"Great heavy tassels on the curtains and lambaquins, ma'am,--want to see
it?"

"Not now," ordained Landon, "the story first."

"Well," resumed Stebbins, "they was in that room, the dead husband and
the live wife, when the doctor went away, and because he knew she was out
of her head, he locked 'em in. And when he came back--she was setting
there, just where he'd left her, still in a dazed sort o' stupor,
and--the corpse was gone."

"Gone! where?" rasped out the Professor.

"Nobody knows. Nobody ever knew. It had just disappeared from off the
face of the earth. The doctor and the village folks all agreed that it
was sperrited away. 'Cause that woman,--she couldn't get out o' the doors
to cart it off, and she couldn't 'a' got out of a winder with it, without
showin' some signs, and if she had, what in the world could she 'a' done
with it? It wasn't buried nowhere around, and if she'd 'a' threw it in
the lake, s'posin' she'd got out a winder, how'd she got in again?
Anyhow, that's the story, and they all said she was a witch and she
bewitched the body away, so's the doctor and sheriff couldn't smell the
prussic acid on it and hang her for murder. They searched and searched
but they couldn't find no signs of her havin' even moved outen her chair.
She sat there like a dead woman herself, when the doctor left her and
likewise when he come back."

"The tale is very circumstantial," observed Gifford Bruce, a bit drily.

"I'm tellin' it as I've many a time heard it, sir," said Stebbins, a
little resentfully. "This here story's been common talk around these
parts a many years, and I ain't one to add to nor take from it."

"Go on," commanded Landon, briefly.

"They put her away, in a loonytic asylum, and she died in it. They never
found hide nor hair of the dead man, and the place fell to some kin that
lived down Pennsylvania way. They come up here for a while, I b'lieve,
but the ha'nt scared 'em off. It's been sold some several times and at
last it fell to my father's family. Now it's mine, and it's a white
elephant to me. I can't sell or rent it, and so you folks may well
believe I jumped at the chance to have you take it for a spell."

"We haven't heard about the haunt yet," said Norma. She spoke quietly,
but her lips quivered a little, and her fingers were nervously picking at
her handkerchief.

"That," and Stebbins looked even more sombre than he had, "that's my own
experience, so I can give it to you first hand.

"I come here to live, 'bout ten years ago, and I was plucky enough to
hoot at ghost stories and tales o' ha'nts.

"So I set out to sleep in that--that room with the tassels,--out o' sheer
bravado. But I got enough of it."

The man's head fell on his breast and he paused in his narrative.

"Go on," said Landon, less brusquely than before.

Milly stirred nervously. "Don't let him tell the rest, Wynne," she said.

"Oh, yes, dear. Remember, this is what we're here for."

Most of the men shifted their positions; Hardwick leaned forward, both
hands on his knees. Gifford Bruce sat with one arm flung carelessly over
his chair back, a slight smile on his face.

Braye was beside Norma, and watched alternately her face and Eve's, while
Tracy was holding Vernie's hand, and his gentle calm kept the volatile
child quiet.

"I see it all so plainly,--that first night----" Stebbins said, slowly.
"_First_ night! Land! there never was another! Not for me. I'd sooner 'a'
died than slep' in that room again!"

"See a ghost?" asked Bruce, flippantly.

"Yes, sir," and Stebbins looked straight at him. "I seen a ghost. I'm a
sound sleeper, I am, and I went to sleep quiet and ca'm as a baby. I woke
as the big clock there was a strikin' four. It was that what woke me--I
hope."

"Is there--is there a bed in that room?" asked the Professor.

"Lord, yes, it was them folkses bedroom. In them days, people most always
slep' downstairs. I come awake suddenly, and the room was full of an icy
chill. Not just coldness, but a damp chill--like undertakers' iceboxes."

Vernie shuddered and Tracy held her hand more firmly. Landon slipped his
arm round Milly, and Eve and Norma glanced at each other.

Gifford Bruce replaced his sneering smile, which had somehow disappeared.

"It was winter, and plumb dark at four o'clock in the morning, but the
room was full of an unearthly light,--a sort of frosty, white glow, like
you see in a graveyard sometimes.

"And comin' toward me was a tall, gaunt figure, with a shawl over its
head, a white, misty shape, that had a sort of a halting step but was
comin' straight and sure toward that bed I was lyin' on. I tried to
scream, I tried to move, but I couldn't,--I was paralyzed. On and on came
the thing--halting at every step, but gettin' nearer and nearer. As
she--oh, I knew it was that woman----"

"I thought it was a man who was murdered," put in Mr. Bruce, in his most
sardonic tones.

"So it was, sir," Stebbins spoke mildly, "but it was the murderess doin'
the ha'ntin'. I s'pose she can't rest quiet in her grave for remorse and
that. She came nearer and--and I saw her face--and----"

"Well?"

"And it was a skull! A grinning skull. And her long bony hand held a
glass--a glass of poison--for me."

"Er--did you take it?" This from Bruce.

"No, sir. I swooned away, or whatever you may call it. I lost all
consciousness, and when I come to, the thing was gone."

"Ever see her again?" inquired Mr. Bruce, conversationally.

"No, sir," and Stebbins eyed him uninterestedly. It was impossible to
annoy the story teller. "No, I never _seen_ her."

"Heard her?" asked Braye.

"Yes; many's the time. But--I ain't never slept in that room since."

"I should say not!" cried Eve. "But I will! I'll brave the phantasm. I'd
be glad to see her. I'm not afraid."

"You needn't be," said Mr. Bruce, with a short laugh. "You won't see
anything, Miss Carnforth. I'd be willing to try it, too."

"What other manifestations have you experienced?" asked Braye. "What have
you heard?"

"Mostly groans----"

"And hollow laughter," interrupted Bruce. "Those are the regulation
sounds, I believe."

"Oh, hush!" cried Eve. "Mr. Bruce, you drive me frantic! I wish you
hadn't come!"

"I don't," declared Bruce. "I think it's most interesting. And do I
understand, Mr. Stebbins, that this charming lady of large size and hard
heart, carried usually that candlestick that I made use of last night?"

At last Stebbins resented Bruce's chaff.

"So the story goes, sir," he said, curtly. "And many's the time I've
known that candlestick to be moved during the night, by no mortal hand."

"Look here, Uncle Gif," said Braye, good-naturedly, "you don't want to
get yourself disliked, do you? Now, let up on your quizzing, and let's
get down to business. We set out for a haunted house. I, for one, think
we've got all we came after, and then some! If the ha'nt began moving her
candlestick around the first night, what may she not do next? You didn't
do it, did you, Uncle?"

"I've told you I didn't, Rudolph, and I again repeat my word. But it was
scarcely necessary for me to do it, when such a capable spook,--I mean,
phantasm is regularly in attendance."

"Now, I've told you the tale," and Stebbins rose, and shook himself as if
he had done his duty. "I ain't nowise responsible for your believin' it.
What I've told you is true, so far's my own experience goes; and what
I've told you hearsay, is the old story that's been told up in these
parts by one generation after another, since old Montgomery's day. Now do
you want to see the room with the tassels?"

"I don't!" cried Milly, "I can't stand any more."

"You needn't, dear," said Landon; "suppose you go out on the terrace and
walk about in the sunlight. You go with her, Vernie, you can see the
room, later on."

"I'll go too," and Tracy tactfully offered his escort. "The tassels will
keep. Come on, Braye?"

"No; I'll see the show through. You can look after the ladies, Tracy."

So the others crowded round Stebbins, as he prepared to unlock the door
of the fatal room.

"'Tain't no great sight," he said, almost apologetically. "But it's the
ha'nted room."

Slowly he turned the key and they all filed in.

The room was dark, save for what light came in from the hall. All blinds
were closed, and over the windows hung heavy curtains of rep that had
once been red but was now a dull, nondescript colour. There were more of
these heavy, long curtains, evidently concealing alcoves or cupboards,
and over each curtain was a "lambrequin" edged with thick twisted woolen
fringe, and at intervals, tassels,--enormous, weighty tassels, such as
were once used in church pulpits and other old-fashioned upholstery. Such
quantities of these there were, that it is small wonder the room received
its name.

And the tassels had a sinister air. Motionless they hung, dingy, faded,
but still of an individuality that seemed to say, "we have seen unholy
deed,--we cry out mutely for vengeance!"

"It was them tassels that scared me most," Stebbins said, in an awed
tone. "I mean before--_she_ come. They sort of swayed,--when they wasn't
no draught nor anything."

"I don't wonder!" said Braye, "they're the ghostliest things I ever saw!
But the whole room is awful! It--oh I say! put up a window!"

"I can't," said Stebbins simply. "These here windows ain't been up for
years and years. The springs is all rusted and won't work."

"There's something in the room!" cried Eve, hysterically, "I
mean--something--besides us--something alive!"

"No, ma'am," said Stebbins, solemnly, "what's in here ain't alive, ma'am.
I ain't been in here myself, since that night I slep' here, and I
wouldn't be now, only to show you folks the room. I sort of feel 's if
I'd shifted the responsibility to you folks now. I don't seem to feel the
same fear of the ha'nt, like I was here alone."

"_Don't_ say ha'nt! Stop it!" and Eve almost shrieked at him.

"Yes, ma'am. Ghost, ma'am. But ha'nt it is, and ha'nt it will be, till
the crack o' doom. Air ye all satisfied with your bargain?"

No one answered, for every one was conscious of a subtle presence and
each glanced fearfully, furtively about, nerves shaken, wills enfeebled,
vitality low.

"What is it?" whispered Eve.

"Imagination!" declared Mr. Bruce, but he shook his shoulders as he
spoke, as if ridding himself of an incubus.

There was a chilliness that was not like honest cold, there was a
stillness that was not an ordinary silence, and there was an impelling
desire in every heart to get out of that room and never return.

But all were game, and when at last Stebbins said, "Seen enough?" they
almost tumbled over one another in a burst of relief at the thought of
exit.

The great hall seemed cheerful by contrast, and Landon, in a voice he
strove to make matter-of-fact, said, "Thank you, Stebbins, you have
certainly given us what we asked for."

"Yes, sir. Did you notice it, sir?"

"What?"

"The smell--the odour--in that room?"

"I did," said Eve, "I noticed the odour of prussic acid."

"Yes, ma'am," said Stebbins, "that's what I meant."

CHAPTER V
Eve's Experience

The investigators had investigated for a week. They were now having tea
in the great hall, to whose shadowy distances and shabby appointments
they had become somewhat accustomed.

Kept up to the mark by the Landons, old Jed Thorpe had developed positive
talents as a butler, and with plenty of lamps and candles, and a couple
of willing, if ignorant maids, the household machinery ran fairly
smoothly. Supplies were procured in East Dryden or sent up from New York
markets and by day the party was usually a gay-hearted, merry-mannered
country house group.

Every day at tea-time, they recounted any individual experiences that
might seem mysterious, and discussed them.

"It's this way," Professor Hardwick summed up; "the determining factor is
the dark. Ghosts and haunted houses are all very well at night, but
daylight dispels them as a sound breaks silence."

"What about my experience when I slept in the Room with the Tassels,"
growled Gifford Bruce.

Braye laughed. "You queered yourself, Uncle Gif, when you announced
before we started, that you were not bound to good faith. _Your_ ghost
stories are discounted before you tell 'em!"

"But I did see a shape,--a shadowy form, like a tall woman with a shawl
over her head----"

"You dreamed it," said Milly, smiling at him. "Or else----"

"Milly daren't say it," laughed Eve, "but I will. Or else, you invented
the yarn."

"If I'm to be called a----"

"Tut, tut, Mr. Bruce," intervened Tracy, "nobody called you one! Playful
prevarication is all right, especially as you warned us you'd fool us if
you could. Now I can tell an experience and justly expect to be
believed."

"But you haven't had any," and Eve's translucent eyes turned to him.

"I have," began Tracy, slowly, "but they've been a bit indefinite. It's
unsatisfactory to present only an impression or a suggestion, where facts
are wanted. And the Professor says truly that hints and haunts are
convincing at night, but repeated, at a pleasant, comfortable tea hour,
they sound flimsy and unconvincing."

"What did you think you saw or heard?" asked Norma, with a reminiscent,
far-off look in her eyes.

"Every morning, or almost every morning, at four o'clock, I seem to hear
the trailing robes of a presence of some sort. I seem to hear a faint
moaning sound, that is like nothing human."

"That's imagination," said Braye, promptly.

"It is, doubtless," agreed Hardwick, "but it is due to what may be called
'expectant attention.' If we had not connected four o'clock with the
story of this house, Mr. Tracy would not have those hallucinations at
that time."

"Perhaps so," the clergyman looked thoughtful. "But it seems vivid and
real at the time. Then, in the later morning, it is merely a hazy
memory."

"You know Mr. Stebbins said that every one who died in this house always
died at four o'clock."

"I know he _said_ so," and Braye looked quizzical.

"Oh, come now, don't doubt honest old Stebbins!" and Eve frowned. "We
must believe _his_ tales or we'll never get anywhere. I'm going over to
East Dryden to see him to-morrow, I want a few more details. And, it
seems to me, we're getting nowhere,--with our imaginations and
hallucinations. Now, to-night, I'm going to sleep in the Room with the
Tassels. I've no fear of it, and I have a deep and great curiosity."

"Oh, let me sleep there with you! Mayn't I, Eve? Oh, please let me!"
Vernie danced about in her eagerness, and knelt before Eve, pleading.

"No, Vernie, I forbid it," said her uncle, decidedly. "If Miss Carnforth
wants to do this thing, I have nothing to say, but you must not, my
child. I know you people don't believe me, but I surely saw an apparition
the night I slept there, and it was no human trickster. Neither was it
hallucination. I was as wideawake as I am now----"

"We know the rest, Uncle Gif," and Braye laughingly interrupted the
recital. "Stalking ghost, hollow groans, and--were there clanking
chains?"

"There were not, but in its shrouded hand the spectre held a glass----"

"Of prussic acid, of which you smelt the strong odour! Yes, I know,--but
it won't go down, old chap----"

"The prussic acid won't?" and Landon chuckled.

"Nor the tale either," said the Professor. "It's too true. The shawled
woman filled the specifications too accurately to seem convincing."

"You're a nice crowd," grumbled Mr. Bruce. "Come up here for experiences
and then hoot at the first real thing that happens."

"All your own fault," retorted Norma. "If you hadn't advertised your
propensity for fooling us, your word would have carried weight."

"All right, let somebody else sleep in that room, then. But not Miss
Carnforth. Let one of the men try it."

"Thank you, none for me," said Braye. "I detest shawled women waking me
up at four o'clock, to take my poison!"

"I'll beg off, too," said Tracy. "I wake at four every morning anyway,
with those aspen boughs shivering against my windows. I'd trim them off,
but that doesn't seem like playing the game."

"Wynne shan't sleep there, and that settles _that_," and Milly's grasp on
her husband's coat sleeve was evidently sufficiently detaining.

"That leaves only me, of the men," asserted the Professor. "I'm quite
willing to sleep in that room. Indeed, I want to. I've only been waiting
till I felt sure of the house, the servants and--excuse me, the members
of our own party! Now, I've discovered that the servants' quarters can be
securely locked off, so that they cannot get in this part of the house;
I've found that the outside doors and the windows can be fastened against
all possibility of outside intrusion; and, I shall stipulate that our
party shall so congregate in a few rooms, that no one can--ahem,--haunt
my slumbers without some one else knowing it. I'll ask you three young
ladies to sleep in one room and allow me to lock you in. Or two adjoining
rooms, to which I may hold all keys. Mr. Tracy, Mr. Bruce and Mr. Braye,
I shall arrange similarly, while the Landons must also consent to be
imprisoned by me. This is the only way I can make a fair test. Will you
all agree?"

"Splendid!" cried Eve, "of course we will. But, Professor, let me try it
first. If you should have a weird experience, it might scare me off, but
now I am brave enough. Oh, please, do that! Let me lock you all in your
rooms, and let me sleep in the Room with the Tassels to-night! Oh, please
say yes, all of you! I _must_, I must try it!" The girl looked like a
seeress, as, with glittering eyes and flushed cheeks she plead her cause.

"Why, of course, if you want to, Miss Carnforth," said the Professor,
looking at her admiringly. "I'll be glad to have the benefit of your
experience before testing myself. And there is positively no danger. As
I've said, the locks, bolts, and bars are absolutely safe against outside
intrusion, or visits from the servants. Though we know _they_ are not to
be suspected. And as you are not afraid of the supernatural, I can see no
argument against your plan."

"Suppose I go with you," suggested Norma, her large blue eyes questioning
Eve Carnforth's excited face.

"No, Norma, not this time. I prefer to be alone. I'll lock you and Vernie
in your room; I'll lock Milly and Wynne in their room; I'll lock you four
men in two rooms, and then, I'll know--I'll _know_ that whatever I see or
hear is not a fraud or trick of _anybody_. And I think you can trust me
to tell you the truth in the morning."

"If there's anything to tell," supplemented Braye. "I think, Eve, as to
ghosts, you're cutting off your source of supply."

"Then we'll merely prove nothing. But I'm determined to try."

Again Vernie begged to be allowed to share Eve's experiences, but neither
Mr. Bruce, nor Eve herself would consider the child's request.

"Every one of us," the Professor said, musingly, "has told of hearing
mysterious sounds and of seeing mysterious shadows, but,--except for
Bruce's graphic details!--all our observations have been vague and
uncertain. They may well have been merely imagination. But Miss Carnforth
is not imaginative, I mean, not so, to the exclusion of a fair judgment
of what her senses experience. Therefore I shall feel, if she sees
nothing to-night, that I shall see nothing when I sleep in that room
to-morrow night."

"I am especially well adapted for the test," Eve said, though in no way
proudly, "for I have a premonition that the phantasm will appear to me
more readily than to some others. Remember, I knew that was the haunted
room before we had been told. I knew it before we entered the house that
first night. It was revealed to me, as other things have been even during
our stay here. You must realize that I am a sensitive, and so better
fitted for these visitations than a more phlegmatic or practical person."

"What else has been revealed to you, Eve?" asked Braye.

"Perhaps revealed isn't just the word, Rudolph, but I've seen more than
most of you, I've heard voices, rustling as of wings, and other
inexplicable sounds, that I know were audible only to me."

"Lord, Eve, you give me the creeps! Finished your tea? Come out for a
walk then. Let's get off these subjects, if only for half an hour."

That night, Eve Carnforth carried out her plans to the letter.

Gifford Bruce, and his nephew Braye in one room; the Professor and Tracy
in another, were locked in by Eve, amid much gaiety of ceremony.

"Set a thief to catch a thief," Braye declared. "Tracy, look after the
Professor, that he doesn't jump out of the window, and you, Professor,
watch Tracy!"

"They can't jump out the windows," said Eve, practically, "they're too
high. And if they could, they couldn't get in the tasseled room. Those
windows won't open. And, too, I know the Professor won't let Mr. Tracy
out of his sight, or _vice versa_. Rudolph, you tie your uncle, if he
shows signs of roving."

Eve's strong nerves gave no sign of tension as she completed all her
precautionary arrangements. She locked the doors that shut off the
servants' quarters; she locked the Landons in their room, she locked the
door of the room that Norma and Vernie occupied, and at last, with
various gay messages shouted at her through the closed portals, she went
downstairs to keep her lonely vigil.

She did not undress, for she had no intention of sleeping that night. A
kimono, and her hair comfortably in a long braid were her only
concessions to relaxation.

She lay down on the hard old bed, and gazed about her. A single lamp lit
the room, and she had a candle also, in case she desired to use it.

The light made strange shadows, the heavy, faded hangings seemed to sway
and move, but whether they really did so or not, Eve couldn't determine.
She got up and went to examine them. The feel of them was damp and
unpleasant, they seemed to squirm under her hand, and she hastily dropped
them and returned to the bed.

There was an uncanny, creepy atmosphere that disturbed her, in spite of
her strong nerves and indomitable will.

She had locked the door, now she arose and took the key out and laid it
on a table. She had heard that a key in a lock could be turned from the
other side.

Then, on a sudden impulse, she put out the lamp, feeling utter darkness
preferable to those weird shadows. But the darkness was too horrible, so
she lighted the candle. It was not in the historic old brass candlestick,
but in a gay affair of red china, and the homely, cheap thing somewhat
reassured her, as a bit of modernity and real life.

She listened for a long time, imagining sighs or sounds, which she could
not be sure she really heard. The whispering aspens outside were audible,
and their continued soughing was monotonously annoying, but not
frightful, because she had accustomed herself to it.

At last, her over-wrought nerves wearied, her physical nature refused
further strain, and Eve slept. A light, fitful sleep, interspersed with
waking moments and with sudden swift dreams. But she kept fast hold of
her perceptive faculties. If she slept and woke, she knew it. She heard
the aspens' sounds, the hours struck by the great hall clock, and the
sound of her own quick, short breathing.

Nothing else.

Until, just as the clock tolled the last stroke of four, she heard a low
grating sound. Was some one at the door? She was glad she had taken out
the key.

The candle still burned, but its tiny light rather accentuated than
lifted the gloom of the shadowy room.

Slowly and noiselessly the door swung open, inward, into the room. Eve
tried to sit up in bed, but could not. She felt paralyzed, not so much
frightened, as numbed with physical dread.

And then, with a slow gliding motion, _something_ entered,--something
tall, gaunt and robed in long, pale-coloured draperies. It was unreal,
shadowy in its aspect, it was only dimly visible in the gloom, but it
gave the impression of a frightened, furtive personality that hesitated
to move, yet was impelled to. A soft moan, as of despair, came from the
figure, and it put out a long white hand and pinched out the candle
flame. Then, with another sigh, Eve could _feel_, in the utter black
darkness that the thing was coming to her side.

With all her might she tried to cry out, but her vocal cords were dumb,
she made no sound. But she felt,--with all her senses, she _felt_ the
apparition draw nearer. At her bedside it paused, she knew this, by a
sort of sixth sense, for she heard or saw nothing.

Then, she was conscious of a faint odour of prussic acid, its pungent
bitterness unmistakable, though slight.

And then, a tiny flame, as of a wick without a candle, flashed for a
second, disappeared, and Eve almost fainted. She did not entirely lose
consciousness, but her brain reeled, her head seemed to spin round and
her ears rang with a strange buzzing, for in the instant's gleam of that
weird light, she had seen the face of the phantom, and--it was the face
of a skull! It was the ghastly countenance of a death's head!

Half conscious, but listening with abnormal sense, she thought she
descried the closing of the door, but could hear no key turn.

The knowledge that she was alone, gave her new life. She sprang up,
lighted the candle, lighted the lamp, and looked about. All was as she
had arranged it. The door was locked, the key, untouched, upon the table.
Nothing was disturbed, but Eve Carnforth knew that her experience,
whatever its explanation, had not been a dream.

When her senses had reeled, she had not lost entire control of them
through her physical fear, she had kept her mental balance, and she
_knew_ that what her brain had registered had actually occurred.

Alert, she lay for a long time thinking it over. She felt sure there
would be no return of the spectre,--she felt sure it had been a
spectre,--and she was conscious of a feeling of curiosity rather than
fright.

At last she rose, and unlocking the door, went out into the great hall.
By the light of her lamp, she looked it over. The carved bronze doors
between the enormous bronze columns, were so elaborately locked and
bolted as to give almost the effect of a fortress.

The windows were fastened and some were barred. But all these details had
been looked after in advance; Eve gazed at them now, in an idle quest for
some hint of hitherto unsuspected ingress.

But there was none, and now the clock was striking five.

She went slowly upstairs, unlocked the various doors, without opening
them, and then went to her own bedroom.

"What about it?" cried Norma, eagerly, running to Eve's room.

"A big story," Eve returned, wearily. "But I'll tell it to you all at
once. I'm going to get some sleep. Wake me at eight, will you, Norma?"

Disappointed, but helpless, as Eve closed her door upon the would-be
visitor, Norma went back and told Milly, who was waiting and listening.

"I don't like it," Norma said, "for by eight o'clock she can cook up a
story to scare us all! I think two ought to sleep in that room at once."

"Go to bed," said Milly, sleepily. "And don't you suspect Eve Carnforth
of making up a yarn or even dressing up the truth! She isn't that sort."

As to Eve's veracity, opinions were divided.

She told the whole story, directly after breakfast, to the whole group,
the servants being well out of earshot.

She told it simply and straightforwardly, just as it had happened to her.
Her sincerity and accurate statements stood a fire of questions, a volley
of sarcastic comments and a few assertions of unbelief.

Professor Hardwick believed implicitly all she said, and encouraged her
to dilate upon her experiences. But in nowise did she add to them, she
merely repeated or emphasized the various points without deviation from
her first narrative.

Norma and Braye went for a walk, and frankly discussed it.

"Of course, Eve colours it without meaning to," declared Braye; "it
couldn't have happened, you know. We were all locked in, and Lord knows
none of us could have put that stunt over even if we had wanted to."

"Of course not; that locking in business was unnecessary, but it does
prove that no human agency was at work. That leaves only Eve's
imagination--or--the real thing."

"It wasn't the real thing," and Braye shook his head. "There ain't no
such animal! But Eve's imagination is----"

"No. Mr. Braye, you're on the wrong tack. Eve's imagination is _not_ the
sort that conjures up phantoms. Vernie's might do that, or Mrs.
Landon's,--but not Miss Carnforth's. She is psychic,--I know, because I
am myself----"

"Miss Cameron,--Norma,----" and Braye became suddenly insistent, "don't
_you_ sleep in that infernal room, will you? Promise me you won't."

"Why?" and the big blue eyes looked at him in surprise. "As Sentimental
Tommy used to say, 'I would fell like to!' Why shouldn't I?"

"Oh, I don't want you to," and Braye looked really distressed. "Promise
me you won't--please."

"Why do you care? 'Fraid I'll be carried off by the Shawled Woman?"

"Ugh!" and Braye shivered. "I can't bear to think of you alone down
there. I beg of you not to do it."

"But that's what we came for. We're to investigate, you know."

"Well, then promise you won't try it until after I do."

"Trickster! And if you never try it, I can't!"

"You see through me too well. But, at least, promise this. If you try it,
don't go alone. Say, you and Miss Carnforth go together----"

"Hello, people," and Vernie ran round a corner, followed more slowly by
Tracy. "We've had a great little old climb! Hundreds of thousands of feet
up the mounting side,--wasn't it, Mr. Tracy?"

"Thar or tharabouts," agreed Tracy, smiling at the pretty child.

"And Mr. Tracy is the delightfullest man! He told me all the names of the
wild flowers,--weeds, rather,--there weren't any flowers. And oh, _isn't_
it exciting about Eve's ghost! I'm going to ballyrag Uncle Gif till he
lets me sleep in that room. He'll _have_ to give in at last!"

"Don't, Vernie," begged Braye. "What possesses all you girls! I wish we'd
never started this racket! But you mustn't do it, Kiddie, unless, that
is, you go with somebody else. But not alone."

"Why, Cousin Rudolph, what are you afraid of? Are you a mollycoddle?"

"No, child, I'm afraid for you. A shock like that, even an imaginary
fright, might upset your reason and----"

"Fiddle-de-dee! my reason is deeper rooted than that! Come on, Mr. Tracy,
I'll race you to that big hemlock tree!"

The two started off, Vernie's flying legs gaining ground at first, over
Tracy's steady well-trained running step.

CHAPTER VI
At Four o'Clock

The game grew more absorbing. Most of the party managed to store up
enough courage by day to last well into the darker and more mysterious
hours. It was at four in the morning that manifestations were oftenest
noticed. At that hour vague moanings and rustlings were reported by one
or another of the interested investigators, but no human agency was found
to account for these.

Many plans were tried for discovering the secret of the Room with the
Tassels, but all scrutiny failed to show any secret panel or concealed
entrance. Indeed, their measurings and soundings proved there could not
possibly be any entrance to that room save the door from the hall.

Eve and Norma believed thoroughly in the actual haunt of the woman who
had poisoned her husband. They had no difficulty in swallowing whole all
the strange noises or sights and attributing them to supernatural causes.

Not so Gifford Bruce. He still held that it was all trickery, cleverly
done by some of the party, but as this was so clearly impossible, his
opinion carried no weight.

Professor Hardwick was open-minded, but exceedingly alert of observation
and ready to suspect anybody who would give him the slightest reason to
do so. Nobody did, however, and the weird sounds continued at intervals.
The other men were noncommittal, saying they hadn't yet sufficient data
to base conclusions on.

Milly was nervous and hysterical, but controlled her feelings at Landon's
plea, and awaited developments with the rest. Vernie was merely an
excited child, gay with youthful spirits and ready to believe or
disbelieve whatever the others did.

Soon after Eve's experience, which no one, unless Gifford Bruce, doubted,
Professor Hardwick slept in the haunted room. He had no results of
interest to report. He said he had lain awake for a few hours and then
fell asleep not to waken until daylight. If the Shawled Woman prowled
about, he did not see or hear her. This was disappointing, but Tracy
tried with little better success. In the morning, after a wakeful but
uneventful night, the clergyman found the old battered brass candlestick
in the room.

It had not been there the night before, and he had locked the door as the
others had done. This was inexplicable, but of slight interest compared
to a real haunting.

"You might have made up a ghost story," Braye reproached him, "as Uncle
Gifford did, and as Miss Carnforth--didn't!"

The last word was distinctly teasing and Eve frowned gaily at him, but
did not defend herself. She knew her experience had occurred just as she
had told it, and, deeply mystified, she was earnestly and eagerly
awaiting more light.

One day Braye found it necessary to go down to New York for a couple of
days on some business matters. Before leaving, he made Vernie promise she
would not sleep alone in the haunted room while he was gone.

"I forbid it, child," he said. "Uncle Gif is so easy-going that I've no
doubt you could wheedle permission out of him, but I beg of you not to.
You're too young to risk a nerve shock of that sort. If you want to try
it with Miss Carnforth or Miss Cameron, all right, but not alone. Promise
me, Flapper, and I'll bring you a pretty present from town day after
to-morrow."

Vernie laughingly gave the required promise, but it did not weigh heavily
on her conscience, for no sooner had Braye really gone, than she confided
to Mr. Tracy her indecision regarding the keeping of her word.

"Of course you'll keep your promise," and Tracy regarded her seriously.
"Nice people consider a spoken word inviolable. I know you, Vernie; you
like to talk at random, but I think you've an honourable nature."

So Vernie said nothing more to him, but she confided in Eve Carnforth her
intention of sleeping in the Tasseled Room that very night.

Eve did not discourage her, and promised to tell no one.

The plan was easily carried out. As it was understood no one was sleeping
in the haunted room, no special precautions were taken, save the usual
locking up against outside intruders. And after the great locks and bolts
were fastened on doors and windows, it would have been a clever burglar
indeed who could have effected an entrance to Black Aspens.

The evening had been pleasantly spent. Some trials of the Ouija board, a
favourite diversion, had produced no interesting results, and rather
early they all retired.

At midnight, Vernie softly rose, and went downstairs alone in the
darkness. A night lamp in the upper hall gave a faint glimmer below
stairs, but after the girl turned into the great hall the dark was almost
impenetrable.

Feeling her way, she came to the door of the room, softly entered it and
walked in. Passing her hands along the walls and the familiar furnishings
she found the bed and lay down upon it. Her heart beat fast with
excitement but not with fear. She felt thrills of hope that the ghost
would appear and thrills of apprehension lest it should!

She had left the door to the hall open, and though it could scarcely be
called light, there was a mitigation of the darkness near the door. A not
unpleasant drowsiness overcame her, and she half slept, waking every time
the clock struck in the hall.

At three, she smiled to herself, realizing that she was there, in the
Room with the Tassels, and felt no fear. "I hope something comes at
four,----" she thought sleepily, and closed her eyes again.

One--two--three--four--boomed the hall clock.

Vernie opened her eyes, only half conscious, and yet able to discern a
strange chill in the air. Between her and the open door stood a tall
gaunt shape, merely a shadow, for it was too dark to discern details. Her
calm forsook her; she shivered violently, unable to control her muscles.
Her teeth chattered, her knees knocked together, and her hair seemed to
rise from her head.

Yet she could make no sound. Vainly she tried to scream, to shriek,--but
her dry throat was constricted as with an iron band.

Her eyes burned in their sockets, yet she was powerless to shut them.
They seemed suddenly to possess an uncanny ability to pierce the
darkness, and she saw the shape draw slowly nearer to her.

Clutching the bedclothing, she tried to draw it over her head, but her
paralyzed arms refused to move. Nearer, slowly nearer, the thing came,
and horror reached its climax at sight of the face beneath the sheltering
shawl. It was the face of a skull! The hollow eye-sockets glared at her,
and lifting a deathlike hand, with long white fingers, the spectre told
off one, two, three, four! on the digits. There was no sound, but a final
pointing of the fearsome index finger at the stricken girl, seemed a
death warrant for herself.

The thing disappeared. Slowly, silently, as it had come, so it went. From
nowhere to nowhere,--it evolved from the darkness and to the darkness
returned.

Vernie didn't faint, but she suffered excruciatingly; her head was on
fire, her flesh crept and quivered, she was bathed in a cold
perspiration, and her heart beat madly, wildly, as if it would burst.

The vision, though gone, remained etched on her brain, and she knew that
until that faded she could not move or speak.

It seemed to her hours, but at last the tension lessened a little. The
first move was agony, but by degrees she changed her position a trifle
and moistened her dry lips.

With the first faint glimmer of dawn, she dragged herself upstairs and
crept into bed beside Eve Carnforth.

"Tell me," begged Eve, and Vernie told her.

"It was a warning," said the child, solemnly. "It means I shall die at
four o'clock some morning."

"Nonsense, Kiddie! Now you've come through so bravely, and have such an
experience to tell, don't spoil it all by such croaking."

"But it's true, Eve. I could see that awful thing's face, and it counted
four, and then beckoned,--sort of shook its finger, you know, and pointed
at me. And--oh, I hardly noticed at the time, but it carried a glass in
its hand--it seemed to have two glasses----"

"Oh, come now, dearie, you're romancing. How could it have two glasses,
when it was shaking its hand at you?"

"But it did, Eve. It had two little glasses, both in the same hand. I
remember distinctly. Oh, every bit of it is printed on my brain forever!
I wish I hadn't done it! Rudolph told me not to!"

A flood of tears came and Vernie gave way to great racking sobs, as she
buried her face in the pillow.

"Yes, he was right, too, Vernie; but you know, he only wanted you not to
try it because he feared it would upset your nerves. Now if you're going
to square yourself with Mr. Braye, you can only do it, by not letting
your nerves be upset. So brace up and control them. Cry, dear, cry all
you can. That's a relief, and will do you a heap of good. Then we'll talk
it over, and by breakfast time you'll be ready to tell them all about it,
and you'll be the heroine of the whole crowd. It's wonderful, Vernie,
what you've got to tell, and you must be careful to tell it truly and not
exaggerate or forget anything. Cry away, honey, here's a fresh
handkerchief."

Eve's calm voice and matter-of-fact manner did much to restore Vernie's
nerves, and as she looked around the rational, familiar room, bright with
sunlight, her spirits revived, and she began to appreciate her rôle of
heroine.

Her story was received with grave consideration. It was impossible to
believe the honest, earnest child capable of falsehood or deceit. Her
description was too realistic, her straightforward narrative too
unshakable, her manner too impressively true, to be doubted in the least
degree or detail.

Gifford Bruce laughed and complimented her on her pluck. Mr. Tracy
reproved her for breaking her word to her cousin, but as he was in no way
responsible for Vernie's behaviour, he said very little.

Landon scolded her roundly, while Milly said nothing at all.

The whole affair cast rather a gloom over them all, for it seemed as if
the spectre had at last really manifested itself in earnest. An undoubted
appearance to an innocent child was far more convincing than to a grown
person of avowed psychic tendencies. Eve Carnforth might have imagined
much of the story she told; her 'expectant attention' might have
exaggerated the facts; but Vernie's mind was like a page of white paper,
on which the scene she passed through had left a clear imprint.

That night Vernie herself got out the Ouija board and asked Eve to help
her try it.

"No," was the reply. "I'm too broken up. And, too, the people don't
believe _me_. Get your uncle or Mr. Tracy or some truthful and honourable
person to help you."

It embittered Eve that her earnestness and her implicit belief in the
supernatural made it more difficult for the others to look upon her as
entirely disingenuous. She resented this, and was a little morose in
consequence. Norma Cameron, herself an avowed 'sensitive,' had had no
spiritistic visitant in the haunted room, and Eve thought Norma had
doubted her word.

At last after trying all the others that she wanted, Vernie persuaded
good-natured Mr. Tracy to move Ouija with her, and the two sat down with
the board between them.

Few and flippant messages were forthcoming, until, just as Vernie had
laughingly declared she would throw the old thing out of the window, a
startling sentence formed itself from the erratic dartings of the
heart-shaped toy, and Vernie turned pale.

"Stop it!" ordered Tracy, "I refuse to touch it again!"

He removed his hands and sat back, but Vernie, glaring at the letters,
held it a moment longer. "To-morrow! it says to-morrow!" she cried. "Oh,
Eve, I told you so!"

"What, Vernie? What is it, dear?" and Eve Carnforth came over to the
excited child.

"Ouija, Eve! Ouija said that to-morrow at four, two of us are to die! Oh,
Eve, you know every death in this house has occurred at four o'clock in
the morning! Mr. Stebbins said so. And now, two of us are to die
to-morrow!"

"Nonsense!" cried Mr. Tracy, "don't listen to that rubbish! The Ouija ran
off its track. Maybe Vernie pushed it,--maybe I did."

"Now, Mr. Tracy, I _didn't_ push it, and you needn't try to make anybody
think _you_ did! You never'd push it to say a thing like that! Why, it
spelled it all out as plain as day! Uncle Gifford, do you hear! Two of us
to die to-morrow!" Vernie's voice rose to a hysterical shriek.

"Hush, Vernie! Hush, child. I'll take you away from here to-morrow. We
ought never to have brought you," and Gifford Bruce glowered at the
others as he clasped the sobbing child in his arms, and took her from the
room.

"You're right," agreed Mr. Tracy, "and Braye was right. He said a fright
or shock would upset that child's nerves completely. But she must have
pushed the board herself. It flew round like lightning, and spelled out
the message, just as she said. I tried to steer it off, but she urged
against me. I felt her doing so. I don't mean she made up the message to
create a sensation, but I think the ghost last night affected her as a
warning, and her mind is so full of it, that she unconsciously or
subconsciously worked up that 'message.' At any rate, I've had about
enough of this, if she's to be here. It isn't right to frighten a child
so, and Vernie is little more than a child."

"That's so," said Norma, thoughtfully. "I've had enough, too. If the rest
of you want to stay on, I'll go down to New York to-morrow, and take
Vernie to stay with me for a while. We'll go to the seashore, and I'll
see to it that she has no psychic or supernatural experiences."

"Why, Norma," and Eve looked surprised, "I thought you were so interested
in these things."

"So I am, but not to the extent of so affecting the nervous system of a
sweet, innocent child, that it may result in permanent injury."

"She's all right," said Gifford Bruce, returning, alone. "It's hysteria.
I think I'll take her back to town to-morrow or next day. There's
something uncanny up here, that's certain. I didn't take any stock in the
experiences of you people, but I can't disbelieve Vernie's story."

The party broke up and all went to their rooms. There was no volunteer to
sleep in the haunted room that night, and every one felt a shivering
dread of what might happen at four o'clock the next morning.

Not one admitted it, but every one secretly shuddered at thought of
Ouija's message.

And when, as the hall clock rung out its four strokes the next morning,
and nothing untoward happened, every one drew a long breath and soon went
to sleep again, relieved, as of a heavy burden.

Gaily they gathered at breakfast, daylight and good cheer reviving their
spirits.

"But Ouija is henceforth taboo," said Mr. Tracy, shaking his finger at
the now laughing Vernie.

"For little girls, anyway," supplemented Eve.

"Little girls are taboo, also," declared Gifford Bruce. "I can't get off
to-day, for I want to see Rudolph on his return, but to-morrow, I pack up
my Vernie child and take her back to our own little old Chicago on the
lake. These Aspens are too black for us!"

"Now, Uncle, I don't want to go," and Vernie pouted prettily. "And sumpum
tells me I won't go," she added with a roguish glance at her uncle, whom
she usually twisted round her rosy little finger.

But he gave her a grave smile in return, and the subject was dropped for
the moment.

Soon after noon, Braye came up from the city, and listened, frowning, to
the tales that were told him.

"You promised me, Vernie," he said, reproachfully.

"I know it, Cousin Rudolph, but you see, I've never kept a promise in my
whole life,--and I didn't want to break my record!"

"Naughty Flapper! I won't give you the present I brought for you."

"Oh, yes you will," and so wheedlesome was the lovely face, and so
persuasive the soft voice, that Vernie, after a short argument, seized
upon a small jeweller's packet and unwrapped a pretty little ring.

"Angel Cousin," she observed, "you're just about the nicest cousin I
possess,--beside being the only one!"

"Doubtful compliment!" laughed Braye. "Any way, you're the prettiest and
naughtiest cousin _I_ own! As a punishment for your disobedience I
challenge you to a round with old Ouija to-night! I'll bet I can make it
say something more cheerful than you wormed out of it last evening."

"All right, we'll try it," and Vernie danced gaily away to tease her
uncle not to take her home.

A little later, Milly, as housekeeper, discovered some serious shortage
in the commissariat department, and Braye offered to drive her over to
East Dryden, marketing.

They started off, Milly calling back to Eve to preside at the tea-table,
if she didn't return in time.

"All right," agreed Eve, though Vernie vociferously announced her
intention of playing hostess in Milly's absence.

The shoppers had not returned when old Thorpe brought in the tea-tray.

"You can pour, Eve, and I'll pass the cakies," said Vernie, who was in
high spirits, for she had partially persuaded her uncle to remain longer
at Black Aspens. He was just phrasing certain strong stipulations on
which his permission was to be based, when the tea things arrived.

They were, as usual, in the hall, for though they sometimes suggested the
plan of having tea out of doors, there was no cheerful terrace, or
pleasant porch. The hall, though sombre and vast, had become more or less
homelike by virtue of usage, so there they took their tea.

Mr. Tracy, always graceful in social matters, helped pass the cups and
plates, for no one liked to have the old Thorpes about unnecessarily.

"No tea for me, please," declared Norma; "I think it upsets my
nerves,----"

"And that is not the thing to do in _this_ house," laughed Landon. "This
is mighty good tea, though,--didn't know anybody could brew it as well as
Milly. Congratulations, Eve."

"Thank you," and Eve's long lashes swept upward as she gave him a
coquettish glance.

"Referring to that matter of which we were talking, Hardwick," Gifford
Bruce began, "I----"

Even as he spoke, the clock chimed four, and, as always, they paused to
count the long, slow strokes.

Then Bruce began again: "I think, myself----"

A strange change passed over his face. His jaw fell, his eyes stared, and
then, his teacup fell from his hand, and he slumped down in an awful--a
terrifying heap!

Landon sprang to his assistance, Norma ran to him, while Tracy, with a
quick glance at Vernie, flew to the child's side.

"What is it?" he cried to her, "what's the matter, Vernie?" He slipped an
arm round her, just as, with a wild look and a ringing shriek, the girl's
head fell back and her eyes closed.

"Oh," cried Eve, "_what_ has happened?"

"I don't know," and Tracy's voice shook. "Help me, Miss Carnforth--let us
lay her on this sofa."

Between them they carried the girl, for she was past muscular effort, and
as they placed her gently on the sofa her eyes fluttered, she gave a
gasping sigh, and fell back, inert.

"Oh," cried Eve, "she isn't--she _isn't_--_oh_, it's just four o'clock!"

Landon ran to Vernie's side and felt of her heart.

"She is dead," he said, solemnly, his face white, his voice shaking; "and
Gifford Bruce is dead, too. It is four o'clock!"

CHAPTER VII
The Mystery

In the panic-stricken moments that followed the realization of the double
tragedy, the natural characteristics of all those present showed
themselves. Eve Carnforth, strong and calm, suddenly became
self-appointed dictator.

"Lay Mr. Bruce flat on his back," she called out, as she darted upstairs
for her room, and returned with smelling salts, ammonia and such things.

Tracy, also capable and self-possessed, took a vial from her and held it
before the face of the stricken child, while others strove to bring back
to consciousness the motionless figure of Gifford Bruce, now stretched on
the floor.

"It's no use," declared Landon, flinging the beads of sweat from his
forehead, "they are dead,--both of them. Oh, what _does_ it mean?"

Norma sat in a big chair, her hands clutching its carved arms, and her
face stony white. She was using all her will power to keep from utter
collapse, and she couldn't understand how Eve could be so natural and
self-possessed.

"Brace up, Norma," Eve admonished her; "here, take this salts-bottle. Now
is no time to make more trouble!"

The brusque words had the effect of rousing Norma, and she forced herself
to rise.

"What can I do?" she whispered.

"Do!" cried Eve, "there's everything to do! Some one telephone for a
doctor!"

"I--can't," Norma moaned. "You do that, Professor,--won't you?"

"Oh, I can't!" and Hardwick fell limply into a chair. "I--I'm all
upset----"

"Of course you are, Professor," said Tracy, kindly. "I'll telephone, Miss
Carnforth. Do you know the village doctor's name? Of course,--it's too
late----" he glanced at the two still forms, "but a physician must be
summoned."

"No, I don't know any name,--call Thorpe, or Hester."

Tracy rang a bell and Thorpe came shuffling in.

At sight of the tragedy, he turned and ran, screaming. Hester came, and
proved the more useful of the two. Her stolidity was helpful, and she
told the doctor's name and number.

"Dead, ain't they?" she said, with a grieved intonation that robbed her
words of curtness. "What happened to 'em?"

The simple question roused them all. What had happened? What had killed
two strong, well, able-bodied people at the same moment, and that the
very moment said to be fatal in that dread house?

"I believe," said the Professor, dropping his face in his hands, "I
believe now in the supernatural. Nothing else can explain this thing."

"Of course not," and Eve solemnly acquiesced. "There is no possibility of
anything else. What could kill them, like this, at once, and at four
o'clock exactly, except a supernormal agent?"

"But that seems so impossible!" and Tracy's practical, matter-of-fact
voice did indeed make it seem so.

"What else _is_ possible?" broke in Landon. "It isn't suicide, it isn't
murder. It isn't death from natural causes,--at least, it can't be in
Vernie's case,--I suppose Mr. Bruce might have died from heart disease."

"That's why we want a doctor," said Eve. "We can judge nothing until we
know the immediate cause of death."

"I wish we were in the city," Tracy said; "the doctor will be nearly an
hour getting here, I suppose."

"Did you tell him all?" asked Eve.

"No, I didn't. It didn't seem wise to spread the news in that way. I told
him to get here as soon as he possibly could,--that it was a matter of
life and death."

"Which it certainly is," murmured Norma. "Oh, Eve, what do you really
think?"

Eve Carnforth looked at the other girl. Eve, so poised and collected,
strength and will power written in every line of her face,--Norma so
fragile, and shaken by the awful scenes about her.

"I don't know what to think," Eve replied, slowly. "There's only one
thing certain, Vernie received a warning of death,--and Vernie is dead.
Mr. Bruce received no definite warning, that I know of, but he may have
had one. You know, he said he was visited by the phantom, but we wouldn't
believe him."

"That's so!" and Tracy looked up in surprise. "We never quite believed
Mr. Bruce's statements, because he scorned all talk of spirit
manifestations. If he really did see the ghost that night that he said he
did----"

"Of course he did," declared Eve. "_I_ believed him all the time. I can
always tell when any one is speaking the truth. It's part of my sensitive
nature."

Wynne Landon stalked about the hall like a man in torment. "What shall I
do with Milly?" he groaned. "She and Braye will be back soon,--any minute
now. She mustn't see these----"

"They ought to be placed in some other room," said Eve, gently.

"One mustn't touch a dead body before----" began Professor Hardwick, but
Tracy interrupted him. "That's in case of murder, Professor," he said;
"this is a different matter. Whatever caused these deaths, it wasn't by
the hand of another human being. If it was fright or nervous
apprehension, Those are to be classed among natural causes. I think we
are wholly justified in moving the bodies."

After some discussion, Landon and the Professor agreed with Tracy, and
with the help of Thorpe and Hester, the stricken forms were carried out
of the hall, where the group so often forgathered.

"It is better," said Eve, "for we need this hall continually, and if we
don't move them at once, the doctor may forbid it, when he comes."

By common consent, the body of Gifford Bruce was laid in the drawing
room, on a large sofa, and Vernie's slender figure was reverently placed
on the bed in the Room with the Tassels.

"No spirit shape can frighten her now," said Norma, weeping bitterly, as
Thorpe and Hester carried the dead girl in. Then both doors were closed,
shutting off the silent figures, and those who were left felt a vague
sense of relief.

"Now we can break it to Milly more gently," said Eve. "Clear away that
broken cup, Hester, and make some fresh tea, I'm sure we all need it."

On the great rug the damp spot remained where the spilled tea had fallen,
and Eve ordered a smaller rug placed over it.

Braye and Milly came in laughing.

"We've bought out the whole of East Dryden!" Milly exclaimed, "and what
do you think? We found some fresh lobsters, still alive and kicking,--and
we commandeered them at once. What's the matter with you people? You look
solemn as owls!"

"Come up to your room, Milly, to take off your wraps," and Landon took
her arm to lead her away.

"Nonsense, Wynne, I'll throw them off down here. I'm thirsty for tea."

"No; come on, dear. Come with me."

Awed at his tone, Milly went with him, and they disappeared up the
staircase.

Then Professor Hardwick told Braye what had happened. The others had
begged the Professor to do this, and in a very few words the tale was
told.

"It can't be!" and Braye rose and walked up and down the hall. "I wish I
had been here! Oh, forgive me, all of you, I know you did all you
could,--but--restoratives----"

"We did," said Eve, "I ran for sal volatile and such things, but you
don't understand,--it was instantaneous,--wasn't it, Mr. Tracy?"

"It was," replied Tracy, gravely. "Mr. Bruce was speaking, naturally and
normally. He paused when the clock struck,--we 'most always do, you know,
it's a sort of habit."

"We have to, really," said Norma. "That clock strikes so loudly, one
can't go on talking."

"And then," began the Professor, "he was talking to me, you know, and I
was looking straight at him, his face changed in an instant, his fingers
spread, as if galvanized, his teacup fell from his hand, and in a moment,
he was gone! Yes, dead in a second, I should say."

"And--Vernie?" Braye spoke with difficulty.

"I chanced to be looking at Vernie," said Mr. Tracy. "The outcry
concerning Mr. Bruce made us all look toward him, and then, a sudden
sound from Vernie drew my attention to her. She gasped, and her face
looked queer,--sort of drawn and gray,--so I sprang to her side, and held
her up, lest she fall. She was standing, looking at Mr. Bruce, of course.
I felt her sway, her head fell back, and then Miss Carnforth came to my
assistance, and we laid her quickly down on the sofa. In an instant, the
child was dead. It is incredible that it should have been a case of
sudden fright that proved fatal, and yet, what other theory is there? It
couldn't be heart disease in a child of sixteen!"

"No," mused Braye, "and yet, what could it have been? I won't subscribe
to any supernatural theory now! It's too absurd!"

"It's the only thing that isn't absurd!" contradicted Eve. "Remember,
Rudolph, Vernie had the warning----"

"Warning be hanged!" cried Braye, explosively.

"But think," went on Eve, gently, "the phantom told Vernie she would die
at four o'clock----"

"Four o'clock in the morning, Vernie said! If I had thought of four in
the afternoon, I wouldn't have gone out!"

"Nobody knows that the message said four in the morning. Vernie told me
about it many times, and she only said _four_. You know, the phantom
spoke no word, it merely designated by its fingers,--one, two, three,
four! Also, Vernie said it carried two glasses of poison."

"But _they_ weren't poisoned!"

"No; that was merely the symbol of death. Also, Rudolph, remember the
Ouija board said two would die at four. You can't get away from these
things!"

"That confounded Ouija performance was on one of the nights I was in New
York! I wish I hadn't gone! But Vernie promised me she wouldn't sleep in
that room. I was a fool to believe her. You see, Eve, I feel a sort of
responsibility for the child. Uncle Gif was so easy-going and
indulgent,--he was no sort of a guardian for her, now she was growing up.
I planned to have her put under the care of some right kind of a woman
this fall, and brought up properly."

"I know it, Rudolph; you were very fond of her."

"Not only that, but I appreciated what she needed, and I meant to see
that she got it. Oh, Eve, I can't realize this thing."

Doctor Wayburn came in. It was plain to be seen the man was scared. In
his years of country practice he had never run up against anything tragic
or thrilling before, and he was overwhelmed. With trembling step he
entered the room of death, and first made examination of the body of
Gifford Bruce. It did not take long. There was no apparent cause for
death. No symptoms were present of any fatal disease, nor, so far as he
could see, of any poison or wound of any sort.

"I cannot say what an autopsy may divulge," declared the frightened
practitioner, "but from this superficial examination, I find no cause of
dissolution."

Then he crossed the hall, to the Room with the Tassels.

Braye followed him in, Eve also. The Professor and Tracy stood in the
doorway, but Norma remained in the hall, her face buried in some sofa
cushions.

"No apparent cause," the Doctor repeated. "This child was in perfect
health; I should say fright _might_ have killed her, but it doesn't seem
credible. I know of no cause of any sort, that could bring about death in
an instant of time, as you report."

"Maybe not an instant," corrected the Professor, carefully. "As I look
back, I should judge there was at least a half a minute between Mr.
Bruce's first symptom of unease, and his falling to the floor."

"So with Vernie," said Eve, thoughtfully. "I saw Mr. Tracy go quickly
toward her; I followed immediately, and I'm sure there was nearly a half
minute, but not more, before she gasped and died."

"It's hard to judge time on such occasions," said the Doctor, looking
sharply at Eve.

"I know it, but I was very conscious of it all, almost clairvoyantly so,
and I can assure you it was not longer than a half minute in either case,
between the state of usual health and death itself. Is there any cause or
agent that will work as quickly as that?"

"I know of none," replied Doctor Wayburn, positively.

"There is none," Eve assured him. "These deaths were caused by
supernatural means, they were the vengeance of certain Powers of
Darkness."

"Oh, come now, Eve," expostulated Braye, "don't get off that stuff to the
Doctor. Keep that for our own circle. You know these fatalities
_couldn't_ have been caused by a ghost!"

"What, then?"

"I don't know. Fright, perhaps, or over-apprehension because of the
warnings. Auto-suggestion, if you like, and so indirectly the result of
the spooks, but not the direct work of a disembodied spirit."

"It _was_, all the same!" and Eve left the room and went to sit by Norma.

But the girls were not in sympathy. Their conversation resulted in
disagreement, and, at last, in Norma's bursting into tears and running
upstairs.

She sought Milly, and found her prostrated by Landon's news. But she was
trying to be brave, and earnestly endeavouring to preserve her
self-control.

"I know every one thinks I'll go to pieces," she said, pathetically, "and
make more trouble for you all,--but I won't. I've promised Wynne I'll be
brave and if I can't keep quiet and composed, I'll stay in my room, and
not upset the crowd."

"You're all right, Milly," Norma reassured her, "you let yourself go all
you want to. Don't overdo your restraint. I'll look after you."

"Yes, do, Norma. Don't let Eve come near me. I can't stand her!"

"Why? You mustn't be unjust to Eve. She behaved splendidly at that awful
time."

"Yes, I know. But if it hadn't been for Eve we never would have come up
here at all."

"Oh, Milly, that isn't fair! We all agreed to come here. It wasn't Eve's
doing any more than mine!"

"Yes, it was. But, look here, Norma, tell me truly. What do _you_ think
killed Mr. Bruce and Vernie?"

"I don't know, Milly, dear. You know I do believe in psychics and in
spiritism and in the return to earth of the souls of people who have
died, but--I _can't_ believe that any such spirit would kill an innocent
child, or a fine old man. I can't _believe_ it!"

"But why not, Norma? If you believe in the return to earth of good
spirits, why not bad spirits, as well? And if so, why couldn't they kill
people, if they want to?"

"You sound logical, Milly, but it's absurd."

"No, it isn't. You and Eve believe in good spirits and in their power to
do good. Why not, then, in bad spirits and their power to do evil?"

"Let up, Milly," begged Landon, who stood near by. "She's been going on
like that, Norma, ever since I told her. Can't you explain to her----"

"Explain what?"

"Lord! _I_ don't know! But make her see how impossible it is that the
ghost of that woman who killed her husband here so long ago, should have
any reason to do away with two modern present-day people!"

"But I _want_ to think so, Wynne," and Milly's eyes stared with a
peculiar light. "I'd rather think they were killed by that ghost than by
a person,--wouldn't you?"

"What do you mean, Milly? Murdered?"

"Yes, Eve. That's what it must have been, if not spirits. They had no
mortal disease, either of them."

"Don't mention that before any one else," admonished Eve, very seriously.
"There are other explanations, Milly. Many deaths have been brought about
by sudden fright or by continuous apprehension of imaginary danger.
Vernie had been warned twice. True, I didn't think of four in the
afternoon, but doubtless she did, and maybe, seeing the sudden attack of
Mr. Bruce, so startled her that she thought of the four o'clock doom and
gave way herself."

"She might give way to the extent of fainting, or a fit of hysterics,"
admitted Milly, "but not to the extent of dropping dead! It's
unthinkable,--it's unbelievable----"

"It's almost unbelievable that they should _be_ dead," Eve said, softly,
"but as to how they died, let's not speculate, dear. I suppose we must
have a doctor up from New York,--what do you think, Mr. Landon?"

"Eh?--oh, I don't know,--I'm sure I don't know."

"But you'll have to take charge, won't you?" asked Eve. "You two are
really the heads of this house----"

"All I want is to get away," moaned Milly. "When can we go, Wynne?"

"I don't know, dear. Say, Eve, won't you take Milly down to-night? I
can't leave, of course, but I daren't keep her here, lest she go to
pieces. You take her home,--there's a train in about an hour."

"Oh, I can't. I want to stay here. Send Norma,--no, she's no
good,--perhaps Mr. Tracy will take Milly down. He's awfully kind, and
ready to do anything."

As Milly declared herself now willing, the three went downstairs. They
found the others in the hall, the Doctor still there, and the tea things
still about. Eve gave Milly some tea, and took some herself.

"I'll have to call in the coroner," Doctor Wayburn was saying; "it isn't
apparently a murder, and yet it's a mysterious death,--they both are.
Yes, the county physician must be summoned."

The Doctor had gotten over the first panic of surprise, and began to feel
a sense of importance. Such a case had never come near him before, and
the whole affair gave him a pleasant feeling of responsibility and
foreshadowed his prominence in the public eye.

The suggestion of a coroner was resented by all who listened, but the
Doctor's word was law in the case, so they unwillingly consented.

"I think I'd better go down to New York to-night," said Braye. "There are
so many things to see to, so many people to notify, the reporters to look
after, and--undertaking arrangements to be made. Unless you want to go,
Wynne?"

"No," said Landon, "it's better for you, Rudolph. But I wish you'd take
Milly. Take her to her mother's and let her get out of this atmosphere.
Will you go, Milly?"

"I did want to, Wynne, when I was upstairs. But, now, with people all
about,--if Norma will stay here, too, I'd rather stay with you. When are
_you_ going down, Wynne?"

"I don't know, dear. We'll have to see how things turn out. Well, you go
ahead, Rudolph, you'll have to hustle to get over to the train. And there
are a few matters I wish you'd look after for me."

The two men went off to discuss these matters, and then Doctor Wayburn,
who had been telephoning, announced that the coroner could not come until
the next day, as he was in another township attending to some duties.

"And I'm glad of it," said Eve, "for we've had enough excitement for one
day."

And so, by ten or eleven o'clock, the house was locked up and the members
of the household gone to bed, all except old Thorpe, who sat in the great
hall, with the two doors open into the rooms where the still, tragic
figures lay. Before him, on a table, Hester had placed coffee and
sandwiches, and the old man sat, brooding on the awful events of the
afternoon.

CHAPTER VIII
By What Means

The night was full of restlessness. Tracy and Professor Hardwick, in
their adjoining rooms, were the only ones in the wing that had the night
before also housed Braye and Gifford Bruce.

"Shall we leave the door between open?" Tracy asked, more out of
consideration for the Professor's nerves than his own.

"Yes, if you will. And don't go to bed yet. I can't sleep, I know, and I
must discuss this thing with somebody, or go mad!"

"All right, sir," and Tracy took off his coat and donned an old-fashioned
dressing-gown.

Hardwick smiled. "That's the first ministerial garb I've seen you wear,"
he said. "I'd pick that up for a dominie's negligé every time!"

"I'm rather attached to the old dud," and Tracy patted it affectionately.
"Queer, how one comes to love a worn garment. No, I don't wear clerical
togs when off on a vacation. I used to, till some one told me it cast a
restraint over the others, and I hate to feel I'm doing that."

"You'd never do that, my friend. You've a natural tact that ought to
carry you far toward general popularity. But, tell me, as man to man, how
do you size up this awful mystery?"

"I don't know, Professor. At times my mind's a blank,--and then, I get a
hint or,--well, I can't call it a suspicion,--but a thought, say, in one
direction, and it's so fearfully absurd, I discard it at once. Then comes
another idea, only to be dismissed like the first. What do you think?"

"I am a complete convert to the supernatural. You know, Sir Oliver Lodge
and many other scientists only believed after they had had undeniable
personal experience. Now, here were warnings,--definite, positive
prophecies, and they were fulfilled. What more can any one ask?"

Tracy mused over this. "I know that," he said, at last, "but I can't
quite swallow it whole, like that. Do you mean there was no physical
cause? Such as fright, expectant attention,----"

"Expectant attention is a fine phrase,--much like auto-suggestion. They
are all right as far as they go, but they can't go to the extent of
killing people. Then again, suggest even a theory, even a possible means
of the death of those two by any human agency. Murder is out of the
question,--suicide even more so. And they had no desire to end their
lives. A young girl, happily looking forward to gaiety and pleasure,--a
man in the prime of life, hale, rich, prosperous--no, they had no wish to
die!"

"True enough; but I can't quite see it. Why did the spirits want to kill
them? if spirits did kill them?"

"For interfering with this haunted house,--in a frivolous and flippant
way. I've always heard that departed souls bitterly resent scoffing, or
merely curious investigation."

"But why choose those two? Or Vernie, anyway? Perhaps Mr. Bruce was
needlessly sarcastic and sceptical."

"So was the child----"

"Oh, but in such an innocent, harmless way! However, Professor, I've
nothing to offer in place of your argument. My creed does not admit of my
subscribing to your theory, but I confess I'm unable to suggest any
other. As you say, it couldn't have been suicide, and there's no
possibility of foul play."

The two men talked on, or sat in silent thought, far into the night. The
clock struck twelve before they at last retired, leaving open their
communication door, and securely locking their hall doors.

Less than an hour later, a slender white-robed figure tiptoed from one of
the bedrooms and looked over the banisters. Peering down through the
darkness, the dim outline of old Thorpe's form was visible. He was
huddled in his chair, his head fallen forward on the table. Softly
returning to her room for a wrap, Eve again stealthily came to the
staircase, and sat down on the uppermost step.

Later still, another door silently opened, and a pair of surprised blue
eyes saw Eve sitting there. Suppressing a startled exclamation, Norma
scurried back to her room, but Eve did not hear her.

Milly was wakeful and restless. Several times she declared she heard
sounds, but when Wynne wanted to go and investigate, she refused to let
him do so.

The house surely seemed haunted. The aspens brushed against the windows
with their eternal soughing, their leaves whispering,--hissing creepy
secrets, and their branches tapping eerily on the panes. The halls were
full of shadows, vague, indistinct, fading to nothingness.

At four o'clock the great clock tolled the hour, and every one in the
house heard it. No one was asleep, every heart was beating fast, every
eye wide open, every nerve tense.

But nothing happened; no shriek rent the silence, no unusual or
terrifying sound was heard.

Relieved, some went to sleep again, some tossed restlessly on their
pillows until rising time.

At breakfast all looked haggard and worn. The day was cool and pleasant,
the dining room bright with sunshine, and old Hester's viands most
appetizing.

Thorpe had closed the doors of the rooms given over to the presence of
death, and as the various members of the party came down the staircase
quick apprehensive glances were followed by a look of relief.

Elijah Stebbins came while breakfast was in progress, and at Milly's
invitation took a seat at the board.

"Well," he said heavily, "you folks wanted spooks, I hope you're
satisfied."

"Don't use that tone, Mr. Stebbins," Landon reproved him. "A dreadful
thing has happened. I cannot think it is by supernatural causes nor can I
see any other explanation. But that is no reason for you to speak
flippantly of our investigations of your so-called haunted house."

"No offence meant," and Stebbins cringed. "But I'm thinkin' you folks had
better go away from here, or there's no tellin' what might happen."

"Do you know anything about the mystery?" Professor Hardwick shot out the
question so suddenly that Stebbins jumped.

"No, sir, of course I don't, sir! How could I?"

"Then why do you warn us off the premises?"

"I don't exactly do that, but I'd think you'd reason for yourselves that
what happens once can happen ag'in."

The dogged look on the man's face seemed portentous of evil, and Milly
began to cry.

"Oh, take me home, Wynne," she begged; "I don't want to stay here!"

"Come with me, Milly," said Eve, and rising, she led Milly from the room.

It was shortly after that the coroner arrived.

"I don't want to see that man," said Stebbins, "him and me ain't good
friends," and rising quickly, the owner of the house fled toward the
kitchen quarters, and spent the rest of the morning with the Thorpes out
there.

Doctor Crawford, the county physician and coroner, was a man of slow
speech and dignified manner. He was appalled by the circumstances in
which he found himself, and a little frightened at the hints he had heard
of ghostly visitations.

Indeed, that had been the real reason for his delay in arriving,--he had
not been willing to brave the darkness of the night before. This was his
secret, however, and his excuse of conflicting duties had been accepted.

The whole party gathered in the hall to hear what the newcomer had to
say.

Eve and Milly returned, the latter, quivering and tearful, going straight
to her husband's side, and sitting close to him.

Norma was pale and trembling, too, and Tracy's watchful eye regarded her
sympathetically, as he led her to a seat.

Eve, self-reliant and calm, flitted about incessantly. She went to the
kitchen and talked over household matters with Hester, for Milly was
unable to do this. Then, returning, Eve went into the drawing room, and
after a few moments returned, closing the door again after her. Then she
stepped into the Room with the Tassels. She was there longer, but at last
came out, and locking the door behind her, retained the key. No one
noticed this but Norma, and she kept her own counsel, but she also kept a
watchful eye on Eve.

Even before he went to look at the bodies of the two victims of the
tragedy, Doctor Crawford asked some questions.

His slowness was maddening to the alert minds of his listeners, but he
methodically arrived at the facts of the case.

"I am told by my colleague, Doctor Wayburn," he said, "that there is no
mark or sign on the remains to indicate the cause of death. There will,
of course, be need of autopsies, but for that I will await Doctor
Wayburn's return. He will be here shortly. Meantime, I will inquire
concerning this strange information I have received, hinting at a belief
in--ahem--in spiritualism, by some of the people here present. Is such
belief held, may I ask?"

"Perhaps belief is too strong a word," the Professor volunteered, as no
one else spoke, "but I may tell you that we came here to this house for
the purpose of investigating the truth of the story that the house is
haunted."

"And have you made such investigations?"

"We have tried to do so. The results have been mysterious, startling and
now,--tragic,--but I cannot say we have proved anything, except that
supernatural influences have most assuredly been at work."

"I am not willing to accept such an explanation of two sudden deaths,"
Crawford said, in his dignified way, "at any rate, not without a most
exhaustive investigation into the possibility of their having been
brought about by natural agencies. Let me take up first the case of Mr.
Bruce. Was this gentleman in robust health?"

"Entirely so," said Landon, "so far as we know. It is not inconceivable
that he had some heart trouble or other malady that was not noticeable,
but of that I cannot say positively. It seems to me, Doctor, you would
better look at him, you might note some symptom that would enlighten
you."

Crawford shuddered perceptibly, but tried to hide his disinclination.
Though accustomed to gruesome sights, his dread of the supernatural was
such that he feared the proposed examination. However, ashamed of his
hesitation, he rose, and asked to be shown the body of Gifford Bruce.

Landon started to officiate, but Milly's detaining hand held him back;
the Professor made no move, but Eve and Tracy started simultaneously to
rise.

"I'll go," said Eve, a little officiously, and Tracy sat down again.

She led the way to the big drawing room, where the remains of Gifford
Bruce lay, and stood by while Doctor Crawford looked down at the still,
white face.

A long time they stood there, no word being spoken. Then Eve said softly,
"Don't let your disbelief in supernatural powers blind you to their
possible reality. There are many matters yet unknown and spiritism is one
of them. Remember that we who are here gathered are sensitives and
psychics. We are prepared for and expect experiences not vouchsafed to
less clairvoyant natures,--though we did not look for _this_! But I beg
of you, sir, to realize that there are things of which you have no
cognizance, that yet are real and effective."

Doctor Crawford looked at the speaker. In the partially darkened room,
Eve's strange eyes glittered with an uncanny light. Her face was pale,
and her red hair like a flame aureole. She took a slow step nearer to the
doctor, and he recoiled, as from a vampire.

"You are afraid!" she said, and her tone was exultant. "Do not be
afraid,--the phantasms will not hurt you if you do your duty. Unless you
do your duty----" she stretched her hand toward him, and again he drew
away, "the phantasms will haunt you--_haunt_ you--_haunt you_!"

Her voice fell to the merest whisper, but it thrilled through the room
like a clarion note to the shocked ears of the listening man.

Against his will her eyes held his; against his will, without his
volition, he whispered, "What is my duty?"

"To declare,--to declare in accordance with your own conviction, in proof
of your own belief,--that these two deaths were the direct result of a
supernatural power. What power, you know not, but you do know--remember,
you _do_ know, that no mortal hand brought the tragedy about, either the
hands of the victims themselves or of any one else."

Fascinated, frightened, Crawford stared at this strange woman. He had
never before encountered such a face, such a sinuous, serpentine form, a
personality that seemed to sway his very being, that seemed to dominate
and control his whole will power, his whole brain power.

"Don't misunderstand me," Eve went on, "don't think for a moment, I am
advising you wrongly, or with intent to deceive. Only, I see you know
nothing of occult phenomena, and moreover, you are even ignorant of your
own ignorance of them. Therefore, seeing, too, your quick appreciation
and perceptive faculty, I warn you not to ignore or forget the fact that
these things exist, that unseen powers hold sway over us all, and they
_must_ be reckoned with."

The flattery was subtle. More than the words, Eve's glance implied a keen
apprehension on the part of the doctor, which, as he didn't possess it,
seemed a desirable thing to him, and he gladly assumed that he had it.

"And now," Eve said, as they left the room, "do you want to go to the
other room--the Room with the Tassels?"

"No--please, not now," and Crawford shuddered, for he had heard much of
that room. Also, he was desirous of getting back to more normal
associates than this strange being, and he resolved to leave the
examination of the other victim until the return of his fellow physician,
who at least was practical, and an unbeliever in spooks.

Shaken by the whole episode, Doctor Crawford concealed his disquiet by a
manner even more slow and deliberate than usual. He said no word of
Gifford Bruce, but announced his desire to ask a few general questions
concerning practical matters.

"Where is your home, Mr. Landon?" he inquired, and then asked the same
question of each.

He learned that they were all residents of New York City, except Mr.
Tracy, who had lived in Philadelphia, but was contemplating a move to New
York.

"I have had a call to a pastorate there," Tracy stated, "and it seems
advisable to me to accept it."

"Mr. Bruce lived in Chicago, did he not?" went on Crawford, "and Miss
Reid, also?"

"Yes," said Landon, "but Miss Reid had been at school in Connecticut for
the last three years. She was graduated in June, and her uncle and
guardian, Mr. Bruce, came East for the occasion. They concluded to spend
the summer with us, intending to return to Chicago next month."

"Mr. Bruce was a wealthy man?" inquired the questioner.

"Yes;" answered Landon, "not a financial magnate, but worth at least two
million dollars."

"And who are his heirs?"

The question fell like a bombshell. It had not been thought of, or at
least not spoken of, by any of the party. The bareness of it, the
implication of it, gave a shock, as of a sudden accusation.

"I hadn't thought of that," Wynne Landon said, slowly.

"But you know?" queried Crawford.

"Of course I know. Unless Gifford Bruce left a contradictory will, his
estate must revert to Rudolph Braye, the son of Mr. Bruce's
half-brother----"

"Why, Wynne," interrupted Milly, "you're a cousin."

"I am," and Landon flushed unaccountably, "but I'm a second cousin. Braye
would inherit, unless a will made other proviso."

"Where is Mr. Braye?"

"He went to New York last evening and has not yet returned."

"You expect him soon?"

"This afternoon, probably. Of course, he has realized that he is the heir
of a great fortune, but naturally he would not discuss it last evening,
when we were all so alarmed and excited over the awfulness of the
situation."

"Was Mr. Braye present at the time of the--tragedy?"

"No;" Landon stopped to think. "He wasn't. Where was he?"

"He was with me," said Milly. "We went in his car to East Dryden. We went
to the markets and did some other shopping at the stores."

"And when you returned it was--all over?" Doctor Crawford looked gravely
at her.

"Yes," said Milly, "we were both away, and oh, I am so glad! I couldn't
have stood it!"

She broke down and sobbed in her husband's arms, but Crawford went on
asking questions.

"The autopsy will show," he said, "but I will ask if any of you can show
cause to suspect that a poison of any sort could have been administered
to the victims of this disaster."

"Not possibly," said Professor Hardwick. "We were at tea, and had all
been served from the same teapot and from the same plates of cakes. I can
affirm this, for I've thought over every moment of the occasion. Mr.
Bruce had taken part of his tea, and had eaten part of his cake,----"

"Are you sure of this?" the coroner interrupted.

"I am sure that he sat next to me, that he was talking to me, and that he
received his tea at the same time I did. We sat stirring our cups, and
nibbling our cake as we discussed a matter in which we were both
interested. Less than a half minute before that man died, he was as well
as he had ever been. The scene is perfectly before my eyes. He held his
cup and saucer in one hand, his spoon in the other,--when I saw his eyes
open queerly, his face change to a clayey gray, and his fingers relaxed,
letting his cup fall to the floor. I set down my cup quickly and sprang
toward him, but in an instant it was all over."

A hush fell on the group as all remembered the details, so exactly as the
Professor had related them.

"And the young lady," said Crawford, at last, rousing himself from
thought, "did she too drink tea?"

"No," said Eve Carnforth, musingly. "I remember I was just fixing
Vernie's tea. She liked it sweet, and I was adding a lump of sugar when
the commotion began."

"I noticed Miss Reid first, I think," offered Tracy; "at least, I
happened to look toward her when Mr. Bruce fell forward in his chair. She
made a slight sound, as of horror, and when I glanced her way, she looked
so stunned I thought she was going to collapse, so I stepped across
toward her. As I did so, she looked suddenly very strange, and I feared
she was ill,--aside from her shock at sight of Mr. Bruce. I grasped her
by the shoulders just as she was about to fall. She cried out as if in
pain, and then Miss Carnforth came to my assistance, and we laid the
child on that sofa. In an instant, she, too, was gone."

"She had taken no tea?"

"No," said Eve, positively. "Nor any cakes. As a rule, the elders were
served first and Vernie last. So there is no chance of there having been
poison in the tea or cakes,--nor could it be possible, anyway, as we all
ate them,--didn't we?"

Every one present affirmed that they had partaken of the tea and the
cakes, and declared they were both harmless and just such as they had had
served every afternoon since their arrival.

"That settles that point, at any rate," and the coroner nodded his head.
"There can be no question of poison after what you've told me. Unless,
either or both of them took poison themselves or gave it to the other
intentionally."

CHAPTER IX
Conflicting Theories

In the kitchen the discussion was going on in less guarded terms.

"It's murder," Thorpe declared flatly. "No spooks ever killed off those
two people in a minute, just like that!"

"Murder, your grandmother!" snorted Stebbins. "Who done it, and how? I
ask you that! Those folks came up here to hunt ghosts, and I should say
they found 'em, good and plenty! You know's well's I do, this house has
always been ha'nted, ever since that woman killed her husband in that
very room where the little girl's lyin' now. I wouldn't go in that there
room for a fortune, I wouldn't!"

"Now Eli, don't be foolish," and Thorpe shook his head. "How could a
spook kill two folks at onct,--right out in the open, as you may say?"

"For that matter, how could anybody murder two people at once? Nobody was
around but their own crowd, and that lot of people ain't for murderin'
each other! I know that!"

"It was spooks," declared Hester, with an air of settling the matter;
"I've smelled 'em of late. That smell of bitter almonds is been in the
air a heap, and I ain't had none for flavourin' or anything. Land, I'd
never flavour a cake with that! I put vanilla even in my 'Angel Food.'"

"I've smelled it too," spoke up Nannie, a helper of the older woman's;
"when I've been a-dustin' round in that there ha'nted room, I've smelled
it--not strong, you know, but jest a faint whiff, now'n then. I skittled
out 's fast's I could, I kin tell you!"

"Nope, you're all wrong," insisted old Thorpe. "'Tain't spooks, it's
murder. That's what it is."

"Who done it, then?" demanded his wife.

"That I dunno. But I have my s'picions. How,--I dunno, either. But that's
neither here nor there. Murder's been done, but I'll bet that
mutton-headed Crawford ain't got brains enough to see it."

"He ain't got brains enough to go in when it rains," agreed Stebbins,
"but you're 'way off, Thorpe, a surmisin' murder. Why, jest f'r instance,
now, how _could_ it 'a' been done?"

"Now how can I tell that!" Thorpe spoke with fine scorn. "I don't know
all the goin's on of them hifalutin folks, but if you'd heard 'em talkin'
's much as I have, you'd know that they're up to lots of things such as
us ignorant people don't know nothin' about."

"They do talk awful hifalutin," corroborated Hester. "I've heard 'em say
things that hadn't no meanin' whatsoever to me, and yet they was plain
English too."

"Well, if you ask me," and Thorpe looked important, "I'd jest say keep
your eye on one of them women."

"You mean that red-headed varmint, I know," said his wife. "Well, she's a
handful, all right, but I don't believe she'd go so far's to kill
anybody."

"You don't, don't you? Well, she'd go just so far as there was any goin'
at all,--an' then she'd go right on. Oh, I kin read character," and
Thorpe plumed himself so evidently on his mental powers that Stebbins
snorted outright.

"You're, a hummer, you are! I s'pose you're clairvoyant, yourself! Well,
let me advise you to keep your trap shut about Miss--that lady you
referred to. This is my house, and those are my tenants, and I won't
stand any talk from _you_ about 'em."

"That's right, Thorpe," admonished his wife. "Mr. Stebbins, he's right.
An' he's right about the ghosts, too. Why, I happen to know that the
spooks warned that little Reid girl she'd die at four o'clock, and die
she did, jest at four! Can you beat it? Spooks? Why, of course it was
spooks! What else?"

"Yes, and the message was that two of 'em 'd die, and two of 'em did,"
added Stebbins. "How could any mortal human bein' bring that about? I ask
you?"

"Land! I don't know! I told you I didn't. But," and Thorpe wagged his
head positively, "it wasn't spooks."

The same questions were being discussed in the hall by the ones more
intimately interested.

Doctor Wayburn had arrived, and he and Crawford were shut in the drawing
room endeavouring to wrest from the unknown, the secret of Gifford
Bruce's death.

The little group, still gathered in the hall, were talking earnestly of
the immediate future.

"It's so pathetic," Norma was saying, "that there are so few to mourn for
poor little Vernie. That child had actually no relatives but her uncle
and Mr. Braye."

"Wynne is a sort of a cousin, too," put in Milly, "and indeed, Norma, I
feel as sorry as if Vernie had been my own sister."

"Oh, I don't mean that,--of course, we all feel that way. But, she was so
alone in the world. Mr. Braye is terribly broken up. He loved her----"

"Not only loved her," said Eve, "but he was ambitious for her. He wanted
her put in care of a capable woman this fall, and brought up properly.
Mr. Bruce was no sort of a guardian for the child--I mean he was all
right, of course, as a legal guardian, but he was no man to have charge
of her social and home life."

"He knew that," said Landon, "he told me he meant to have Vernie properly
chaperoned and all that, this winter. She was a dear kiddie."

"Oh, she was," and Norma wept afresh.

"I am a complete convert to spiritualism, now," said the Professor,
gravely. "I've thought over these things very deeply, I've considered
every possible aspect of the case, and there is no explanation of those
two mysterious deaths, except supernormal forces. It is no use to shirk
the supposition of murder, indeed we must consider it very carefully, but
it is out of the question. Nobody could have compassed those two deaths
in an instant of time, however secret or subtle the methods. Do you all
agree?"

"Of course," said Eve, positively, and Tracy added, "That is undeniable,
Professor, foul play _was_ impossible. But, moreover, there was no one
here present but our own party. I can't let the implication pass that it
could have been in the heart of any one of us----"

"Nonsense!" interrupted Hardwick, "that's absurd, Mr. Tracy. When I speak
of murder, it is in the abstract, and because it is right that we should
consider the matter from every angle. We must even think of suicide, and
of----"

"Suicide is as absurd as murder," said Landon, indignantly. "But what
other atrocity had you in mind?"

"Don't lose your temper, please," the Professor said, mildly. "I am
obliged to preserve an impersonal attitude, or I can't think at all! The
other thought is, that one of the victims killed himself _and_ the other
one."

"Please, Professor," said Eve, "at least confine yourself to rational
common sense. But since you raise this absurd theory, let's settle it
once and for all. Could Mr. Bruce have willingly killed himself and
Vernie?" she asked of them all.

"No!" replied Landon. "Mr. Bruce was fond of life and he adored that
child! Cut that out!"

"Then," pursued Eve, "could Vernie have killed herself and her uncle?"

"Rubbish!" cried Landon, "don't say such things, Eve. Professor, are you
answered?"

"And remember," put in Tracy, "the two were the width of this hall apart.
What means could have been employed?"

"What means were employed, anyway?" said Norma. "Oh, what did kill those
people?"

"The utter absence of any material means proves the fact that it was
supernatural," declared the Professor. "I only mentioned those other
theories to prove their absurdity. Now, as I say, I am a convert to
spiritualism in all its form and phases. How can one help being after
this? And I, for one, desire to stay here for a time and I feel sure that
the departed spirits of our friends will communicate with us."

Milly shuddered at the idea, but Eve's wonderful eyes glowed with a
sudden anticipation.

"Oh, Professor Hardwick!" she exclaimed, "how splendid! Will you really
stay here a while? Will you, Milly? I can't stay unless you and Wynne do.
Will you stay, Norma? and you, Mr. Tracy?"

"Oh, I can't!" Milly moaned. "I needn't, need I, Wynne?"

"No; darling, not if you don't want to. I can't see, Eve, why you wish to
stay here. It gives me the horrors to think of it. And if you really
expect spiritual communications from Vernie or Mr. Bruce, you can receive
them just as well anywhere else."

"Not just as well," demurred the Professor. "The conditions here are
ideal for investigations. We haven't taken it up seriously, you know."

"But, Miss Carnforth, can't you ask some other friends to come, if the
Landons prefer to return to New York? I don't doubt you know the right
ones, who could chaperon you, and also take an interest in our work."

"Yes," began Eve, thoughtfully, and then Stebbins came into the room.

"The doctors through yet?" he asked; "what they found out?"

"No, they're not through yet," answered Landon. "Sit down, Stebbins, and
talk a little bit. I wish you'd tell us of anything you know of your own
experience, not hearsay, mind you, that has happened in this house, that
can truly be called supernatural."

"Well, that ha'nted room,----"

"Wait a minute," interrupted Landon, "don't tell us anything about that
haunted room that you don't _know_, personally, to be a fact."

"I know it's ha'nted," asserted Stebbins, doggedly. "I've slept there and
I've seen ghosts spookin' around in it."

"Do you think there are really such things as ghosts?"

"I know it."

"And do you think they could be responsible for the death of Mr. Bruce
and Miss Reid?"

"I know it. That Thorpe he says it's murder, but he can't guess how it
could be. That fool of a Crawford, he don't know nothing, of any sort.
Wayburn, now, he's a fair doctor, but, good land! what can they learn
from a post-mortem? Those people was warned, and them warnin's was
carried out. What more is there to learn?"

"Well and clearly put, Mr. Stebbins," commented the Professor. "No
elaboration of phrases could state that more succinctly. They were
warned,--the warnings were carried out. That is the whole truth."

"But granting that," said Norma, "and I'm willing to grant it, why did
the spirits want to kill Vernie? A lovely, innocent child couldn't have
incurred the wrath of the spirits to that extent."

"They ain't no tellin', ma'am, what them ha'nts will do." Stebbins spoke
heavily, as if burdened with fear. "Now I leave it to you folks. Ain't
you smelled prussic acid around?"

"I have," said Norma. "And I," added the Professor. "I know it was not
brought here by any of our party----"

"Nor not by the cook," said Stebbins. "Hester, she's leery of that bitter
almond flavourin' and she don't never use it. Well, don't that smell
prove somethin'?"

"It isn't actual proof," and Tracy looked thoughtful. "But it is an
inexplicable odour to hang round an old house."

"'Tain't inexplicable if it's due to the ha'nt," urged Stebbins. "And
that's what it is due to. Why, that smell's been said to be round here
ever since the time of the Montgomery murder."

"What's wrong between you and Doctor Crawford?" asked Eve, suddenly. "You
say yourself you aren't good friends."

"No, ma'am, we ain't. It's a sort o' feud of long standin'. They ain't no
special reason, jest a conglomeration of little things. But one thing is
'cause he makes fun of the spooks here. He don't take no stock in such
things, and nobody can make him. Thorpe, now, he don't neither. He sticks
to it Mr. Bruce and Miss Vernie was murdered."

"By what means, does he think?" asked Eve, quickly.

"Well, that he don't know. But murder he says it was, and that he sticks
to, like a puppy to a root."

"Get him in here," said Landon, abruptly, and Thorpe was summoned.

"Yes, sir," the butler averred, on being questioned. "I'm willin' to go
on record as a disbeliever in spooks. They ain't no such things. I don't
deny I've been some scared up hearin' you ladies and gentlemen talk about
such matters. But I don't believe in 'em and I never will. Them two pore
critters was done to death, but I'm free to confess I can't see how."

Professor Hardwick looked at the speaker. "As Mr. Dooley observed," he
said, "your remarks is inthrestin' but not convincin'. My man, if there
is no possible way that murder could have been done,--and we in here are
agreed on that point,--what is left but the inevitability of supernormal
agents?"

"Your long words gets me, sir, but it don't make no difference. It wa'n't
spooks."

"He's hopeless," said Tracy. "Let's ask him other things. Thorpe, my man,
have you never seen any circumstance or occurrence in this house, that
you couldn't explain by natural means?"

"I ain't never been in this house, sir, except as I came here to buttle
for you folks. Mr. Stebbins, he give the job to me and my wife, 'cause
we're honest, hard-working people, and he knew he could trust us not to
tattle or tell no tales of your goin's on. He says, 'Thorpe,' says he,
'they're a queer lot what's comin' up here, but they're my tenants, and I
don't want 'em bothered none by gossip and tale-bearin' to the village.'
Ain't that right, Mr. Stebbins?"

"Just so," said Stebbins, calmly. "Them's just about my very words. You
told me, Mr. Landon, that you were a crowd of spook-hunters, and so it
was up to me to spare you all the annoyance I could. An' well I know how
the villagers gossip about this here house, if they get a chance. So,
with the Thorpes at the head of things and a couple of good close-mouthed
girls for helpers, I 'llowed you'd not be troubled. And you ain't
been,--up to now. But this thing can't be kept quiet no longer. Of
course, a thing like this is more or less public property, and I can tell
you, there'll be plenty of curious villagers up here to the inquest and
all that."

"Inquest!" cried Eve, "what do you mean?"

"Jest that, ma'am. That dunder-headed coroner, or county physician as he
really is, he's set on havin' an inquest,--says he's got to. Well, I
don't know much about law, but if they can ketch and hang a ha'nt, let
'em do it, say I!"

The arrival on the scene of the two doctors cut short further discussion.
"There is a strange condition of things," Crawford began, addressing
himself to Wynne Landon. "We find decisive, though very slight evidence
that Mr. Bruce died from poison."

A hush followed, as his stunned hearers thought over the grave
significance of this statement.

"Poison?" repeated Landon, dazedly. "What sort of poison? Who
administered it?"

"As I said," resumed the coroner, "it's a strange case. The poison found
is the minutest quantity of a very powerful drug, known among the
profession as strychnine hydrochlorate. This is so deadly that a half
grain will kill a man instantly, or in a few seconds. But my colleague
and I have agreed that since it is impossible for this to have been
administered at the moment of Mr. Bruce's death, it must be that he had
taken it in cumulative doses, and the result culminated in his sudden
death."

"Why would he take it?" cried Milly.

"Where could he get it?" asked the Professor. "Such a drug is not
available to the general public, is it?"

"It is not, sir, but whoever gave it to him, must have procured it
somehow. Those questions are for the future. We are just learning the
facts. The results of our tests prove positively the presence of that
particular poison. There is no doubt of that."

"But wait," and Eve fixed her compelling eyes on the coroner's face.
"Remember, Doctor Crawford, though you may not believe in the occult,
other and wiser minds do. I wish to remind you, therefore, that we who
believe these deaths were caused by supernatural agency, believe also
that the powers that compassed the deaths are able to make the deaths
seem attributable to natural causes, whether poison or anything else."

"Eve!" exclaimed Milly, "that is going too far!"

"Not at all!" said the Professor. "Miss Carnforth is quite right; and
indeed, logic must prove that if a phantasm can take away a human life it
can also produce effects that resemble conditions brought about by human
means."

"I repeat," the coroner interrupted, "these things are beside the
question. We are conducting an autopsy, not an inquest, at present. I am
giving you my report as a medical man, not as a member of the police
force. Those other matters will be considered later. We have completed
our examinations in the one case, we will now proceed to the case of the
other victim."

"They killed each other," Thorpe broke in, nodding his head in the
positive manner he affected. "Leastwise, one of 'em killed both; and of
course, Miss Vernie, she wasn't no murderer!"

"Wait till you are called upon to testify, my man," and Crawford glowered
at the forwardness of the old butler.

"There'll be testifyin' on both sides," volunteered Stebbins, speaking a
little belligerently.

Crawford turned on him, and it was easily seen that enmity existed
between these two. "You, 'Lijah Stebbins, keep quiet," he admonished,
"there's them that says you know too much about these doings, anyhow."

"What do you mean by that?" Stebbins' eyes glowed with anger.

"Nothing now, and maybe nothing at any time. But you'd better lie low.
You might be unduly suspected of ha'nting your own house!"

To the surprise of all present, Stebbins turned a chalky white, and
whimpered a little, as he said, "I don't know what you mean,--I ain't
done anything."

"See's you don't!" advised Crawford, enigmatically, and then the two
doctors started to go on their second gruesome errand.

"This door's locked," announced Doctor Wayburn, trying to gain entrance
to the Room with the Tassels.

"I have the key," said Eve Carnforth, slowly, and, with a white face, she
offered it to the men.

"What are _you_ doing with it?" asked Landon, in amazement.

"I d-don't know," and Eve showed great nervousness. "I think I feared
some one would go in there."

The others looked at her curiously, for the white face was pallid and the
scarlet line of her lips was thin and straight.

An exclamation from Doctor Wayburn claimed their attention, and speaking
from the doorway of the Room with the Tassels, he said:

"There is no body here."

"What!" cried several at once, and crowded to the door.

"Absolutely none," repeated the doctor, and Professor Hardwick pushed his
way past the two medical men and entered the room.

"It's gone!" he said, reappearing, "Vernie's body is gone!"

"Impossible!" cried Landon, "what do you mean? Why, we've all been right
here all the morning! How could it be gone?"

"See for yourself," and Hardwick stepped aside.

There was no denying the fact. Scrutiny of the whole room showed no
presence of the cold, still form that had been reverently laid on that
bed. Everybody entered and peered around, fruitlessly. They shook the
heavy hangings and looked behind them, but to no avail.

Vernie's body had utterly disappeared!

CHAPTER X
Was It Supernatural?

Late that afternoon Braye returned from New York. He looked weary and
exhausted, as if under hard and continuous strain.

Norma and Eve had both been watching for him from different windows and
met on the stairs in their sudden rush to meet him in the hall.

It was easily apparent that both girls desired to see him first and tell
him the further awful development of the disappearance of Vernie's body.

"What!" he exclaimed, "more horrors! Wait a minute, till I get off this
dust coat."

Before Eve or Norma could say more, the others, hearing Braye, came
trooping to the hall, and all began to talk at once.

"I can't understand----" and Braye wearily passed his hand across his
brow,--"tell me all that happened after I left last evening."

"Nothing especial," said Tracy, quietly. "We all went to bed early, at
least, we went to our rooms. Professor Hardwick and I sat up half the
night, talking. But we left Thorpe on guard in the hall here, and of
course, it never occurred to any of us there was need of further
precaution."

"Nor was there," said Eve, fixing her great eyes on Braye. "Nobody could
possibly come in from outside and take that child away. The house is too
securely locked for that, as we all know."

"Why should any one want to?" queried Braye, his face blank with
amazement.

"No one did want to,--no one did do it," returned Eve. "You must admit,
Rudolph, that the whole thing is supernatural,--that----"

"No, Eve, I can't do that." Braye spoke positively. "When I'm up here
with you psychists, and in this atmosphere of mystery,--and Lord knows
'Black Aspens' is mysterious!--I get swayed over toward spiritualism, but
when I go down to the city and talk with rational, hard-headed men, I
realize there's nothing in this poppycock!"

"Oh, you do!" and Eve's penetrating glance seemed to bore into his very
soul, "then, pray, how do you explain the fact that Vernie--isn't there?"

"I don't know, Eve,--I don't know. But some fiend in human shape must
have managed to get into the house----"

"And get out again?" said Tracy, "and carry the body with him,--when
Thorpe sat right here in the hall----"

"Where was Thorpe?" asked Braye, suddenly.

"In a chair there, by that table," and Eve indicated a position well back
in the great hall.

"Then he couldn't see the doors of both rooms----" began Braye, but
Professor Hardwick interrupted: "Nonsense, man, both doors were open, if
any move had been made, Thorpe must have heard it."

"Both doors open," said Braye, "Norma, you said they were closed when you
came down to breakfast."

"I asked Thorpe about that," said Tracy. "He told me that at daybreak, or
soon after, he closed the doors, without looking in the rooms. He was
scared, I think, though he won't admit that. He says, he thought the
ladies would be coming down and the doors better be closed."

"That's all right, but it's strange that he didn't glance into the
rooms."

"I don't think so," said Landon. "Thorpe was in charge, but he had no
reason to think there had been any disturbance, and he is pretty well
scared up over the whole matter. And I don't wonder."

"Nor I," said Braye. "It's all inexplicable. What's Crawford going to do
next?"

"I'm not sure," said Tracy, "but I think he'll hold an inquest. Of
course, _he_ thinks it's a case of murder----"

"How absurd!" cried Eve. "What more does the man want in confirmation of
the supernatural? First, those two deaths, impossible of human
achievement, and now, the taking away of poor little Vernie, in
circumstances that deny any mortal hand in the matter!"

"If that's true, Eve," Braye spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, "it will do
no harm to let the coroner proceed along his own lines. He can't convict
a murderer if there isn't one,--and if there is one, we all want him
convicted, don't we?"

"Of course," said Landon, "but suppose they pitch on an innocent man?"

"It's _all_ supposition," declared Braye. "I never heard of such a moil!
I can't see how it _can_ be murder, or body-snatching, yet I can't stand
for ghost-work, either. Say it's murder,--where's a motive, for anybody?"

"I think you ought to know, Rudolph," Eve said, slowly, "that that
Crawford person asked who would inherit Mr. Bruce's money, and----"

"And we owned up that you were the next of kin, old chap," put in Landon,
smiling grimly. "Any remarks?"

"Don't be flippant, Wynne," said Braye, seriously, "of course, I've
thought of that. I can't very well be charged with the murder, as I
wasn't here at the time, but I do feel deeply embarrassed at the thought
that I am, without a doubt, the next heir. That can, I suppose, draw
suspicion on me, as I may be said to have motive. But I am not afraid of
that, for there's no possible way I could have turned the trick. But, if
it _was_ murder, if there's the slightest indication of foul play, I'm
ready to devote all of Uncle Gifford's money, if need be, in bringing the
criminal to justice."

"Of course, there's no sense in tacking the crime on you, Braye," and
Landon sighed. "If it was a crime, and if anybody here committed it,
they'll more likely suspect me, for I'm the next heir after you, and if I
could despatch two intervening heirs, I could also bump you off, I
suppose."

"Don't talk like that, Wynne," implored Milly. "It's not like you, and
I----"

"I'm only preparing you, Milly, dear, for what may come. That
mutton-headed coroner can't rest till he fastens murder on somebody,--and
it might as well be me."

"I want to go home, Wynne,--I want to go back to New York," and Milly
began to cry.

"You may, dear, just as soon as you like. But I must stay and see what
happens up here. For me to run away would be, to say the least,
suspicious."

"Talk sense, Wynne," broke in Braye; "I wasn't here, you know, when those
two people died. Tell me again, just where were you all?"

"Mr. Bruce and Professor Hardwick sat in those two chairs, confabbing,"
Wynne explained; "I was passing things round, so was Mr. Tracy. Eve was
running the tea things, Vernie was jumping about here and there, and
Norma,--where were you, Norma?"

"I was near Mr. Bruce and the Professor, listening to their talk," she
returned. "I was greatly interested. Mr. Landon had just given me a cup
of tea, and I was sipping it as I listened. There was nothing wrong about
the tea, of that I'm certain."

"Of course there wasn't," agreed Braye, who had heard the scene rehearsed
many times. "There's nothing wrong anywhere, that I can see, except that
a dreadful thing has happened, and we must find out all we can about it.
I've been to see Uncle Gif's business friends, he has a few in New York,
and they're flabbergasted, of course. One of them, a Mr. Jennings, is
sure it's a desperate murder, cleverly contrived by some people in
Chicago, who are enemies of Uncle's, and who, he says, are diabolically
ingenious enough to have brought it about. He holds that Vernie's death
was accidental,--I mean that they only intended to kill Uncle Gifford. I
can't believe in this talk, for how could it have been brought about? But
Jennings thinks it was through the servants,--and that they're really
enemies in disguise."

"Why, they're all natives of this section," exclaimed the Professor, "how
could they be implicated?"

"I told Jennings that, but he thinks they've been bought over, or--oh,
Lord, I don't know _what_ he thinks! I don't know what to think myself!
There's _no_ solution!"

"Don't think now, Rudolph," and Eve came over to his side, and took his
hand in hers. "You're all tired out, and I don't wonder. Let's have
tea,--we mustn't dread tea because of its associations,--if we do that,
we'll all collapse."

With a determined air, Eve went away to order tea served as usual, though
Milly had declared she never wanted to have it in that hall again.

But Eve's idea found favour with the rest, and they gratefully accepted
the refreshment, which, until that awful afternoon, had been such a
pleasant function.

"We must settle some things," Braye said, looking at Landon. "I arranged
to send the bodies to Chicago,--of course, I didn't know----"

"Isn't it terrible!" exclaimed Norma. "What shall you do now?"

"I think I'll send Uncle Gif's body, at once, and hope to find Vernie's
later. It _must_ be found----" Braye looked about wildly. "I wish I had
been here last night! Oh, forgive me, I'm not casting any hint of blame
on you others, but,--well, you know I wasn't here when--when it happened,
either, and I can't sense it all as you do. Professor Hardwick, what do
you think about it all?"

"I'm an old man, Braye, and I've had wide experience, also, I'm a hard
one to convince without strong and definite proof, but I'll state now,
once for all, that I'm a complete convert to spiritism and I believe,--I
know,--these deaths of our friends were the acts of an inimical spirit, a
phantasm, incensed at our curiosity concerning the occult, and our
frivolous attitude toward the whole subject."

"You really believe that, Professor?"

"I really do, Braye, and moreover I am convinced that the disappearance
of--of little Vernie, is the work of the evil spirit. What else can
explain it?"

"Nothing that I know of, but I can't swallow the idea of a disembodied
spirit making off with a real, material body! I _wish_ I'd been here!
Didn't _anybody_ see or hear _anything_?"

"No," declared Landon, but Norma gave a quick glance at Eve, who returned
it with a defiant toss of her Titian-coloured head.

"Why do you look at me like that, Norma?" she asked, shortly.

"Why do I?" Norma repeated in a soft significant tone. "I think you know,
Eve."

"Well, I for one, shall stay up here for a time, and see how matters go
on," said Braye, with sudden determination. "Who else wants to stay?"

"I do," said Professor Hardwick, "I think we've by no means seen the last
of the manifestations, and though I feel there is a danger, I am ready to
brave it for the sake of investigating further."

"I don't want to stay," and Milly shook with nervous apprehension. "Can't
we go home, Wynne?"

"Very soon, darling. You can go at once, and I'll follow as soon as
things are adjusted up here. I think none of us ought to seem to run
away."

"Certainly not," Tracy agreed, promptly. "The whole affair is so
astounding, I can scarcely get my wits together, but I see clearly, no
one must leave this house, until we are all exonerated from suspicion."

"Not even me?" asked Milly, tearfully.

"That's for you and Mr. Landon to decide," returned Tracy, gently. "I'm
not dictating, not even advising, but I have strong opinions on the
subject. What say, Braye?"

"I quite agree with you, Tracy. But, I'm sure if Mrs. Landon prefers to
go down to New York and stay at her mother's no one could possibly
object."

"But I don't!" Milly surprised them all by saying, "if you put it that
way,--if it's cowardly to go away, I don't want to go. I want to stay, if
Wynne does, and if Eve and Norma stay."

"That's my brave girl," and Landon smiled at his wife; "I'll guarantee
that Milly won't make any trouble, either. Once she's awake to a duty,
she's bold as a lion. Now, see here, if Crawford stirs up suspicion of
any of us, we'll have to deal with him pretty roughly, I fear. He's a
pig-headed sort, and he will move heaven and earth to gain his point.
Moreover, we can't expect him to subscribe to spook theories, any more
than those men Rudolph talked to in New York. One has to go through some
such experiences as we have, to believe in them. You, Professor, would
never have been convinced by hearsay evidence, would you?"

"No, sir, I would not! It took these otherwise inexplicable happenings to
prove to me that there is but one way to look. Even a coroner can't
produce a human criminal who could kill those two people the way they
were killed, and who could get into and out of this house and take a
human body with him! The thing is preposterous!"

"You know the doors and windows were all locked?" asked Braye,
thoughtfully.

"I looked after them, myself," said Landon. "I always do. After the last
one goes upstairs for the night, I invariably look after the locking up.
And the house, properly locked, is impregnable. The servants' quarters
are shut off and locked; there is absolutely no way of getting in from
outside."

"Going back to Jennings' theory," mused Braye, "could we suspect old
Thorpe?"

"Not for a minute," declared Landon. "And, too, he wasn't in the hall
when they died. No, I'd trust Thorpe as far as I would any of ourselves.
But, there's Stebbins. I've never felt sure that he's entirely
trustworthy."

"Even so," said Braye, "he wasn't here when--when they died."

"No, he wasn't. I can't see any way he could have arranged things unless
he poisoned the cake----"

"Rubbish, Wynne!" cried Eve, "you know we all ate that cake. Do be
rational."

"But Mr. Bruce was poisoned, Eve, we can't get away from that."

"Of course he was," broke in Hardwick, "and doubtless Vernie was too, but
it was not done by human agency."

"Well, there we go, reasoning round in a circle," murmured Norma; "I
think our talk is useless, when we surmise and speculate about it all.
Let us decide on our immediate plans. Shall you send Mr. Bruce's body to
Chicago, and stay here yourself, Rudolph?"

"Yes, as I look at it now. I can't see anything else to do."

Nor was there anything else to do.

For Doctor Crawford persisted in treating the case as a criminal one, and
requested that all concerned remain at Black Aspens for the present, with
a hint that unless they did so, the request might become a command.

"Then you think the two people were murdered?" asked Landon of the county
physician.

"I don't say that, for sure; but when a man drops dead, and a trace of
poison is found in his stomach, it looks mighty like an intention of
death on some one's part,--maybe the man himself. There's a show of
suicide, you know."

"But Gifford Bruce never would commit suicide!"

"If only those committed suicide who are expected to do so, there'd be
mighty few of them. Now, I hold that poison was taken into Mr. Bruce's
stomach while he was eating that cake, or whatever he did eat."

"We agree to that," Landon spoke slowly, "but some of us think the poison
was put in by supernatural means."

"Now, ain't that nonsense,--for reasonable, rational men!" and Crawford's
fine scorn nettled Landon.

"Professor Hardwick doesn't think it nonsense," he returned.

The two were alone, Crawford having asked an interview with the man who
had rented the house.

"Professor!" and Crawford fairly snorted. "For fool theories, commend me
to a college professor. They can't see two inches either side of their
noses!"

"We have had reason to believe in spiritual manifestations," went on
Braye.

"Yes, and who gave you those reasons? Who rented this house to you folks,
for the sole purpose of supplying you with a ha'nted house! Who knew that
ghosts must be forthcoming, if you folks was to be satisfied? Who
performed ghost doings himself, in order that you might not be
disappointed?"

"What are you implying? That Mr.--that the owner tricked us?"

"That's for you to find out. You came up here to investigate, as I
understand it. Well, why _don't_ you investigate? You swallow all them
ghosts and ha'ntings, and never look around to see who's fooling you!"

"But, Doctor Crawford, what you insinuate is not possible. All the
strange things we have seen or heard have occurred at night,
or,--yes,--occasionally in the daytime, but always when Mr. Stebbins was
at his home in East Dryden."

"How do you know he was?"

"Why, he has never been to the house at all, except two or three times on
commonplace errands, since we've been here. The supernatural
manifestations we have observed had no more to do with him than they had
with you!"

"That's as may be. Only I advise you to investigate with a little common
sense and not too much blind faith in your spook visitors. Now, Mr.
Landon, I take it you're boss around here."

"I'm responsible for the house rent, if that's what you mean."

"Well, that'll do. Now, sir, there's got to be an inquest. I expected, of
course, to hold it on the two bodies, but since one's gone, we'll have to
do what we can without it. I don't deny that this case is beyond all my
experience. I've sent for a detective from New York, and I'll get all the
other help I need. But I'm all at sea, myself, and I make no secret of
that."

"I thought you suspected Eli Stebbins."

"Not of murder! No, sir! Me'n Eli, we ain't good friends, haven't been
for years, and I wouldn't put it past him to play ghost to scare you city
people, but murder! Land, no, I wouldn't ever accuse Eli Stebbins of
goin' that far!"

"Have you any definite suspect?"

"I don't say as I have, and I don't say as I ain't. Truth is, I'm all
afloat. I don't know which way to turn. Every thing's so awful
unbelievable,--as you might say. Now, there's them two Thorpes. Good,
steady-going New England people, they are, and yet, if I had any reason
to suspect 'em, I can see myself doing so. But, land, there ain't a shred
of evidence that way. Why, they wasn't even in the room when the two of
'em died!"

"Wait a minute, Doctor Crawford. Nobody was in the room at the time of
those two deaths, but our own party. You don't suspect one of us, do
you?"

"No, Mr. Landon, I don't. You ain't a gay crowd, nor yet a fast or a
common crowd. You're all high-toned, quiet, law-abiding citizens,--as I
size you up. To be sure, decent citizens have committed murder, but I
can't connect up any one of you with crime in this case. I know Mr. Braye
will inherit the money that old Mr. Bruce left, and I know that you're
related there, too, but I haven't seen one iota of reason to suspect any
one of your crowd. If I do, I'll let you know mighty quick! Nor can I
hang it on the Thorpes; nor yet on those girls they have in to help. And
that's what the inquest's for. To bring out, if possible, some evidence
against somebody, so's we can get a start."

"I fear you can't get that evidence, Doctor, for if there were any we
would have found it ourselves. You have my good wishes, for if it is a
case of murder, committed by a living, human villain, we most assuredly
want him apprehended."

"He will be, Mr. Landon, take it from me, he will be!"

CHAPTER XI
The Heir Speaks Out

The days that followed were like an awful nightmare to the people most
interested. But at last the inquest was over, the body of Gifford Bruce
had been sent to Chicago for burial, and a strange quiet had settled down
upon the household at Black Aspens.

No new facts had transpired at the inquest. Though the police tried hard
to fasten the crime on some individual, there was no definite evidence
against any one. All those who had been present at the mysterious death
hour, told their stories straightforwardly and unshakably. All agreed as
to the circumstances, all remembered and related the story of the Ouija
board, which foretold the death of two of the party at four o'clock.

"Who was pushing that board?" the coroner asked.

"Miss Reid and myself," Tracy spoke up. "We had been playing with it for
some time, and having had only uninteresting and trifling results we were
about to lay the thing aside, when the message came that two of us would
die the next day at four o'clock. Miss Reid seemed frightened, but I
thought at the time she had spelled out the message, herself, to get up a
little excitement. However, I took the board away from her at once,
feeling that she was carrying a jest too far. I think now, that she was
innocent in the matter----"

"Well, I don't," said the coroner. "If that girl made up that message,
she had a reason. Probably she was responsible for both deaths."

"Impossible!" cried Tracy, shocked at this theory. "Why, she was but a
child, she had no thought of suicide or--or murder! If she faked the
message, it was merely in fun, and because she had tried all evening to
get some message of interest. It is quite possible she made up the
message, but it is not possible that she did it otherwise than as a
jest."

"A gruesome jest!"

"As it turned out, yes, indeed. But either it was in jest,--or--the
message was from a supernatural source."

Tracy's eyes were deeply sorrowful, and his face expressed a sort of awed
wonder, that made many who were present, think that after all there might
be something in these occult beliefs.

But not so the coroner. He refused to consider the Ouija message with any
serious interest, and continued to ply his witnesses with questions both
pertinent and wide of the mark.

Elijah Stebbins was put through a grilling inquiry. His manner was that
of a guilty man, but no proof of crime could be found in connection with
him. The day and hour of the two deaths, he was proved to have been at
his home in East Dryden, beyond all doubt. Even granting that the
Thorpes, one or both, were in his employ, there was no reason to suspect
them. If they had put poison in the cakes or in the tea, it must have
been done in the kitchen, and therefore would have affected the whole
supply. Suspicion must fall, if anywhere, on the members of the house
party who were present at the hour of four o'clock on the fatal day.

But these, as has been said, gave so clear a statement of the actual
happenings at that hour, that there was no loophole for suspicion to
enter. Moreover, the fact that the deaths occurred simultaneously, and
just at the foretold hour, seemed to preclude all possibility of any
human means being employed. It did look like a supernatural occurrence
and many who would have scorned such a belief, were inevitably led to
agree that no other theory could explain it.

Yet the coroner and his jury were unwilling to admit this, and the
verdict was the one most frequently heard of, murder by a person or
persons unknown.

Indeed, what else could it have been? A coroner's jury can't accuse a
nameless ghost of two murders, by poison. They pinned their faith to that
poison, discovered in the stomach of the body of Gifford Bruce. They
assumed that Miss Reid died from the effects of the same poison, but how
administered or by whom, or what had become of the body of Miss Reid,
they had no idea. But of one thing they were sure, that all these things,
and all parts of the complicated crime, were the work of human hands and
human intelligence, and that for the reputation of their village and
their county and their state, the murderer must be discovered and brought
to justice.

But how? How find a criminal who gave no signs of existence, and who was,
by those most closely concerned, denied actual existence?

The detective, one Dan Peterson, proceeded on the theory that a closed
mouth implies great secret wisdom. He said little, save to ask questions
of everybody with whom he came in contact, and as these questions merely
carried him round in a circle back to his starting point, he made little
progress.

There were also, of course, many reporters, from the city papers, and
these wrote up the story as their natures or their chiefs dictated. Some
played up the supernatural side for all it was worth, and more; others
scorned such foolishness, and treated the affair as a desperate and
unusually mysterious murder case. But all agreed that it was the most
sensational and interesting affair of its sort that had happened in
years, and the eager reporters hung around and nearly drove frantic the
feminine members of the house party.

At last, Norma and Milly refused to see them, but Eve Carnforth continued
to talk with them, and imbued many of them, more or less, with her occult
views.

"There's something in what that red-headed woman says," one reporter
opined to his fellow. "She puts it mighty convincing,--if you ask me."

"Yes, and why?" jeered his friend, "because she's the man behind the
ghost!"

"What! Miss Carnforth! Guilty? Never!"

"I'm not so sure. You know as well as I do, that spook talk is all
rubbish, but she's so bent and determined to stuff it down everybody's
neck, I think she's hiding her own hand in the matter."

"You do! Well, you'd better think again, before you let out any such yarn
as that! Why, she's a queen, that woman is!"

"Oho! She's subjugated you, has she? Well, look out that she doesn't
convert you to spookism,--you'd lose your job!"

Other curious people journeyed up to Black Aspens for the pleasure of
looking at the house where the mystery was staged. If allowed to enter
they walked about, open-mouthed in admiration or wonder.

"Stunning hall!" exclaimed one young man, a budding architect, who
examined the old house with interest. "Look at those bronze columns! I
never saw such a pair."

"I've heard the first Montgomery brought those from Italy or somewhere,
and put up a house behind 'em," volunteered another sightseer. "Ain't it
queer, the way they're half in and half out of the front wall? Land! You
wouldn't know whether you was going to school or coming home!" and the
speaker laughed heartily at his own wit.

But at last, the sightseers were refused admittance to the house, and the
remaining members of the party gathered in conclave to decide on future
plans.

Professor Hardwick was the one who showed the calmest demeanour.

"If there was a chance of a human being having committed these crimes,"
he said, "I'd be the first one to want to track him down, and send him
straight to the chair. But nobody who has thought about the matter can
present any theory that will account for the human element in the cause
of the tragedy. Therefore, feeling certain, as I do, that our friends
were killed by supernatural influences, I am ready to stay here a short
time longer, in hopes of convincing the authorities up here that we are
right. Moreover, I planned to stay here a month, and we've been here but
little more than a fortnight."

"I'm willing to stay for the same reason, Professor," and Eve Carnforth's
strange eyes glowed deeply. "I too, know that no living beings brought
about the deaths of Mr. Bruce and little Vernie, and I will stay the rest
of our proposed month, if the others will."

"I am ready to stay," said Milly Landon, quietly. "I've gotten all over
my hysterical, foolish fears, and I _want_ to stay. I have a good reason,
and if I hadn't, I'd be willing to stay to keep house for the rest of
you."

"Let's consider it settled, then," said Landon, "that we stay a couple of
weeks longer. The astute detective, Mr. Peterson, thinks he can round up
the villains who did the awful things, and if he can, I'm ready to appear
against them."

"We're all ready to do that," agreed Mr. Tracy, "and I'll stay a week or
so, but I want to get away by the middle of August."

"That's nearly two weeks hence," observed Norma, "I'd like to go home
about that time, too. And all that's to be discovered, which, I suppose,
will be nothing, ought to be found out in that time."

"It wouldn't surprise me to have some further spiritual manifestations,"
the Professor stated, with a deeply thoughtful air. "I don't know why
there wouldn't be such."

"Not with fatal results, I hope," and Mr. Tracy shuddered.

"I hope not, too," and the Professor looked grave. "But if we receive
another warning, I shall go home at once."

"I don't think we will," Eve said, "I think there was a reason for the
wrath of the phantasms, and now that wrath is appeased. We must not
provoke it further."

"You know," Norma added, "the two who--who died, were scoffers at the
idea of spiritual visitations."

"Uncle Gif was," said Braye, "but little Vernie wasn't."

"Oh, yes, she was," corrected Eve. "She made fun of our beliefs all
along. And if she really made the Ouija write that message in a spirit of
bravado, it's small wonder that the vengeance reached her as well as Mr.
Bruce, who openly jeered at it all."

"I can't think it," mused Tracy, "that sweet, lovable child,--full of
mischief, of course, but simple, harmless mischief,----"

"But, Mr. Tracy," Norma looked and spoke positively, "it's easier to
think of a supernatural spirit wanting to harm the child, than a living
person! What possible cause could a human being have to wish harm to
little Vernie Reid?"

"That's true, Miss Cameron. But it's inexplicable, however you look at
it."

"At the same time," Braye argued, "we must give both sides a chance. If
there is any trick or scheme that a man might have used to bring about
those deaths at that moment,--I can't conceive of any, but if there
should have been such,--we must, of course, give all possible assistance
to Mr. Peterson in his search."

"I'm more than willing," said Tracy, "I'm anxious to help him for, as you
say, Braye, if there's a human mind capable of devising means to commit
such a crime, it surely ought to be within the province of some other
human mind to discover it."

"Suppose we start out o

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