BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE

 OR

 THE QUEER HOMESTEAD AT CHERRY CORNERS

 BY JANET D. WHEELER

 1920

BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

 I. AN ACCIDENT. 

 II. THAT HUNDRED DOLLARS. 

 III. CHET HELPS. 

 IV. THE LAST HOPE. 

 V. WORSE AND WORSE. 

 VI. DEBBIE DESERTS. 

 VII. A STRANGE BURGLAR. 

 VIII. STARTLING DEVELOPMENTS. 

 IX. GHOSTS AND THINGS. 

 X. OLD FURNITURE. 

 XI. BILLIE WINS OUT. 

 XII. GREAT PLANS. 

 XIII. CHERRY CORNERS. 

 XIV. WEIRD TALES. 

 XV. A NOISE IN THE DARK. 

 XVI. SHADOWS AND MYSTERY. 

 XVII. ONLY A BAT. 

 XVIII. A FISH STORY. 

 XIX. IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT. 

 XX. THE MOTOR AGAIN. 

 XXI. BOTH AT ONCE. 

 XXII. A THRILLING DISCOVERY. 

 XXIII. THE WRECKED AEROPLANE. 

 XXIV. COINS AND POSTAGE STAMPS. 

 XXV. "LARGE FORTUNES. "

BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE

CHAPTER I

AN ACCIDENT

"Aren't you glad that we are only going back to school for a littlewhile?" cried Billie Bradley, as she gave a little exultant skip. "Suppose it were fall and we were beginning high--"

"Billie, stop it, " commanded Laura Jordon, turning a pair of very blueand very indignant eyes upon her chum. "I thought we were going to forgetschool for a little while. "

"Well, we're not going back for anything I forgot, " Billie was assertingwhen Violet Farrington, the third of the trio, interposed:

"If you two are going to quarrel on a day like this, I'm going home. "

"Who said we were quarreling?" cried Billie, adding with a chuckle:"We're just having what Miss Beggs" (Miss Beggs being their Englishteacher) "would call an 'amiable discussion. '"

"Listen to the bright child!" cried Laura mockingly. "I don't see howyou ever get that way, Billie. "

"Neither do I, " replied Billie, adding with a chuckle as they turned tostare at her: "Just natural talent, I guess. "

The three chums--and three brighter, prettier girls it would be hard tofind--were on their way to the grammar school which had just closed theweek before. Laura had forgotten a book which she prized highly and wasin hope that the janitor, a good-natured old fellow, would let her inlong enough to get it. At the last minute she had asked the other girlsto go with her. 

The three chums had lived in North Bend, a town of less than twentythousand people, practically all their lives. The girls loved it, for itwas a pretty place. Still, being only forty miles by rail from New YorkCity, they had been taken to the roaring metropolis once in a while as atreat, and it was only with great difficulty that their parents hadsucceeded in luring them home again. 

Among other things North Bend boasted a jewelry factory, of which RaymondJordon, Laura's father, was the owner. 

Billie's father was the prominent Martin Bradley, well known among realestate and insurance men, and it was from him that Billie, whose realname was Beatrice, had taken her brown eyes and brown hair and even thatmerry, irrepressible imp of mischief that made Billie Bradley the mostpopular, best-loved girl in all North Bend. 

Her mother, Agnes Bradley, quiet, sincere and beautiful to look upon, kept just the check on her gay young daughter that the young girl needed. 

Billie had a brother, Chetwood Bradley, commonly known as "Chet"--a boyas different from his sister as night is from day, yet, in his own morequiet way, extremely attractive. 

Laura's brother, Theodore, known to his intimates as Teddy, was ahandsome boy, as full of wild spirits as Billie herself. Teddy hadentertained a lively admiration for Billie Bradley since he was seven andshe was six. Teddy was tall for his fifteen years, and had already made aname for himself in the field of athletics. 

The third of the chums was Violet Farrington, a daughter of RichardFarrington, a well-known lawyer of North Bend, and Grace Farrington, asweet, motherly woman. 

Nearly everybody loved Violet, who was tall and dark and sweet-tempered. She also acted as a sort of perpetual peace-maker between brown-eyedBillie and blue-eyed Laura. 

So now she was acting again on this glorious day in July when the roseswere out and the birds were singing and the sun was shining itsbrightest. 

"What shall we do if we can't get in?" suggested Billie, waving her handto Nellie Bane, another girl in her class, who passed on the oppositeside of the street. 

"I suppose we'd have to go home again, " answered Laura, adding with alittle worried frown: "Oh, I do hope I can get the book. I wouldn't loseit for anything. "

"There goes Amanda Peabody, " cried Violet suddenly, clutchingBillie's arm. 

"That makes no difference in my young life, " Billie slangily assured her. 

"As long as she _goes_, it's all right, " added Laura, glancing after thelanky figure of Amanda Peabody as the girl swung off in the otherdirection. 

Amanda Peabody was not popular with the girls. Nor was she with anybody, for that matter. As far as the girls knew, she had not one friend in thewhole school. 

Amanda was red-haired and freckled; and while these attributes alonecould not have accounted for her unpopularity, she added to them atendency to spy upon the other girls and then run and tell what she hadseen or heard. 

It was this last characteristic that no fair-minded girl would tolerateand so Amanda had lived in practical ostracism ever since she had come toNorth Bend two years before. 

"I don't think we ought to be too hard on her, " said Violet, as theyturned the corner that brought the school into view. "She can't help hermean disposition, I suppose. And anyway, Miss Beggs says there's alwayssome good to be found in everybody. "

"Maybe, " said Billie skeptically, "but hers is so small you would need amicroscope to see it. There's the janitor now, just going out. If we runwe can catch him. "

And run they did, presenting themselves a minute later, rather red in theface and out of breath, before a very much amused janitor. 

"Hello, " he cried, his twinkling eyes under their shaggy brows lightingwith pleasure as he looked at the girls. "Are you young ladies tryin' tocatch a train, or what?"

"Oh, no, no, " cried Violet eagerly. "We were just trying to catch you, Mr. Heegan. "

"Oh-ho! An' it's mighty flattered I am, " said Mr. Heegan, his Irishbrogue coming to the fore. "An' what, if I might be askin' you--"

"It's a book we left here, " Billie broke in quickly. "Laura wants to knowif you will let us in long enough to get it. "

"Sure, an' I will that, " Mr. Heegan assured them, leading the way intothe school yard and pulling out his bunch of keys. "It must be a verraimportant book, " he added, smiling at them as he fitted the key in thelock, "to be bringing you back to school after school's out. "

"It was a gift from Father, " Laura explained. "And I wouldn't lose itfor anything. "

"All right, there you go, " said the good-natured janitor, swinging thedoor wide for them. "I'm goin' home, but I'll be comin' back in a fewminutes to lock up. You'd best not be stayin' here then, " he added, witha twinkling backward glance at them, "or it will be locked up for thenight you'll be. "

"We won't be more than a minute, " Violet assured him, and jubilantly thegirls ran through the empty, echoing hall and stopped before a door atthe farther end. 

"It seems so horribly quiet, " said Violet, looking around at them withher hands on the door knob. "It makes you feel like a thief. "

"Must be your guilty conscience, " said Laura wickedly. "Come on, Vi;we've got to hurry if we don't want to be 'locked in for the night. '"

"Are you sure you left the book here, Laura?" asked Billie, asViolet opened the door and they crowded in. "It would be too bad ifit were gone--"

But a cry from Laura interrupted her. 

"There it is, " she said, running to a desk at the farther end of the roomand picking up from an inner corner a prettily bound book. "Just the veryplace I left it, too. My, but I'm glad to get it back again. "

"What do you think you're doing, Billie Bradley?" inquired Laura aminute later, for Billie had seated herself at the teacher's desk and waslooking as severe as she knew how. 

"Take your seats, " she now commanded, rapping vigorously on the desk andfixing them with her best school-teacher stare. "Violet Farrington, go tothe board--"

But she got no further, for with an indignant cry the girls had rushed onher. Dropping both her air of command and her dignity, Billie scurriedwildly around the room, keeping the desks between her and her pursuers. 

"You can't catch me! You can't catch me!" she taunted them, as shedodged nimbly in and out among the desks. "I could keep this up all day, I could--"

"Oh, you could, could you?" cried Laura, and, making a desperate lunge, she almost had her hand on Billie's dress. "We'll see about that. Billie!what are you doing?"

For Billie had suddenly doubled on her tracks, rushed to the back of theroom, put her foot upon a steam radiator pipe and was trying to clamberto the top of a bookcase. 

It was a tall bookcase, and on the top of it stood a marble statue. 

"Billie, look out!" screamed Violet as the bookcase shook and the statueseemed about to topple over by reason of Billie's wild scrambling. 

"You won't catch me this time, " Billie was defying them, when--the awfulthing happened!

The marble statue toppled once more, trembled as though it were not quitesure whether to fall or stay where it was, then came tumbling to thefloor with a crash. 

The girls cried out, and then stood dumbly looking at the pieces. 

CHAPTER II

THAT HUNDRED DOLLARS

Billie Bradley clambered down from her perch in awed silence. 

"Girls, " she said, her voice very low and solemn, "that 'Girl Reading aBook' statue was worth a hundred dollars. "

The girls started, and Laura cried out:

"How do you know it cost that much?"

"I heard Miss Beggs say so, " Billie replied dully. "Now I certainly havedone it. Girls, what shall I do?"

"It--it couldn't be put together again, could it?" suggested Violetweakly, leaning down to examine the pieces. 

"Of course it couldn't, " sniffed Laura, adding suddenly: "I suppose wecould run away and nobody would know the dif--"

"Look, " cried Billie, excitedly pointing to one of the windows. 

Following the direction of her glance the girls were just in time to seethe freckled face and mean little eyes of Amanda Peabody disappear fromthe window. 

"Oh, that sneak!" cried Laura in a rage, rushing across to the windowwhile the other girls followed close at her heels. "I wish I were a boyand she were another one. I'd just show her!"

"Well, now she will tell and we couldn't run away even if we wanted to, "said Billie, sinking down on a bench and looking at them wistfully. "Ofcourse we wouldn't really have wanted to, " she added, after a minute ofuncomfortable silence. "Only it makes me mad to _have_ to do the rightthing. Oh, I don't see why somebody doesn't run that Amanda person outof town, " she went on, doubling up her fists and looking as if it mighthave been just as well for that "Amanda person" that she was not thereat the minute. 

"Teddy says he calls her 'Nanny, '" said Violet, with a flash of humor, "because it 'gets her goat. '"

"Sounds just like Ted, " said Billie, with a smile. Then her face soberedagain as she realized the gravity of the situation. 

"Of course I'll have to make it good, " she said, going over to the piecesagain and regarding them mournfully. "But how in the world am I evergoing to get together a hundred dollars? It might just as well be athousand as far as I'm concerned. " The last was a wail. 

"Won't your father give you the money?" asked Laura, for to Laura'sfather a hundred dollars was only a drop in the bucket. 

But Billie only shook her head while her face became still more grave. 

"He would if he could, " she said, "but I heard him say only the other daythat times are hard and everything is terribly expensive, and I know heis worried. Oh, girls, I'm in a terrible fix!"

"I know you are, honey, " said Violet, coming over and putting acomforting arm about her. "But there must be some way that we can fixthings all right. "

"I'd like to know how, " grumbled Laura, who had chosen to take the gloomyview. "We might, " she added generously, after a moment's thought, "saythat I broke it--"

"Laura--dear!" cried Billie, not quite sure whether to be offended orgrateful for the generous suggestion. "It's wonderful of you, of course, but you know I couldn't do that. "

"And there's Amanda Peabody, " added Violet. "She wouldn't let us get awaywith anything like that. "

At which Laura nodded again, still more gloomily. 

"Well, " cried Billie, straightening up suddenly and trying to lookhopeful, "I suppose it won't do any good to stand here and look at thepieces. Besides, " she added with a start, "we've been here a terriblylong time, and we don't want the janitor to lock us in. "

They started for the door on the run, but Billie suddenly turned, ranback and began gathering up the pieces of the broken statue. 

"What are you going to do?" asked Violet, regarding her curiously. 

"What does it look as if I were doing?" asked Billie, reaching for an oldnewspaper that lay in the forgotten paper basket. "I might as well havethe evidence of my crime. Anyway, I want to take them to Miss Beggs. "

"Do you know where she lives?" asked Laura, stooping and helping Billieat her task. 

"She sent me there one time to get some papers, " Billie explained, as sherose to her feet, clutching the newspaper package. "It's a boarding houseon Main Street, only a few blocks from here. "

"Shall we go there now?" asked Violet as they closed the door softlybehind them and started down the hall. 

"We might as well, " answered Billie, with a sigh. "The sooner I get itover with, the better I'll feel. But oh, that hundred dollars!"

"Never mind, we'll get it if we have to steal it, " said Laura firmly, asthey came out into the flower-sweet air. 

"That would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire, " remarkedViolet, at which the girls had to laugh. 

As they swung out through the gate they met Mr. Heegan coming in, and hesmiled at them from under his bushy brows. 

"Did you get what you were after comin' for?" he asked them. 

"Yes. And something we didn't come for, " answered Billie, while the colorflooded her face and she felt like a criminal. She smiled a wry littlesmile and displayed the newspaper package. 

"Meanin'--" Mr. Heegan began, puzzled. 

"I--I broke a statue that was on the bookcase, " explained Billie. "Wewere skylarking--"

"And many's the time I've done the same in my day, " said Mr. Heegan, witha nod, looking not nearly as shocked as the girls thought he would. "Andsure, what are you made young for, if it wasn't that you was meant to beskylarkin' all the time?"

The girls looked at each other. This strange sentiment had never occurredto them before, but they found it very comforting, nevertheless. 

"But--but, " stammered Billie, "this statue cost a hundred dollars. And itwas given to Miss Beggs by a rich uncle. "

"Well, all I have to say is, that any one who would spend ahundred dollars on a statue, " said Mr. Heegan, "deserves to haveit broken on him. "

And having delivered himself of this surprising comment, the janitorsaluted and ambled off into the school yard, leaving the girls to lookafter him with laughing eyes. 

"You know I just love Irishmen, " remarked Billie with emphasis, as theystarted on their way once more. 

In thoughtful silence, they walked the remaining three blocks to theboarding house where Miss Beggs lived. 

"This is it, " said Billie, as she came to a stop before a three-storybrick building that had all the respectable and uncomfortable appearanceof a typical boarding house. 

"Just like Miss Beggs, " Billie was conscious of thinking. 

"Well, let's go up, " urged Laura, as Billie showed no inclination tomove. "We might as well get the agony over with. "

"All right, come on, " cried Billie, running ahead of them and taking twosteps at a time. "As Dad says: 'A coward dies a thousand deaths, thebrave man only one. '"

The end of this quotation brought them to the porch, and Billie lookedfor the bell. 

"Now then, " she said, and braced herself for the ordeal. 

A stout, middle-aged person, without any of the outward characteristicsthat are so often bestowed upon landladies in general, opened the doorand looked at them inquiringly. 

"Is there some one you wish to see?" she asked them. 

"Yes, " replied Billie in a weak little voice. "I would like to seeMiss--Miss Beggs if she is at home. "

"She isn't, " said the middle-aged person. "She went away for the summertwo days ago. "

"Did she leave any address?" Billie managed to ask. 

"No, she didn't; but I guess I could find out from one of the otherladies who is a friend of hers, " the woman volunteered obligingly. "Thatis, if it's very particular, " she added. 

"Oh, yes it is, " said Billie earnestly. "I would be very much obliged ifyou could get me her address. "

"Well, I can't just now, because the lady that knows it isn't at home. But if you'll leave me your address I'll send it to you as soon's I findit out. Have you paper and pencil?"

The girls had not. 

"Wait then, and I'll get something on which to write your address. "

The landlady went inside, closing the door after her, and in spite ofherself Billie uttered a little sigh of relief. She felt very much like areprieved criminal. 

A moment later the woman reappeared with a pencil and paper andpainstakingly wrote down the address Billie gave her. 

"Thank you so much, " said the latter, as she turned away. "You won'tforget to send it just the first minute you can, will you?"

The woman nodded and closed the door with a little bang. 

"I wonder why she didn't ask us in, " said Laura, as they ran down thesteps. "It was queer to keep us waiting outside. "

"Yes, it makes you feel like a book agent, " chuckled Billie. "But oh, girls, " she added, "I didn't know how much I dreaded facing MissBeggs till I found out I didn't have to. I don't mind writing to hernearly so much. "

With somewhat lighter steps and lighter hearts they turned toward home. But Billie could not get the hundred-dollar statue which she had brokenout of her mind. 

"I feel, " said Laura, as they were turning the corner into her ownstreet, "as if I ought to pay for that horrid old statue, Billie. "

"What do you mean?" queried Billie, while Violet regarded her with wideopen eyes. 

"Well, if it hadn't been for me and my old book, " she explained, "we wouldn't have gone back to school, and then you wouldn't havegotten yourself into all that trouble. I really do feel guilty, "she added earnestly. "I wish you would at least let me help youpay for it, Billie. "

Billie put an arm about the girl and squeezed her lovingly. 

"And I suppose you're to blame for my climbing the bookcase, too, " shechided her fondly. "No, Laura dear, it's all my fault and you can't makeme put the blame on any one else. But, oh!" she wailed, "how in the worldam I ever going to raise that hundred dollars?"

CHAPTER III

CHET HELPS

The sun was flooding Billie Bradley's room when she awoke the nextmorning, and she sat up in bed with the feeling that it must be verylate. She glanced at the little clock on the dresser and saw that itshands pointed to half past eight. 

"Oh, I'll be late to school, " was her first thought. Then she checkedherself and laughed. 

"School!" she said, stretching her arms above her head with a delicioussense of freedom. "As the old man said: 'They ain't no sech animile. ' Iguess I might just as well get up, though, for I feel as if I werestarving to death. "

She was just putting her feet into very pretty bedroom slippers when sheremembered the tragedy--or so it seemed to her--of the day before. 

The long night's rest had driven from her mind all thoughts of thestatue. Was it really only yesterday that she had broken it? The thingseemed to have been on her conscience forever!

"'Girl Reading a Book, '" she said disdainfully, as she began to brush herhair vigorously. "Horrid old thing! I suppose she was a grind anyway, like Amanda Peabody. "

The thought of Amanda did not serve to lift her spirits any, and itwas in a rather gloomy mood that she finally descended to thebreakfast table. 

To make things worse, she found that all the rest of her family, including Chet, had breakfasted bright and early, which meant that shewould have to eat her breakfast in lonely state. 

The room was cheerful with sunlight, for Mrs. Bradley had often said thata bright dining-room had more to do with making a happy home than anyother one thing. But this morning Billie did not even notice it. 

She opened the swinging door to the kitchen and peeped in cautiously tosee whether Debbie, their black and much pampered cook, was in a goodenough mood to cook her some breakfast. 

A cheerful aroma greeted her, and she sniffed at it longingly. Bacon andeggs and--was it corn bread that Debbie was just taking out of the oven?

"Oh, Debbie, give me something to eat, quick, " she cried. "I'm starving. "

Debbie turned and favored her with a large black stare. 

"Dem dat gets up at nine o'clock in de mo'nin', " she declared, "donedeserves to go hungry, Miss Billie, beggin' your pardon. " Her tonematched the severity of her gaze. 

"Oh, but, Debbie, " said Billie, using the coaxing tone that even blackDeborah, tyrant of the household, could never quite resist, "remember howmany mornings I have had to get up at seven and go out in the drizzlingrain and--"

"All right, honey, all right, " said Deborah, her heart touched by thisreference to the hardships her young mistress had suffered. "You go in'tother room an' don't bother Debbie an' she'll bring you in theprettiest breakfast you ever did see. "

Somewhat cheered by this promise, Billie retreated into the sun-floodeddining-room, and, going over to a window under which flowers bloomedgayly in boxes, looked out at the pretty view. 

From where she stood she commanded a full view of the tennis court, onwhich she could see that a warm set of singles was in progress. One ofthe players was Chet, and as she watched she saw him fling his rackethigh in the air. 

"My set, Tom!" he cried. "That puts us even. Play you the rubber thisafternoon. So long!" and with his tennis balls in his hand and his racketunder his arm he sauntered over toward home. 

"Dear old Chet!" murmured Billie fondly. 

Then came the thought of that hundred dollars she must get some way orother, and suddenly there flashed into her mind a little ray of hope. 

"Maybe Chet could help, " she thought, and then laughed at herself forthinking it. Chet had just about as much chance of getting that hundreddollars as she had herself. 

At that moment Debbie came in with her fruit and cereal, and she turnedfrom the window with a sigh. 

"I might as well eat, " she thought resignedly, "for if I starve myself todeath or die of worry, there won't be anybody left to pay for that oldbook worm. "

Then her irrepressible imp of mischief reasserted itself and she laughed. 

"Hello, look at the grand lady, " a fresh young voice called to her fromthe doorway. She turned with a spoon half way to her mouth to see herbrother laughing at her. 

"What was that you called me?" she asked. As a matter of fact, herthoughts had been so far away that she actually had not heard what hesaid. 

"Say, what's the matter?" asked Chet, flinging his tennis racket into onechair and seating himself on the arm of another. "Are you sick?"

"Yes. Or if I'm not, I ought to be, " replied Billie ruefully, at whichpeculiar remark Chet looked still more amazed. 

"Now what particular thing is worrying you?" he asked in an argumentativetone, leaning toward her. "Come, 'fess up, Billie. What have you beendoing when my back was turned? Robbing a bank?"

"Oh, much worse than that!" cried Billie unexpectedly, and her brother'sgood-looking face began to take on an expression of alarm. 

"Worse?" he queried. "There's only about one thing worse--andthat's murder. "

"Oh, Chet, that's just what I did, " she cried, her imp of mischiefuppermost. "I murdered a 'Girl Reading a Book. '"

"Well, " said Chet, taking this startling bit of information more calmlythan would have been thought possible, "you don't seem very much worriedabout it. "

"Oh, but, Chet, I am!" once more the cloud banished the merry gleam inBillie's eyes. "Wait till I show you. "

She left her breakfast, ran upstairs, and was back in a minute with thenewspaper parcel. 

"Here she is, " she cried, displaying the contents tragically. 

Chet fingered one or two of the broken bits. Then he looked at hercuriously. 

"Go on, 'fess up, " he commanded. "Tell yours truly all about it. "

This Billie did in the fewest words possible and then sat down to thebacon and eggs that Debbie had placed temptingly on the table. Andcornbread! Debbie's cornbread was a masterpiece. 

When Billie had finished Chet looked grave. 

"Well, " he said, fingering the pieces thoughtfully, "it does seem as ifthe only square thing to do would be to replace it. "

"Oh, I must, Chet--I must!" she interrupted earnestly. 

"But how?" he asked. "A hundred dollars is a lot of money. "

"I know, " agreed Billie miserably. 

"I don't think Dad will be able to make it good just now, " went on Chet, in that sober tone that made people in North Bend feel confidence inChetwood Bradley, young as he yet was. "I heard him say the other daythat all his capital was tied up. And then it costs so much to live--"

"Oh, I know all that!" broke in Billie desperately, then added, lookingup at her brother appealingly: "Chet dear, I've got to find the money toreplace that statue some way! Won't you help me?"

"You bet your life I will, " cried Chet, with a hearty boyishness thatmade Billie's eyes glow. "I'll do everything I can, Sis. I tell you--" hepaused as a thought struck him. 

"Oh, what?" she cried, grasping his arm as he started from the room. "Oh, Chet, tell me. "

"I'll show you in a minute, " he promised, and was off, up the stairs, taking them three at a time, judging from the noise he made. 

In what seemed to Billie no time at all he was back again, holdingsomething in his hand that jingled. 

"Here's a dollar and fifteen cents, " he said, holding out to her allhis available wealth. "I almost forgot I had it. You can use it to startthe fund. "

"Oh, Chet!" Billie's eyes were wet and she hugged him fondly. "You're thevery darlingest brother I ever had!"

"And the _only_ one--" Chet was beginning, when Billie interrupted himby breaking away and putting a finger to her forehead. 

"Let me think--"

"Impossible, " he cried in a deep voice. 

"Chet, " she said, speaking quickly, "I have seventy-five cents myself, and that with your dollar--"

"Dollar fifteen, " Chet corrected gravely. 

"Will make quite a respectable start to our fund. " And she was off up thestairs in her turn, making almost as much noise as Chet had done. 

In a moment she was back again with the precious seventy-five cents and asmall tin box. 

"Here's the bank, " she cried gayly. "It will be real fun filling it up. "

"Yes, but where are we going to get the money to fill it up with?" Chetreminded her and her bright face fell again. 

"Oh, we'll find a way, " she said with a confidence she was far fromfeeling. "Maybe Dad will help a little. "

"Have you told him about it?" asked Chet. 

"No. But I will to-night, " she said, with a little sinking feeling. "Ihate to tell him, awfully, but I suppose I'll have to. "

"Well, don't worry anyway, " said Chet, patting her shoulder reassuringly. "You know Dad says worry is a waste of time, because everything will allbe the same a hundred years from now. "

But Billie's shake of the head was very doubtful. 

"I don't see how that helps me any--_now_, " she said. 

CHAPTER IV

THE LAST HOPE

That afternoon Billie took herself and a book out on the porch and triedhard, but unsuccessfully, to forget her troubles. The more she tried tofix her attention on the printed page before her, the more the brokenstatue rose before her eyes until at last she closed the book with a slamand bounced impatiently in her seat. 

"That horrid old 'Girl Reading a Book' has spoiled my whole summer forme, " she said, her lips pouting rebelliously. "I wish I hadn't gone backto the old school anyway. I might have known it would bring me bad luck. Oh, here comes Laura, " and her face brightened as she saw the familiarfigure of her chum swinging up the street. "I wonder what she wants. Whatever it is, she seems to be in a terrible hurry about it. "

"Hello, what's the rush?" she sang out, as Laura Jordon ran up the stepsof the porch. 

"It's--it's that--that Nanny goat Amanda Peabody!" cried Laura, panting alittle, for she had indeed been in a hurry. "What do you think the oldsneak has been up to now?"

"What?" queried Billie, as she moved over to make room for her chum inthe seat beside her. "Telling tales again?"

"How did you guess it?" cried Laura, her face flushing with indignation. "And about you, Billie! Oh, I could have killed her!"

"Well, we expected it, didn't we?" Billie asked, in a matter-of-facttone. "We knew when we saw her looking in at the window that that wasexactly what she would do. "

"Well, I know. But she went to the janitor about it. " And Laura looked asif that in some way magnified the offense. 

"Well, there wasn't any one else to go to, " remarked Billie reasonably. 

"Goodness! aren't you even mad about it?" asked Laura, her blueeyes snapping. 

"Not particularly, " replied Billie, for she was beginning to be terriblytired of the whole subject. How she hated that imbecile "Girl Reading aBook" and Amanda Peabody and--and--everybody!

"I got all over being angry with Amanda Peabody long ago, " she said inanswer to Laura's incredulous look. "If I should get that way every timeshe did anything, I'd never live to grow up!"

In spite of her indignation, Laura chuckled. 

"I never did think of it in that way, " she admitted, adding, after aminute's thought: "Billie, dear, haven't you thought of some way youmight pay for the statue? I didn't sleep a wink last night forthinking of it. "

"Neither did I, " said Billie gloomily, forgetting that she had in realityslept very soundly. "Chet and I have started a fund with a dollar fifteenof his and seventy-five cents of mine. That's as far as we have got sofar. I did think of Uncle Bill, " she added slowly, mentioning a greatuncle who occasionally visited them. 

"Great! Uncle Bill!" repeated Laura, pricking up her ears. "The uncle whoused to trot you on his knee and call you 'Bill's Billie'?"

"Yes, " Billie nodded. "Uncle Bill and I were always good chums, and Ithink if I told him what a fix I'm in, he might be able to help. He hasloads of money too. "

"Billie, " cried her chum rapturously, "why didn't you think of thatbefore? Why, it's the very thing!"

"But I hate to ask him, " sighed Billie, not sharing Laura's enthusiasm inthe least. "I never had to ask anything of anybody before. "

"Well, everything has to have a beginning, " said Laura, lightly adding, as unconcernedly as she could: "I told Teddy about it last night. "

"You did!" cried Billie, turning upon her while the color flooded herface. "Laura, what did you do that for?"

"You don't mind, do you?" queried Laura, wide-eyed. "I'm sure I neverthought of your not wanting Teddy to know. "

"Oh, I suppose it doesn't make any difference, " sighed Billie, addingplaintively: "Only I don't like everybody to know how crazy I am. "

"Teddy doesn't think you're crazy, " said Laura, with a chuckle, regardingBillie out of the corner of her eye. "In fact, if I should tell you whathe does think of you--"

"Oh, don't be foolish, " almost snapped Billie, and again Laurachuckled inwardly. 

"Well, you needn't be so cross, " she said. "I can't help what Teddy doesor thinks. Here he comes now, " she added, glancing up the street. 

"Oh, and I'm a perfect fright!" cried Billie, her hands flying to herhair--hair, by the way, which was arranged in the very best manner to setoff Billie's sparkling prettiness. "Laura, " she turned accusing eyes uponher chum, "tell the truth. Did you know he was coming?"

"No, " said Laura honestly, adding with a little chuckle: "But I sort ofhad an idea that he might happen along. "

If ever a boy looked handsome, it was Teddy Jordon as he swung up thestreet to Billie's house. He was very tall, looking more like a lad ofeighteen than the fifteen years he was. His fair hair waved back from abroad forehead, and his merry gray eyes sparkled with the joy of living. 

"Hello!" he greeted the girls, as he took the porch steps two at a timeand seated himself on the railing. "Laura has been telling me of yourescapade, Billie Bradley, and I've come to find out what you mean bygoing about busting busts--that isn't good English, is it?"

"It doesn't sound just right, " agreed Billie, dimpling adorably. "Youspeak as if I were bust--pardon me, _breaking_ busts for a living. Andit wasn't a bust, but a whole statue. No part way things for me!"

"There's Nellie Bane, I must speak to her, " cried Laura, and beforeeither of the others realized what she was up to, she was gone, leavingthem alone. 

Quite naturally Teddy came over and took the seat his sister had vacated. 

"I say, Billie, " he said, his handsome eyes regarding her frankly, "youknow, I'm really awfully sorry about that business. It makes me mad thatyou should be troubled with it. You and I have always been pretty goodfriends, haven't we?" he finished unexpectedly. 

Surprised, Billie answered warmly: "The very best of friends, Teddy. Weought to be, " she added with a little laugh. "We've known each otherpretty nearly forever. "

"Then let me help, " begged Teddy earnestly. "You know my allowance isaway more than I need--"

But Billie stopped him, shaking her head decidedly. 

"You're a perfect angel, Teddy, to want to do it, " she said. "But Ireally couldn't let you. Don't you know I couldn't?"

"I don't see why, " grumbled Teddy, for after all he was only a boy, and just now a disappointed one. "Laura says you're set on replacingthe thing--"

"Of course I'll have to, " Billie said. 

"And if you are going around getting yourself sick with worry, what sortof good time do you think the rest of us are going to have?" he burst outindignantly, and for the life of her Billie could not help smiling. 

For a moment Teddy seemed undecided whether to laugh or be angry, butended, as he nearly always did, by laughing. 

"But it really isn't very funny, " he reminded her when they had finished. 

"Goodness! you don't have to tell me that, " said Billie ruefully. "Thisis the first good laugh I've had since I broke the old thing. "

Teddy looked penitent. 

"I'm sorry, " he said, adding, with a sudden smile: "I'm glad to know I'mgood for something, anyway. I can still make you laugh. "

"You very foolish boy, " said Billie, patting his hand affectionately. "As if that were all you were good for!"

"Well, if you feel that way, I don't see why you won't let me replacethe statue, " said Teddy, still nursing his disappointment. "Girls arefunny, anyway. "

"We know it, " said Billie lightly. "But we can't help it. Listen, Teddy, "and she leaned toward him confidentially. "I still have one hope left. "

Then she told him about Uncle Bill and his fondness for her, and duringthe recital the boy brightened noticeably. 

"Well, I hope the old boy comes up to the scratch, " he commenteddisrespectfully, adding hurriedly as Laura said good-bye to Nellie Baneand started toward them: "And, Billie, if you change your mind about whatI asked you let me know. Promise?"

Billie promised, and a few minutes later said good-bye to the brother andsister and watched them down the street with a very warm feelingsomewhere in the region of her heart. 

"Isn't it great to have friends?" she asked a robin that had percheditself on the edge of the porch and was looking at her knowingly. "Andisn't Teddy the handsomest boy you ever saw?" to which the robin, knowinglittle rascal that he was, nodded not once but twice. 

Chet came up on the porch a few minutes later and enticed Billie out fora game of tennis with him, hoping to get her mind off the broken statue. But while she was too full of life and health not to enjoy the swift, swinging game that Chet gave her, the thought of "The Girl Reading aBook" stayed constantly in the back of her mind. 

That night after dinner Billie broke the news to her father, and herheart sank as she saw the harassed look that came into his eyes. 

"You say it cost a hundred dollars?" he queried, breaking a silenceduring which Billie had felt like a criminal awaiting sentence. Now shenodded unhappily. 

"A hundred dollars, " her father repeated. "Well, that's a lot to pay, Beatrice, for just a few minutes' reckless fun. Of course I can pay it, but that will mean putting off some affairs of more pressingimportance--"

But Billie could stand it no longer, and with a little cry she flew tohim and pressed her soft cheek against his. 

"Daddy, I'm a brute to worry you like this!" she cried, penitently. "Please don't worry any more, dear. I'll find some way to replace the oldthing myself. "

Her father patted her cheek, but the worried frown still remained onhis face. Billie started to leave the room but turned before she hadreached the door. 

"Dad, " she said hesitatingly, and he turned to her with a smile. "AboutUncle Bill, " she said. "He has always given me anything I wanted. Do yousuppose he would help?"

"He is out of the country--gone on a business trip that has taken him onan ocean voyage, " said her father. "He will be gone for an indefiniteperiod. I thought you knew, Billie. Though, as he just left, I suppose itis not strange you had not heard us speak of it. " And with that Mr. Bradley relapsed immediately into his brown study. 

Billie opened the door and closed it softly behind her. 

"My last hope!" she sighed plaintively. "Now what shall I do?"

CHAPTER V

WORSE AND WORSE

Two weeks passed, and still Billie Bradley had found no solution toher problem. The broken statue seemed as far from being paid for asever, and, as far as she was concerned, the summer vacation wascompletely spoiled. 

In this frame of mind she crushed a soft straw hat down over her brownhair one day and set out to find her chums, feeling the need of theirsympathy. And how was she to know, poor Billie, that the news the girlswould have to tell her would serve only to make her mood the blacker?

As she neared the Farrington home, Violet herself came rushing out tomeet her, looking unusually and feverishly excited. 

"Oh, Billie, what do you think?" she cried, encircling Billie with herarm and fairly dragging her up on the porch. "I have the most wonderfulnews to tell you!"

"What?" gasped Billie, for the unexpected onslaught had literallytaken her breath away. "Goodness! you might as well kill me as scareme to death. "

"Oh, but, Billie, you won't mind when I tell you, " cried Violet, regarding her friend with dancing eyes. "The folks have decided to sendme to Three Towers Hall!" Three Towers was a boarding school somedistance from North Bend. "Laura is going too, " Violet continuedbreathlessly. "And of course you will--" But something in Billie's facestopped her and she drew in her breath sharply. 

"Oh, Billie, " she cried, her face falling, "you're never going to tell meyou can't go!"

"I guess that's just what I am going to tell you, " said Billie, her fistsclasped so tightly that the knuckles showed white. "I might have stoodsome chance if it hadn't been for that old statue. Now I can't get enoughmoney to pay for that--much less go to Three Towers. "

"Oh, that old statue!" cried Violet desperately, adding, while her facegrew longer and longer: "What fun will there be, I'd like to know, ingoing to Three Towers if you can't go with us? And oh, Billie, I wasmaking such wonderful plans!"

Billie had to turn away to hide the tears that sprang to her eyes. For togo to Three Towers Hall had long been the ambition of the chums, and nowit was doubly hard to see her chance snatched away by an accident thatcould have been so easily avoided. If only she had not been so foolish!

Violet came over and put a loving arm about her friend. 

"Never mind, honey, " she said consolingly, forgetting her owndisappointment in Billie's. "We'll find some way to get to Three Towers. "

Billie smiled a wry little smile and made an effort to look as if therewere still something to live for in the world. 

"Laura told me that you thought your uncle might help you, " said Violet, after an interval of unhappily trying to think of some way out of theirtrouble. "Neither Laura nor I will stir a step without you, that's asure thing. "

"Why, of course you will, " said Billie, stopping the swing short andlooking at her chum in amazement. "I'm sure your folks aren't going tolet you stay at home from the school they've decided on just because Ican't go with you. Although, " and her voice broke a little, "it's justwonderful of you, Vi, to feel that way. You will go, of course, and youcan write me beautiful letters about the wonderful times you are having. "

"I won't do it!" cried Violet, springing to her feet. "I'm not going toThree Towers without you, and that settles it. I don't care if I had athousand parents. Who's that turning the corner?" she interrupted herselfto ask. "There's something familiar about that walk. "

"Why, it's Ferd Stowing, " said Billie, getting to her feet for a betterview. "My, but he looks happy about something. I wonder what's up. "

The next moment Ferd Stowing, one of the best-liked boys in the town, came rushing up the steps like a whirlwind, and it did not take the girlslong to find out "what was up. "

"Hooray!" he cried, flinging his hat high in the air. "Wuxtry! All aboutFerd Stowing and Ted Jordon!"

"For goodness' sake, stop bellowing and behave, " Billie commanded. "Whathave you and Teddy been doing now?"

"Plenty. But that's nothing to what we're going to do, " crowed Ferdexultantly. "He and I have at last persuaded our reluctant parents tosend us to the military school. You know--the one that is only a littleover a mile from Three Towers where you girls are going. "

Again Billie felt as if she had been treated to a shower of ice water. Teddy and Ferd were going to Boxton Military Academy, and Chet--herdarling, loyal Chet--would not be able to go with them. Her owndisappointment seemed nothing at all beside this new tragedy. 

"I was just on my way over to your house, " Billie was conscious that Ferdwas addressing her. "We haven't had a chance to get in touch with Chetyet. But the old boy will of course go with us, won't he? It wouldn't beany fun without Chet. "

Almost the very words Violet had said to her, thought Billie, as shetried to swallow a sob and only succeeded in turning it into a funnylittle cough. 

"He will, won't he?" Ferd was insisting, while Violet watched them withtroubled eyes. 

"Why--why--I don't know, Ferd, " Billie stammered, trying to make hervoice sound natural. "I do know one thing, and that is that Chet is crazyto go and will if he gets half a chance. "

"Then I guess it's all right, " said Ferd, leaning back with a sigh ofrelief. "Gee, I was afraid you were going to say he couldn't go, and sospoil everything. Say, can't you see the good times we're going to havewith you girls at Three Towers Hall and we fellows such a little way offthat we can see each other every once in a while? I can't make up mymind that it's real yet--" And so on and on, rapturously, whileBillie's heart sank lower and lower and Violet's own warm one ached forher friend. 

Then just as Ferd started to go he spied Chet coming up the street andhailed him joyfully. 

"Just the fellow I wanted to see, " he declared fervently. "Come on uphere, old man, and hear the glad news. "

Billie groaned inwardly and seemed about to speak, but Violet stopped herwith a hand on her arm. 

"Might as well get it over with, " she whispered. "Chet is sure to hearof it later if he doesn't now. "

So Billie waited, but her heart ached as she watched Chet march upsmilingly to hear "the glad news. "

"We're going to Boxton Military Academy. " Ferd fairly shouted it at him. "How about it, old timer, are you going with us, or are you going toleave us in the lurch?"

The glad tidings staggered Chet for a minute, but he came on quietly andperched himself upon the railing, one foot swinging idly. 

"You said you were going to the military academy?" he asked, his voice asquiet as his manner, but Billie noticed that the smile was gone. "By thatI suppose you mean you and Teddy. "

"And you, " added Ferd, beaming upon him. "Billie said you werecrazy to go. "

Chet looked at Billie's unhappy face and tried to smile. 

"Crazy to go!" he repeated. "I'll say I am. But--"

"But me no buts, Chet, my lad, " broke in the impetuous Ferd. "I didn'task you anything. I merely stated a fact. "

"I--I'd give almost anything I own to make it a fact, " said Chet, hiseyes on the ground. "But I'm very much afraid you'll have to guessagain, old man. "

"Guess again? Well, I should say not!" cried Ferd, getting to his feetindignantly. "Why, the thing can't be done without you, Chet. Didn'tBillie say--"

"Billie only said, " interrupted Violet, coming to Billie's rescue, "thatChet was crazy to go and would if he had half a chance. "

Ferd sank back in his chair, too dismayed to speak. 

"Well, of all--Say, old man, you've got to go, " and he turned to Chetpleadingly. "What sort of a party do you think this is going to beanyway, with Billie at Three Towers Hall and you back here in North Bend?It's not fair. "

"Not fair, " flared Billie. "You don't suppose I'd go to Three Towers andleave Chet here, do you?"

"Then you're not going either?" cried Ferd, seeing all his castles in theair coming down about his ears with a crash. 

Billie shook her head unhappily. 

"No, I'm not going either, " she said. 

CHAPTER VI

DEBBIE DESERTS

Billy Bradley really tried to be cheerful in the days that followed, buttry as she would she could not altogether keep out the vision of ThreeTowers Hall, the boarding school to which she had wanted to go eversince--well, almost since she had wanted anything. 

Laura and Violet would go without her. They would have to go, even inspite of their loyal determination not to. Their parents would havesomething to say about that. 

And Chet was in just as bad a fix, for Boxton Military Academy had beenhis dream even as Three Towers Hall had been Billie's. Oh, if only theycould all go what a wonderful time they could have! Oh, well--

And Mr. And Mrs. Bradley, sensing something of all this, were veryunhappy and cast about desperately for some way to give their boy andgirl the advantages that the others would have. But money was very tight. Mr. Bradley had all his cash tied up in several real estate transactions. 

So for a little while the Bradleys were not a happy family--althoughthey tried bravely not to show it, even to each other. 

Then one morning came a long, businesslike envelope, with a typewrittenaddress, that caused a stir in the family circle. 

Mrs. Bradley opened it with a puzzled frown between her brows, thenuttered a startled exclamation. 

"What is it, dear?" asked Mr. Bradley, while Billie and Chet crowdedcloser to her chair. 

"Aunt Beatrice Powerson is dead, " Mrs. Bradley announced with a look moreof shocked surprise than of grief. "She died in Canada quite suddenly, and this is from her attorney asking us, " she looked across at herhusband, "to be present at the reading of the will. "

"Well, well, " said Mr. Bradley slowly, "poor Beatrice Powerson dead atlast. I suppose she got as much out of life as any of us, though, in hereccentric way. "

"It was strange, " remarked Billie slowly, "that I should have beenspeaking of Aunt Beatrice only the other day. Violet wanted to know ifshe was wealthy. "

"Was she, Dad?" asked Chet, with interest. 

"I imagine nobody knew, " his father answered. "As you know, she wasqueer, and as tight as a clam when it came to talking about her personalaffairs. The only thing we're sure of is that she had plenty of money totravel anywhere she wanted to, and that's saying something these days. "

"I say, Billie, " cried Chet, his eyes shining with the thought--dear, unselfish Chet, his first hope even then was more for Billie thanhimself, "you are Aunt Beatrice's namesake, you know. Maybe she left yousomething in her will. "

"Chet, " his mother chided gently, "don't you think it is rather heartlessto be counting on what Aunt Beatrice has left when we have just heard ofher death?"

"I suppose so, " said Chet, rather abashed. "But then you know we only sawher about once in every three years, and then she wasn't very friendly. "

"Are you really going, Mother, you and Dad?" asked Billie, for it seemedimpossible to her that her father and mother should go off on such a longjourney and leave her and Chet behind. "Are you?" she asked againanxiously. 

"Yes, I suppose we must, " said Mrs. Bradley, looking across at herhusband, who answered her with a smile. 

"I don't see what else we can do, " he replied, as he looked at his youngdaughter. "You can keep house while we're gone, Billie, just to see howyou like it. "

"Me keep house!" cried Billie, dismayed. "Why, I don't know the firstthing about it!"

"That's the best way to learn, " returned her father, while Mrs. Bradleybegan to smile. "Experience is the very best teacher, you know. "

"That's all right, but you don't seem to realize that she will belearning at my expense, " groaned Chet, adding as a horrible thoughtstruck him: "Billie won't have to cook anything, will she?"

"Of course not, " laughed Mrs. Bradley, and Chet sighed with relief. "Debbie will be here as usual to do the cooking. And, of course, " sheadded to Billie, putting an arm about her and drawing her close, "Debbiewill help you with anything you want to know. We probably won't be gonemore than a week, anyway. "

So it was arranged, and a couple of days later, with a wildly beatingheart and a rueful smile upon her lips, Billie stood with Chet upon thestation platform and waved good-bye to her father and mother. 

When the train had rounded the curve and disappeared with one lastchallenging blast of the whistle, Billie and Chet turned to each other, feeling as lost and forlorn as the babes in the wood. 

"Now, what do we do next?" breathed Billie, breaking the silence at last. "I feel helpless, Chet. "

"Well, I don't think you have anything on me, " admitted Chet slangily. "Isuppose the most sensible thing to do would be to go home and see howDebbie is getting on with the lunch. "

"Goodness, that's the first time I ever had to be reminded that I washungry, " said Billie, and with that they laughed and felt more natural. 

The rest of that day went off beautifully, and Billie was beginning tofeel very confident when suddenly Debbie threw a suggestion bomb-like inthe midst of her contentment. 

"I hate to bother you, miss, " said the black cook, approaching hermistress the next morning--Billie, by the way, was busily dusting theliving-room with a very becoming dust cap perched on top of her prettyhair, "but this is mah day out. "

"Your--day--out!" gasped Billie, sitting down hard on the chair she hadbeen dusting and regarding Debbie's black face with dismay. "You nevercan mean that you are going to desert me, Debbie? Leave me to do all thecooking and--and--everything--" The awful vision was too much for herand her voice died down to a whisper. 

"I'm tur'ble sorry, Miss Billie, " said Debbie, gently but very, veryfirmly, "but mah young man and me we has a mos' awful impo'tantin-gagement fo' dis aft'noon, an' I couldn't break it--no'm, much as Iwant to. " She added that last in the evident hope of appeasing her youngmistress, who was still regarding her with horrified eyes. 

"But, Debbie, " gasped Billie when she could find her voice, "I don't knowa thing in the world about cooking. Have you--have you--orderedanything?"

"Yas, indeed, " Debbie assured her, going on to explain that the meal wasvirtually prepared anyway. "I done made a salad for you and Chet, an' thebutter beans am in de pan. Dere is some stew too, which all you has to dois to warm up, Miss Billie. An' I done make a big peach pie, an' dere'ssome whipped cream in de 'frig'rater. So I reckons you-all won't starveto death, " she added, with a broad smile that showed all her strong whiteteeth back to the last molar. 

As for Billie, she could have hugged the mountainous black figure in therelief she felt. Why, with the dinner all prepared like this it would bejust a lark to put it on the table--for just her and Chet alone. 

"Debbie, you're a darling and I love you!" she cried, joyfully. "But youknow you really shouldn't have scared me so--it wasn't fair. "

For answer Debbie grinned again and began to get her bulky figure upthe stairs, preparatory to dressing for the "in-gagement" with her"young man. "

Billie watched her go, and then with a little chuckle resumed herdusting. 

"I'd like to see Debbie's young man, " she mused, a smile twisting thecorners of her mouth. "He ought to be a giant. Anyway, I feel sorry forhim if he isn't. Dear funny old Debbie--won't Chet and I have a picnicto-night?"

And as she had predicted, they did have the time of their lives. Chetrefused to sit in the dining-room in lonely state, and in masterlyfashion invaded the kitchen. 

"Say, that smells good, Billie, old girl, " and he sniffed hungrily at thestew. "Give me an apron and I'll help. "

"Oh, look who wants to help, " cried Billie, finding an apron neverthelessand tying it around his waist so that he looked like a butcher'sassistant. "You will probably only get under my feet and bother me todeath, but I suppose I'll have to humor you. There, if you must dosomething, set the table. "

Now Chet did not want to set the table--it took him too far from theappetizing aromas in the kitchen. However, he obeyed grumblingly and wasfinally rewarded by being given a steaming dish of stew to carry in. 

"Chet, " screamed Billie, following him in and checking him just as hewas in the act of putting the hot dish on the tablecloth, "put aprotector under it. Don't you know, " as Chet started and lookedreproachfully at her, "that you are apt to ruin the table? And it'salmost a brand new one at that. "

"Well, you needn't scare a fellow to death, " grumbled Chet. "I thoughtI'd stepped on the cat. " But he obeyed instructions. 

"My! but doesn't everything look good?" cried Billie, sniffing hungrily. "Hurry up, Chet, take off your apron and dish up the stew while I pourthe coffee. What do you know about that? _I_ made the coffee. And doesn'tit smell good?"

It was the jolliest of meals and finished up in royal fashion with thepeach pie and whipped cream. 

In a very gale of merriment Chet and Billie cleared away the dinnerdishes, and then, being tired by the unusual exertion, decided to goearly to bed. 

For the first part of the night Billie slept soundly, but just as theclock downstairs was striking two, she awakened suddenly and lay still inbed listening. She was frightened, though she could not have told why. 

Rigidly she lay there hardly daring to breathe. 

CHAPTER VII

A STRANGE BURGLAR

What was it that had awakened Billie Bradley?

Hardly had the girl asked herself that question when she heard it--apadding, stealthy, creeping noise that made her clutch the bed clothesand draw them tighter about her. 

Then in a panic she realized that whatever it was had started upstairs. 

Nearer, nearer came the stealthy padding, till Billie realized it hadreached the landing. Her scalp crept and her hair began to stand on end. Her door was the nearest to the stairs, and she was all alone in thehouse with Chet!

Swiftly, she threw off the covers, jumped out of bed, and with herlimbs trembling under her, ran to the door and softly turned the keyin the lock. 

Then she leaned weakly against the door and listened for the noise, butit had stopped. Evidently the burglar, if burglar it was, had paused toget his bearings. 

Then another horrible thought struck her. Chet was sleeping in the nextroom, and Chet's door was unlocked!

On feet that seemed too weak to hold her she crept into Chet'sroom--luckily there was a connecting door between--and softly turned thekey in his door also. 

Evidently she was just in time, for as she listened the stealthy noisebegan again and it was coming toward the very door she had just locked. 

She uttered a little involuntary sound, and Chet sat up in bedwith a start. 

"Wh-what's up?" he demanded sleepily. 

"Oh, hush, " cried Billie. Scurrying to his bed and leaning over, shewhispered the awful words: "There's a burglar in the house, Chet. "

"A burglar?" repeated Chet, wide awake by this time. "Who says so?"

"Don't be foolish! Didn't I hear him myself?" cried Billie in a desperatewhisper. "Oh, Chet, he's on the stairs outside. "

"Well, why doesn't he come in? Is he bashful?" queried Chet, seeming notin the least alarmed. Billie shook him impatiently. 

"He probably would have come in if I hadn't locked the doors, " she toldhim impatiently. "For goodness' sake, Chet, wake up and tell me what todo. He may have stolen everything we own by this time. "

"Hush, " cried Chet, grasping her arm, and in a tense silence theylistened. 

Yes, they could not be mistaken--something was surely brushingagainst the door. 

Thank heaven, she had locked it, thought Billie, as she began to feel herhair stand on end again. 

Once more came that brushing sound. And then, very distinctly, a sniff!

"Oh, Chet, " cried Billie, clutching her brother's arm spasmodically. 

"Nervy beggar, " muttered Chet. "If I had a gun I'd know what to do. Butsay, " he added, as a happy thought struck him, "there's Dad's!" He wasout of bed and across the room before Billie could do more than gasp. Fearfully she followed after. 

Luckily Chet had elected to sleep in his parents' room during theirabsence so as to be nearer Billie, and he had happened to remember thesecret hiding place that his father had shown him not long before wherehe kept his revolver always loaded and ready for action. 

"Oh, Chet, do be careful!" whispered Billie, as Chet drew theugly-looking thing out of the hidden drawer and examined it. "I--I thinkI'm more afraid of that than I am of the b-burglar. "

Chet's only answer was a grim "Come on, " from between set young lips. Fearfully they made their way over to the door. 

Their burglar seemed to have gone on to some other room, for they couldhear the stealthy padding at the other end of the hall. But now he hadturned in their direction. 

Very carefully Chet turned the key in the lock, and then, while Billiepressed both hands over her heart to quiet its pounding, Chet flung openthe door and stepped into the hall. Billie was right at his heels. 

And then the impossible thing happened. A dark shape coming slowly towardthem stopped at sight of them and uttered a low bark. 

Yes, the sound that issued from their supposed burglar was a verydistinct and friendly canine bark. 

For a minute Chet and Billie just stared speechlessly. Then slowly therevolver in Chet's hand dropped to his side and he began to laugh. It wasa weak laugh at first, but it gradually swelled into a roar as he took inthe full humor of the situation. 

And Billie, after a moment during which she seemed undecided whether tolaugh or cry, presently joined him. 

"A dog!" gasped Chet, when he could get his breath. "Come here, old man, and let's have a look at you. "

The dog that had caused all the disturbance came forward at Chet'scommand and stood looking up at them, his handsome brush waving genially. 

As the light of a street lamp shining through the window fell upon him, Billie uttered an exclamation. 

"Why, it's Bruce--Nellie Bane's collie, " she cried. "How in the world didhe ever get in? Come here, Bruce, old boy, and explain yourself. "

Obediently Bruce went over to her and laid a cold muzzle in her hand, hissoft eyes looking lovingly into her face. For Billie had made much ofBruce on her frequent visits to Nellie Bane, and the dog, with theinstinct of his kind, had developed a great liking for her--though thefirst in his loyal dog's heart was Nellie Bane, his mistress. 

"You're a great one!" Chet scoffed. "You get a fellow all worked upto catch a burglar, and then you produce a dog. I think you did iton purpose. "

"Yes, and I suppose I scared myself half to death on purpose too, " saidBillie sarcastically, as she patted the dog's great head. "Where are yougoing?" she asked, as Chet started back into his room. 

"To put this thing where I got it, " he explained, holding up the pistolfrom which Billie shrank back. "Don't imagine we'll have any further needof it to-night. "

"Wait a minute, " ordered Billie, and Chet turned back surprised. "Wehaven't found out yet how Bruce got in, " she explained, looking fearfullyover her shoulder, for the effects of her fright had not quite left heryet. "Don't you think we'd better take that along while we look throughthe house? We must have left a door or a window open somewhere. Brucecouldn't have come through the wall, you know. "

"Something--I don't know what it can be--makes me agree with you, "returned Chet sarcastically, but he turned to the stairs nevertheless, "Come on, " he said. "If we have left a window open it is high time thatthat window was shut. Go ahead, Bruce, and show us where you gotin--that's a good old boy. "

At the best it was rather an eerie business--searching through the emptyhouse at that time of night--and it was especially nerve-trying forBillie after the fright she had had. 

And then they found it. The French window that opened from thedining-room upon the porch was swinging wide open--a wonderful invitationto enter for any sneak thief who might happen to pass that way. 

Billie shivered again as Chet, with a final pat, put Bruce outside andclosed and locked the window. 

"There, I guess we won't have any more visitors to-night, " he said, asthey started through the dark living-room to the stairs. 

"Let's hope not, " returned Billie fervently. 

When they reached their rooms upstairs they felt too excited for sleep, and sat for a long time talking over the incident. 

They could laugh now at their surprise in meeting friendly Bruce insteadof a very unfriendly house-breaker, but more than once both of themcaught themselves listening for sounds in the silent house below. 

"It was just luck, " said Billie, as she rose at last to go to bed, "thatit was Bruce that happened to find that open window instead of--of someone else!"

CHAPTER VIII

STARTLING DEVELOPMENTS

Chet and Billie were very careful to leave neither doors nor windowsunlocked, and the rest of the week passed without further mishap. 

Then one morning came a telegram from their parents saying that theywould be home the next day. 

"Goodness, now I have to get busy!" cried Billie, jumping up from thetable in such a hurry that she very nearly upset Chet's coffee cup, thereby considerably surprising that boy. 

"Say, do you think it's catching?" he asked, with a smile. "What's thematter with you, Billie?"

"Oh, of course you wouldn't understand--you're a boy, " remarked hissister condescendingly, as she put on the becoming dust cap and pulledsome gloves on her hands. 

"Don't you see, " she added, as Chet continued to stare at her, "that thishouse has to be immaculate before mother gets back? I've simply got tolive up to my reputation. "

"Never knew you had one, " remarked Chet cruelly, as he turned back tohis bacon and eggs with a relieved sigh. "If you need any help, " heoffered graciously, as Billie swept out of the room, "just call on me. "

"Thank you, I don't, " called back Billie, making a face at him overher shoulder. 

And then followed such a whirlwind of sweeping and dusting and throwingabout of furniture that poor Chet was dismayed and was forced to takerefuge on the porch. 

However, when Billie, flushed and breathless and very, very pretty, tookhim by the arm and led him about to admire her handiwork, he told herthat she was "some wonder. "

"Now how about lunch?" he asked, and Billie, appetite sharpened by work, enthusiastically agreed. 

It seemed an eternity to wait until the next morning, but somehow thetime came at last, finding brother and sister on tip-toe with excitement. 

Long before it was time to go to meet the train, they were ready andwaiting. Billie was swinging back and forth in the porch swing, graspinga cushion in each hand to keep her from jumping out, while Chet walkedrestlessly up and down. 

"If you don't sit down, " said Billie so suddenly that her brother jumped, "I'll just scream. "

"Well go ahead, if it will make you feel any better, " invited Chetamiably. However, for the sake of peace he seated himself in one of thebroad armed chairs. 

"Isn't it train time yet?" asked Billie, as she had asked many timesduring the last fifteen minutes. 

"Here, " said Chet, handing over his watch, "take this and keep looking atit. My voice is getting hoarse saying 'no. '"

"But I don't see why we can't go down to the station anyway, "argued Billie. 

"Only that it's about a hundred times more comfortable to wait here. "

"But we might miss the train, " wailed Billie, and Chet jumped to his feetwith a chuckle. 

"Oh, come on, " he cried. "We've missed the train several times accordingto you. In a minute you will almost have me worried. "

"You're a dear old bear, " said Billie, snuggling her arm into his asthey set off. 

"You certainly do have a way with you, Billie, that gets you what youwant, " he admitted, adding meaningly: "Besides, I'm thinking I'd betterkeep on the right side of you just now. "

"Why?" asked Billie, puzzled. 

"In case Aunt Beatrice left you something. You were her namesake, remember. "

Billie glanced up at him, an eager look in her eyes. But her glance fellagain and she shook his arm severely. 

"What's the use of raising hopes?" she said dolefully, as a vision ofthe broken "Girl Reading a Book" rose reproachfully before her and shethought longingly of how happy she could be if it were only possible toreplace it. 

And there was Three Towers Hall--but she shook off the thought and hadopened her mouth to speak when the sharp blast of an engine whistle madethem jump. 

"Chet, " she gasped, "it's the train! We mustn't miss it. "

"We can make it if we run, " said Chet, as he took hold of her arm. "Comeon! No, not that way--the short cut. That's the idea. "

Warm and panting they came out upon the station platform just as thetrain drew in. They watched the passengers eagerly, but not at firstseeing those they sought, had almost decided that they were coming on alater train when away down at the end of the platform, Billie espied afamiliar hat. 

"There they are! Mother!" she cried, as they came within hailingdistance. "We thought you weren't on the train. Oh, what a fright wehad!"

After the greetings were over Chet and Billie both noticed that theirparents seemed to be in a state of suppressed excitement, and both ofthem wondered. 

However, they had too much to talk about just then to do much wonderingabout anything, and they walked slowly toward home, asking and answeringa very flood of questions. 

Mrs. Bradley wanted to know how Billie had got along without her, atwhich both Chet and Billie tried to tell the story of Nellie Bane'scollie at the same time and in the same breath. 

When they had finished Mr. Bradley chuckled, but Mrs. Bradleylooked grave. 

"It happened to be funny, " she said. "But it might have been veryserious. I hope you were careful after that. "

"Were we!" they cried, and Billie added with a laugh: "We locked anddouble locked all the windows and doors, and if it hadn't been for Chet Iwould have piled furniture against the doors. But we want to know whatyou've been doing, " she cried, turning to her mother eagerly. "Tell us, please, quick. We've been waiting so long. "

Again Mr. Bradley laughed and pinched his impatient youngdaughter's cheek. 

"I think our news can wait till we get to the house, " he said. 

"But _I_ can't, " protested Billie. 

"Anybody would think you really expected to hear something, " chuckled Mr. Bradley, who seemed to be enjoying himself immensely over something. 

"Oh, please, " begged Billie, almost beside herself with impatience bythis time--and Chet, in his quiet way, was just as bad. There wassomething about their mother's and father's manner that told themsomething was in the wind. 

"I'm just dying by inches, " went on Billie. 

But this time it was Mrs. Bradley who interrupted. 

"Here we are at home, dear, " she said. "Can't you give Dad and me achance to rest, and give us perhaps a cup of tea--"

"Oh, I'm a selfish old beast!" said Billie penitently. "I might haveknown you would be terribly tired after that long train ride!"

And still scolding herself she hurried them before her into the house andflew to find Debbie. She had not far to go, however, for Debbie was justlumbering, like a good-natured elephant, through the hall to greet hermaster and mistress. As soon as the greetings were over she lumbered backagain to make the necessary tea. 

Billie and Chet controlled their impatience, answering the questionstheir mother had to ask them about all that had happened while they hadbeen away, for Mrs. Bradley had been anxious. 

When they finally left the table and Mrs. Bradley led the way back intothe library, Billie uttered a long sigh of relief. 

"Well, " said Mrs. Bradley, and they leaned forward eagerly, "we foundthat what we always supposed about the amount of money Aunt Beatrice hadwas right. She left only a few thousand, and that--queer soul that shewas--she left to a missionary society. "

"Oh!" cried Billie, and it must be admitted that she both felt andlooked horribly disappointed. She had not known just how much she hadhoped, both for herself and for Chet, until this moment. And Chet, poorfellow, felt just as bad, although he showed it less. 

"Then she didn't leave anything either to you or Dad?" Chet asked. 

"No. But she did leave something to you and Billie, " was Mrs. Bradley'sstartling announcement. 

Billie and Chet looked at one another as if to be sure that they hadheard aright. 

"You say she left us something?" cried Billie breathlessly. 

"Yes. But don't let your hopes run away with you, " Mr. Bradley warnedthem, "for it wasn't very much. "

"Oh, tell us, " the two commanded eagerly and in unison. 

"She left a gold watch to Chet, " Mrs. Bradley told them. "It is really avery beautiful watch, Chet, and worth a good deal of money. And toBillie--" She paused for emphasis and Billie wriggled impatiently. "Andto Billie she left her rambling old homestead at Cherry Corners. "

"A homestead at Cherry Corners!" gasped Billie, unable to believe herears while Chet looked interested. "What sort of a house is it, Mother?"

"I haven't been there for a number of years, " replied her mother, knitting her brows in an effort to recall the details of Billie's queerinheritance. "As I remember it, it is an old-fashioned rambling affair. It must have been considered rather handsome in its palmy years, and ithas been in the Powerson family for generations. In fact, I believe itdates back to revolutionary days. It has great large rooms, and ratherspooky, dark hallways. I'm afraid I wasn't very much impressed with itthe first time I saw it, " she finished, with a smile. 

"Wh-what a funny thing to leave me, " said Billie, her eyes big and roundwith wonder. Then she added, without thinking--as Billie always did: "Oh, don't I wish she had left me a hundred dollars instead! It would havebeen much more useful!"

CHAPTER IX

GHOSTS AND THINGS

Billie was instantly sorry for her speech, as she saw the old troubledexpression cross her father's face. 

"Forgive me, please!" she pleaded. "I think I must be the most ungratefulgirl alive. "

"Well, I should say so!" cried Chet, to whom the description of the queerold house, while dismaying his sister, had appealed immensely. "Say, I'dlike nothing better than to go out right now and look your property over, Billie. Big rooms and spooky halls and--say, Mother, it must have acellar and an attic. What are they like?"

"I suppose, " said his mother, smiling at his enthusiasm, "that since youseem to like the ghostly part, you would be more than ever pleased withthe attic and cellar. "

"As I remember it, the cellar was the most peculiar part of the wholequeer place. Aunt Beatrice took me through it, and seemed immensely proudof the funny old tunnels and store-rooms that were tucked away in allsort of odd corners. The only thing I liked about it, " she finished, with a reminiscent smile, "was the shelf-lined, icy room where she kepther fruit preserves. "

"This gets better and better!" fairly crowed Chet. "A damp, gloomy oldcellar with tunnels and storerooms in queer corners and--But you weregoing to tell us about the attic. "

"Yes, the attic!" cried Billie, for by this time Chet had made her asmuch interested in her strange inheritance as he was. "Did it have trunksin it, Mother--and cobwebs?"

"Trunks, yes, but not cobwebs, " smiled her mother, "for Aunt Beatrice wasan excellent housekeeper--when she was at home. "

"Then the attic wasn't spooky?" queried Chet, disappointed. 

"I should say it was!" returned his mother, with an emphasis that set allhis fears at rest. "It was the creepiest place I have ever been in, and Iwas never gladder in my life than when we left it for the more cheerfullower floor--though goodness knows that was dreary enough. "

"Say, when are we going?" cried Chet, jumping to his feet, his faceflushed with eagerness. 

"Where?" asked Mrs. Bradley. 

"To Cherry Corners, of course, " answered Chet in a tone which veryplainly meant, "why ask such a foolish question?" "To the ghosts thatinhabit the garret and cellar of Billie's new house. "

"Hold on, hold on there!" cried Mr. Bradley, who had been listening tothe proceedings in amused silence. "Do you happen to know how far CherryCorners is from here?"

"Very far?" asked Billie. 

"A whole day's ride, that's all, " their father answered. 

"Say, Dad, " cried Chet suddenly. "What do you suppose the old placeis worth?"

"I can't say, Chet, " answered Mr. Bradley. "Being so far from good roadsand the railroad, I am afraid the land is not worth much. "

"But it must be worth something, " persisted the boy. 

Mr. Bradley smiled faintly. 

"For Billie's sake let us hope so. But you must remember, in this statethere are thousands of abandoned farms. Folks simply can't make a livingon them, and so they move away. "

"But the buildings must be worth something. "

"To live in, yes, but that is all. You can't move an old stone house tosome other spot. "

"Why do they call it 'Cherry Corners?'" asked Billie, for she hadbeen following a little train of thought all her own. "It's a veryqueer name. "

"Oh, they come by it naturally enough, " her mother answered. "It issurrounded by a grove of cherry trees and is near a crossing of two rockyroads. So you see the reason for 'Cherry Corners. '"

"Goodness, that sounds as if it were away off in the wilderness!" criedBillie, adding: "But wouldn't it be awful to have to live in that spookyold house all alone? Are there any houses near it, Mother?"

"Not one for more than a mile, " said Mrs. Bradley. "They are almost asisolated now as they used to be in the old Indian days. "

"Indians!" cried Chet, pricking up his ears again. "Did you say somethingabout Indians, Mother?"

"Why, I've heard Aunt Beatrice say, " answered Mrs. Bradley, beginningto share in her children's enthusiasm, "that the Powersons whooriginally built the house built it especially for the purpose ofresisting Indian attacks. Now that I come to think of it, " she added, her eyes beginning to shine with excitement, "that was the reason forthe winding tunnels and secret rooms. As the last resort, the familycould take refuge in them. "

"Oh, boy!" cried Chet, springing to his feet for the second time. "Didyou hear that, did you? Indian raids and--oh, gosh!" Words failed him andhe sank back in his chair with a sigh of joy. 

"Isn't it wonderful!" breathed Billie. "At first I was disappointed butnow--Is that all she left, Mother?"

"Isn't that enough?" her father interjected, with a laugh. 

"I suppose so, but I thought--"

"Why, yes, that was all, " said her mother, adding the next moment, surprised that she should have forgotten the most important part of all:"Oh, I forgot to tell you--Aunt Beatrice left you the house with all itscontents. "

"Oh!" breathed Billie again. "Now I know we're going to have awonderful time!"

"What does the old house contain?" questioned Chet. His mind was ongetting some money out of the inheritance for Billie. 

"I am sure I do not know, " answered his mother, "It may be completelyfurnished or it may be quite bare. I imagine, though, that Aunt Beatriceleft it furnished. But everything is very old, and maybe the rats andmoths have played sad havoc there. "

They talked for a little while more about this strange thing that hadhappened. Then Mr. Bradley went off to pick up the loose ends of hisbusiness and Mrs. Bradley adjourned to the kitchen to discuss supperpreparations with the mountainous Debbie. 

Left alone, Billie and Chet looked at each other wonderingly. 

"Well, " said Billie in a slightly, awed tone, "we expected something tohappen, and it certainly did. "

"But we didn't expect her to leave you an old stone mansion, " crowedChet. "Say, Billie, " he added, stopping before her in his excitedpacing of the room to gaze at her eagerly, "aren't you crazy to go outand see it?"

"I'd like, " said Billie fervently, "to start for Cherry Corners on thevery next train. But I'm not so sure I'd like to stay in that place afternightfall, " she added on second thought. 

"Why, you're not afraid of the ghosts, are you?" he asked, with intensescorn. "Don't you know that ghosts are all in the imagination?"

"Of course I do. Who said I was afraid of ghosts?" retorted Billie withspirit. "You know that I don't believe in them any more than you do. "

"Well, then what are you afraid of?" insisted Chet. 

"Oh, thieves and things. Tramps maybe, " said Billie thoughtfully; thenshe added with spirit, as Chet smiled a superior sort of smile: "I justguess you wouldn't be able to spend a night in that sort of a gloomy oldhouse away off from everybody without feeling nervous. Goodness! I'd beexpecting every minute to have the ghosts of dead and gone Indians riseup and scalp me. "

"Thought you didn't believe in ghosts, " gibed Chet. 

"I don't, " flared Billie, adding rather weakly: "But I'm not going totake any chances, anyway. "

"But oh, " she added after a few minutes of thoughtful silence, "I can'thelp it if it is ungrateful, but I do wish Aunt Beatrice had left me afew hundred dollars instead. We've still got that old statue to worryabout, and Three Towers Hall and the military academy. "

Chet was silent for a minute, then he said with sudden inspiration:"There's the watch Aunt Beatrice left me, you know. Mother said it wasvery valuable. "

Billie's face lighted for a moment, then fell again. 

"But you know Uncle Bill always said that you never could get anythinglike the value for old gold. And anyway, " she rose and put a loving armabout him, "I couldn't let you do that for me, Chet, dear. I think you'rethe dearest brother in the world. "

A few hours later Laura Jordon and Violet Farrington came over, tryingtheir best not to look curious. They had waited as long as they could, but knowing about the death of Billie's queer old aunt and knowing alsothat Billie, as her namesake, might expect some share of the fortune--ifthere was one--they had been filled with excitement, and now as they ranup the steps to Billie's porch it was all they could do to keep fromblurting out the question. 

For both Laura and Violet had been perfectly certain that Billie's AuntBeatrice had been some sort of miser who had piled up an immense fortunesimply for their chum's benefit. 

"Just think, " Violet had said in one of their excited conferences on thesubject, "what a wonderful thing it will be for Billie just now when sheis so worried about that miserable old statue. And for Chet too!"

"Yes, it would mean they could both go to school and we'd all have such agood time, " Laura had chimed in. "Goodness!" she had added with achuckle, "I feel almost as much obliged to Aunt Beatrice as Billie will. "

But now that the great moment had come, they sat decorously in Billie'sporch swing and tried to appear not at all curious as to whether Billiehad gathered in a fortune since they last had seen her or not. 

And Billie, her little imp of mischief at work again, guessed the objectof their visit and decided with an inward chuckle to keep them guessing. 

She managed to accomplish her purpose for just about five minutes. ThenLaura, unable to stand the suspense a moment more, took the bit in herteeth and bolted. 

"For goodness' sake, Billie, " she cried desperately, "why don'tyou tell us?"

"Tell you what?" asked Billie, trying to look innocent. "Haven't I beentelling you--"

"Yes, about the way Debbie makes potato salad, " cried Laura disgustedly. "You know well enough why we came. "

"Why you came?" Billie repeated, looking still more surprised. "Why, naturally, I thought you came to see me. "

"Billie Bradley, if you don't tell us what we want to know this instant, "cried Laura, jumping to her feet and making a threatening movement towardBillie's mischievous head, "I'll--I'll--oh, I don't know what I'll do. Are you going to be good? Are you?"

"Yes, yes, " cried Billie, pretending immense fright, while her eyesdanced with mischief. "Tell me what it is you want to know and I'll domy best, Your Highness, " this last in such a very humble tone thatLaura chuckled. 

"All right, go ahead then, " she said while Violet leaned forward eagerly. "What did your aunt leave you?"

"Straight from the shoulder, " Billie murmured. Then as Laura made anotherthreatening gesture toward her, added hurriedly: "All right. Don't shootand I'll tell you everything. Only it will take time. "

Billie paused, to allow the proper amount of emphasis, then said, in adeep whisper:

"She left me a--haunted house!"

CHAPTER X

OLD FURNITURE

Laura screamed and Violet jumped clear out of her seat. 

They stared at Billie, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. 

"Wh-what did you say?" asked Laura when she could get her breath. 

"I said, " said Billie, speaking very distinctly and enjoying thesensation she had caused, "that Aunt Beatrice left me a haunted house. "

"Th-then I wasn't dreaming, " stammered Violet, while Laura just continuedto stare. "Is th-that all, Billie?"

"Isn't that enough?" asked Billie, just as her father had done a fewhours before. 

"It's either not enough or it is too much, " replied Violet. "If I had tohave the ghosts, I should want some very substantial compensations tomake up for such housemates as those airy and playful ladies andgentlemen are said to make. "

"But it is a house, " persisted Billie. "And you know it isn't everybodywho can own a haunted house. "

"A haunted house!" said Laura, speaking in a hushed tone. "Is it a realhaunted house, Billie, or are you fooling?"

"Well, I don't know that it is a regular honest-to-goodness one, "admitted Billie reluctantly. "You see, it is the house Aunt Beatriceused to live in when she was at home, and she left it to me, witheverything in it. "

"How perfectly glorious!" cried Laura, clapping her hands with delight. "Tell us about it, Billie. What made you say it was haunted?"

Then did Billie tell them all that her mother had told her abouther inheritance and, if the truth be told, even added a few detailsof her own. 

However that may have been, the fact remains that when she had finishedthe girls were as perfectly wild as Chet had been to visit the queer oldplace and, if need be, even confront its "ghosts!"

"Think!" cried Laura, clasping her hands rapturously. "Just think ofbeing able to roam all over that romantic old place and pry intocorners--"

"And get your hands dirty, " interrupted Billie drily. 

"Why, Billie, " Laura stopped in her transports to regard her friend withwide eyes, "aren't you simply wild about the place too?"

"Oh, I suppose so, " said Billie, adding as a shadow crossed her face:"The folks think I'm awful, all 'cept Chet, and I suppose I am--but I'dgive the whole place, tunnels, spooky hallways, ghostly attic, andeverything for just a few little hundred dollar bills. "

The girls were silent for a few minutes, realizing that Billie's strangeinheritance did not do a thing toward solving the old problems of thebroken statue and of going to boarding school. 

Then Violet, who was always thinking up some happy way out of adifficulty, gave a little bounce in the swing. 

"How do we know, " she cried, as the girls looked at her half hopefully, "but what you could sell some of the furniture in the old house and getenough to pay for the statue?"

"We might, at that, " said Billie, her face lighting up again. "But mothersaid it must all be awfully old, " she added doubtfully. 

"All the better, " cried Violet, growing more and more enthusiastic. "Yousay that the old house dates back to revolutionary times, Billie. How dowe know but what some of the old furniture would be very valuable asantiques?"

"Violet, you're a wonder!" cried Billie, hugging her so hard that shegasped for breath. "I'd never have thought of that in a thousand years. Now you speak of it, " she added thoughtfully, "I remember some antiquefurniture that Uncle Bill has in his library. He says it's worth allsorts of money, but I wouldn't give two cents for it. "

"Well, as long as somebody will, what should we care!" cried Lauraflippantly. "Maybe you'll make a fortune for yourself after all, Billie. "

"Oh, and think what it would mean!" cried Violet, her eyes shining. "Itwould mean that you could pay for that beastly old statue, Billie. And itwould mean that you could go to Three Towers with us. "

"And Chet could go to the military academy with Teddy and Ferd, "Laura added. 

"For goodness' sake!" cried poor Billie wildly. "You make me feel dizzy. What is the use of getting my hopes all raised? Probably Aunt Beatrice'sfurniture will be old, fallen-to-pieces stuff that nobody would give twocents for. "

"Goodness, what a wet blanket!" cried Laura reproachfully. 

"Well, I'd rather be a wet blanket, " retorted Billie desperately, "thanto plan for a lot of fun and then be disappointed. I--I've beendisappointed enough, goodness knows. "

There was a quiver in Billie's brave little mouth and instinctivelyViolet and Laura put an arm about her. 

"We know what you mean, " said Violet, soothingly. "And if you don't wantus to, we'll try not to hope too hard. "

"Or if we do, we'll keep it to ourselves, " added Laura, and Billiehugged them fondly. 

"I don't want you to stop hoping, " she cried plaintively. "And I don'twant to be a wet blanket, either. I'm just afraid, that's all. "

The girls swung back and forth in silence for a few minutes. Then it wasLaura who spoke. 

"When are you going out to look over your property, Billie?"

"Why, I don't know, " answered Billie thoughtfully. "As soon as we canarrange it, I suppose. Dad says it's a full day's trip to get there, sowe would have to make some arrangement to stay over night. "

"Couldn't you spend the night in the house?" suggested Violet. 

"We might, " Billie answered doubtfully. "Although I must say I wouldn'tlike to--not the first night anyway. I'd want time to become acquaintedwith the place first. "

"If you will promise on your word of honor not to laugh at me, " saidViolet after another short silence, "I'll tell you that I haveanother idea. "

"We won't laugh, " they promised, and Billie added eagerly: "Tell us aboutit, Violet. Even if we do laugh at your ideas at first, we generally endby following them. "

"But you said you wouldn't laugh this time, " Violet reminded her, adding, as the worst threat she could think of: "If you do I won't let youfollow out my idea. "

"All right, " said Billie. "As Chet would say--'shoot. '"

"Why, I was just thinking, " said Violet, looking at them intently, "thatwe haven't a plan in the world for spending our vacation--"

"Vi!" cried Laura joyfully, not waiting for her to finish, "you _have_a good idea this time. You were going to say, why not spend ourvacation there?"

"At Cherry Corners?" asked Billie surprised, adding with a demureglance: "Nobody seems to think of asking me about it. And it's myproperty, you know. "

"Gracious, isn't she stuck up?" cried Laura flippantly. "I'll have youknow you're not the only property holder in the community, BillieBradley. Dad gave me the deed to three lots in some outlandish place, Idon't even know where it is. "

"Probably didn't have anything else to do with them, so wished them onyou, " said Billie cruelly. 

"Shouldn't wonder, " said Laura, adding with a rueful little smile:"I've never been able to find out whether it was an April Fool'spresent or not. "

"Well, I don't see what all that has to do with my proposition, " put inViolet patiently. "Now own up--don't you think it's a great idea?"

"Wonderful, " said Billie unenthusiastically. "I don't know when I'veever heard of anything so brilliant. "

"There's something wrong with Billie, " said Violet, beginning to lookanxious. "Don't you think we'd better send for a doctor, Laura?"

"I think you are the one who needs a doctor, " retorted Billie. "Who everthought of spending a vacation out in the wilderness a million miles orso from nowhere in an old tumbled-down house that makes your flesh creepand the hair rise on your head just to look at it?"

"My, but that must feel funny, " said Laura, the irrepressible. "That'sone experience I never did have. "

"What?" asked Billie. 

"Have my hair rise on my head. Please excuse me, Billie, " as Billie inher turn looked threatening. "What was it you were about to say?"

"Goose, " commented Billie and then turned to Violet. "Did you really meanthat about spending our vacation there?" she asked. 

"Of course I did, " said Violet. "And I don't see what's so very funnyabout it anyway. We could take a chaperone, and maybe the boys could comealong too. "

"Oh, that would be fun, " cried Billie, then flushed as she metLaura's laughing eyes. "I meant, " she added, angry because of theblush, "that the place wouldn't be quite so lonesome and horrid withthe boys around. "

"Oh, yes, we know, " said Laura, with an aggravating twinkle that madeBillie long to shake her. "We know all about it, honey. "

Why, thought Billie, as she ignored the remark, pretending not to hearit, would Laura always be such a goose as to make a joke of the veryreal friendship between her and Teddy Jordon? She liked Teddy immenselyand she was not going to stop liking him even if Laura would persist inbeing foolish. 

"Then you will admit it is a good idea?" Violet asked eagerly. 

"I liked it all, but Billie only likes the last part--about the boys, "said Laura, and again Billie had a wild desire to shake her. 

"It will be lots of fun, " she said, beginning to see the possibilities ina vacation spent at Cherry Corners. "Mother says the rooms are large andthere are plenty of them so we could have as big a party as we wanted. But I don't know how comfortable you would be, " she warned them. 

"Who cares about being comfortable on a lark like that?" cried Lauraairily. "The more uncomfortable we are the more fun we'll have. I say, Billie, don't you think we'd better take Gyp along?" Gyp was athoroughbred bull terrier of which Laura was the proud owner. "He mightcome in handy if any ghosts showed up. "

The girls laughed at her. 

"As if Gyp would be any good against ghosts!" scoffed Violet. "Why, theywould walk right through him. "

"Well, " said Laura, with a little chuckle, "he could at least bark andlet us know when they were coming!"

CHAPTER XI

BILLIE WINS OUT

"But whom shall we get for a chaperone?" asked Laura Jordon, after theyhad thoroughly discussed these new and startling plans for a vacation. "We don't want to get any one who is too old and grouchy, and yet thefolks probably wouldn't let us go unless we did. "

Billie and Violet laughed, for they realized the truth of what she said. 

"We do seem to be 'up against it, ' as Ted says. " Laura was always usingher brother for an excuse for her own slang. "I can't think of a singleperson jolly enough to please us and dull enough to please the folks. "

"How about one of our mothers?" Violet suggested. 

"I know my mother wouldn't do it, " said Billie. "The last time Iasked her to chaperone us girls she said she would as soon chaperonea trio of eels. "

"And when I asked mother, " Laura added, "she said she would have nervousprostration in a week. "

"My, we must have a terrible reputation, " sighed Violet. "I never knewwe were as bad as all that. "

"Oh, I have an idea!" cried Laura suddenly, clapping her hands. 

"Well, don't let it bite you, " murmured Billie. 

"Wait till you hear and you won't be so sarcastic, " retorted Laura. "I'msure I have just the very person that we want. "

"Oh, who?" cried Violet. 

"Maria Gilligan, our housekeeper, " Laura announced, and then sat backwith an air that said just as plainly as words: "There! how's that for aninspiration?"

"Maria Gilligan, your housekeeper?" Billie repeated. 

"I think it's a rather good idea, Laura, " said Violet. "Isn't Mrs. Gilligan the one who is always playing jokes on her husband?"

"Yes, she's the funniest thing you ever saw, " Laura answered, her eyesbeginning to twinkle at the memory of some of Mrs. Gilligan'sescapades. "Why, one April Fool's Day she set the clock back an hourand Mr. Gilligan got up grumbling that it was awfully dark for sixo'clock. Then when he was all ready and was starting out to work shetold him about it. "

"What did he do?" asked Violet, interested. 

"I know what I'd have done if I'd been in his place, " sniffed Billie. "I'd have tied her in a chair and gagged her and left her there all day. "

"Billie! how barbaric!" cried Violet. "What would you have donethat for?"

"Just so she could have thought over her sins, " said Billie with achuckle. "I never did believe in practical jokes. "

"And then another time, " said Laura, her eyes twinkling, "she wasupstairs straightening up the store-room when she pretended to have atumble. You know she weighs about two hundred pounds--"

"At a rough guess, I should say three hundred, " murmured Billie, forBillie was in a very contrary mood that day. 

"And she came down with a thump that shook the chandeliers, " Laura wenton, ignoring the interruption, "and when Mr. Gilligan--you know he weighsonly a hundred and fifty and is about half her size--"

"Now I _know_ she weighs three hundred, " interposed Billie again. "It'sjust a matter of arithmetic. "

"There she was with her head in her hands, " went on Laura, too muchamused by her story to notice the interruption, "sobbing as if her heartwould break. And when he got down on his knees to comfort her, she justlooked at him with a grin and said: 'April Fool. '"

"Well, I should say he was, " said Billie, with another sniff. "And notonly an April Fool, either. She would try a trick like that just aboutonce with me. "

"Well, anyway, " Laura concluded, "I think she would be just the oneto take on our trip with us. She's jolly and full of fun and yetshe's old enough and fat enough to please our fathers and mothers. What do you say?"

"Do you suppose she's fat enough to scare away the ghosts?" asked Billie, with a chuckle. 

"My, but I'd be sorry for any mistaken ghost that tried to have a set-towith her, " laughed Laura. "She'd just laugh at them and say: 'Shoo, ghost, don't bodder me. '"

"All right, let's ask her, " decided Billie. "Now that we have made upour minds to change Cherry Corners into a summer resort, I can't wait toget started. "

"If only the folks will be willing, " said Violet, looking worried. "Mother is funny about letting me go anywhere away from homewithout her. "

"I guess all our parents are, " said Billie, then added, with a suddeninspiration: "I tell you what! Let's all go together and ask them. Threeare always stronger than one. "

"You do have a good idea once in awhile, Billie!" exclaimed Laura, jumping out of the swing and holding out a hand to each of them. "Comeon, we can't afford to waste any time. "

"Where shall we go first?" asked Violet. 

"To Laura's, " Billie decided. "If we can get her mother and father toconsent and then can get Mrs. Gilligan to go with us as chaperone, we'llhave a pretty good argument to give our folks. Eh, what?"

Gaily the girls set off to win Laura's parents over to their side, andthey were lucky enough to find Mrs. Jordon at home. Also Teddy was there, sitting beside her on the veranda. At sight of Billie the boy jumped tohis feet and came running down to her. 

"Hello, " he cried. "I was just coming over your way, to see if Chetdidn't want to fight out our singles tournament. He's two sets ahead ofme now, and I'm thirsting for r-revenge. "

"I think he'll give it to you all right, " laughed Billie, as Violet andLaura ran up the steps in front of them. "I've never seen the time yetwhen Chet refused a tennis game. "

"All right, I'm off then, " he cried, and was starting away when shecalled him back. 

"Don't you want to know about my--inheritance?" she asked him, with ademure little glance. 

"Your what?" he cried, then suddenly he grasped her two hands and swungthem joyfully back and forth. "Do you mean to say, " he cried, "that youraunt really left you something? What is it, Billie? Go on, tell me. "

"If you want to hear all about it just stay around for a little while, "she laughed, leading him toward the group at the other end of the porch, two members of which were already in animated conversation. 

"May we get in on this?" she called, interrupting an eloquent appeal onLaura's part. 

"Oh, yes, come here, do, " cried Laura, clutching at her dress anddragging her into the circle. "Mother's beginning to shake her head, andyou mustn't let her, Billie. She'll do anything for you. "

Mrs. Jordon laughed and made room for Billie on the divan beside her. 

"Now perhaps you'll tell me, " she said, "what this crazy daughter of mineis talking about. So far I've got a sort of confused jumble of a hauntedhouse and vacations and Mrs. Gilligan. I must confess I don't see how thethree can possibly be connected. "

Then Billie told all over again the story of her strange inheritance, while Mrs. Jordon and Teddy listened with interest and Violet and Lauranow and then put in a word to plead their cause. 

As for Teddy, he was so busy watching Billie's flushed, excited andaltogether charming face that he more than once lost the trend of theconversation. 

"I don't wonder Laura said mother couldn't refuse her anything, " hethought. "I don't see how any one could refuse her when she talks andlooks that way. Billie's a wonder, that's all. "

And in this case Billie did indeed prove herself to be a wonder. Withinhalf an hour she had not only won Mrs. Jordon over to their side, buthad persuaded her to let the girls borrow Mrs. Gilligan for the time oftheir vacation. 

"Of course, " Mrs. Jordon warned them, as the girls were hugging eachother triumphantly, "we aren't at all sure that Mrs. Gilligan will wantto undertake such an expedition. I couldn't blame her very much if shedidn't, " she added, with a rueful little smile, "knowing you girls asshe does. "

"I'll get her!" cried Laura, and promptly put her words into action. 

She appeared the next minute, dragging a very much astonished housekeeperafter her, and proudly presented her prize to her mother. 

"She said she was busy, Mother, and couldn't stop, " Laura said, adding, with a bright smile: "But I told her it was something awfully importantyou wanted to say to her. "

"Sure and I suppose the young girl is up to some of her tricks, " saidMrs. Gilligan, beaming fondly upon her captor, "but I came with her, thinking it possible you might really have something to say to me, Mrs. Jordon. "

"Yes, I have, Mrs. Gilligan. Sit down, won't you please? It may takesome time to persuade you--"

And then and there began another campaign. However, with Mrs. Jordon as apowerful ally the girls had little trouble in overcoming Mrs. Gilligan'sobjections, and in the end came off with colors flying. 

"Now to see Billie's mother!" cried Laura. 

The girls hugged Mrs. Jordon, waved to their new chaperone, and rangayly down the steps. Teddy, with a whispered word to his mother, followed them. 

"Say, wait for a fellow, can't you?" he cried, and they turned towait for him. 

"Come on, Vi, " cried Laura, catching hold of Violet's arm andhurrying forward. "Ted and Billie will get there some time. We can'twait for them. "

"How do you like our new plans?" asked Billie, looking up at him withsparkling eyes. 

"I think you ought to have all sorts of fun, " he told her, addingwith a funny little smile: "But I can't quite make out yet where wefellows come in. "

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" she asked, surprised. "Why, you are going withus!"

CHAPTER XII

GREAT PLANS

After permission for the outing was gained from all the parents concernedeverything was bustle and excitement. For a week the girls spent thewhole of every day at each other's houses, planning their vacation, talking about the clothes they would need to take with them, andgenerally enjoying themselves. 

As the time drew near they could hardly contain their excitement, and theboys, who had decided they would follow the girls some days later, werealmost as bad. 

"I don't see why you don't come with us, " Billie pouted one night, whenthe entire crowd of young folks had assembled at her home. "It would belots more fun on the train if you boys were with us. "

"But there is the tennis match we promised to play with the fellows ofthe south end, " Chet pointed out for perhaps the hundredth time. "Wecouldn't back out of it at the last minute, you know; they'd think wewere afraid. "

"Now how do you know, " Violet pointed out, "but what we will all havebeen eaten up by the ghosts by the time you get there?"

"Ghosts!" scoffed Ferdinand Stowing, who was to go with Chet and Teddy. "I don't see where you girls get this ghost stuff. Just because a househappens to be old doesn't say it's haunted. "

"Gosh! listen to him, " cried Chet indignantly. "Some one is always takingthe joy out of life. "

"Say, you don't think it's haunted, do you?" asked Ferd, in surprise. 

"Of course not, " answered Chet, adding, with a chuckle: "But I havemy hopes. "

"Well, so have I, " spoke up Laura promptly. "If there isn't a familyghost or two about the place, we just won't have any fun. What's the useof going off into the wilderness to a spooky house if we're not going tomeet a ghost?"

"Well, you know I didn't promise any ghosts, " said Billie, looking upfrom a piece of fancy work she was embroidering. "If you aredisappointed, you needn't blame it on me, Laura, or you either, Chet. "

"Well, I don't see why we shouldn't have a good time without ghosts, " putin Violet. "In fact, I don't think I'd particularly enjoy meetingsomebody's great-great-ancestor in the dark. "

"Oh, Vi, you give me the creeps, " said Laura with a little shiver. "Billie, do you think half a dozen middies' would do? We won't want todress up very much. "

"No, the ghosts probably wouldn't know the difference, " said Teddywickedly. "By the way, boys, " he went on, imitating Laura's tone toperfection, "that's one important thing we haven't decided, yet. What arewe going to wear?"

"You poor fish!" cried Ferd, throwing a cushion at him. "Who let you in?"

"Stop wrecking the furniture, " exclaimed Billie, from her corner. "And dostop talking all at once. You make my ears ache. And besides, I want tosay something. "

"Silence, " cried Chet, in a dramatically deep voice. "The queen is aboutto speak. "

"He said something that time, " whispered Teddy in her ear, and a littlepink flush mounted to Billie's face, making her look prettier than ever. It was so nice to have one's friends like you!

"Why, I was just thinking about the cooking, " she said. "Do any of youboys know how to cook?"

"Heavens, listen at her!" cried Ferd in alarm. "Is she going to set us towork already--before we get there? What's the idea, Billie?"

"Well, " replied Billie, biting off her thread calmly, "we have to eatwhile we're there, you know. "

"No!" cried Chet sarcastically. "You may, sweet sister, but not us. Weare too ethereal. "

"Say, is he insulting us?" cried Ferd indignantly. "Say that again, Idare you--"

"Oh, for goodness' sake keep still!" cried Laura, clapping her hands toher ears. "You make me deaf, dumb and blind. Now, Billie, what were yougoing to say?"

"Simply, that since we do have to eat, Chet or anybody else to thecontrary, " she looked at her brother and dimpled adorably, "we will haveto decide who is going to do the cooking. "

"Why, I suppose we'll take our turns at it, as we've done before when wehave been camping, " said Laura, in surprise. 

"I know. But what I want to find out is, are the boys going to do any ofthe work?"

"Good land, is she asking us to cook?" asked Ferd. "Why, Billie, we don'tknow a thing about it!"

"And don't want to learn, " added Chet fervently. 

"Oh, you big fibbers!" Billie's eyes danced as she looked at them. "I remember--oh, I have a very good memory, " and she glancedsideways at Teddy, who was beginning to look uncomfortable. "Iremember a certain person telling me how beautifully you boys cookedwhile you were at camp. "

"Say, Billie, that's not fair, " cried Teddy, with a guilty note in hisvoice that made his two comrades look at him accusingly. 

"Aha, we see the villain!" cried Ferd threateningly. "What'll we do withhim, Chet?"

"Nothing's bad enough for such a crime, " said Chet ruefully. "What didyou make such a break for, Ted? I thought I'd brought you up better. "

"Gee, Billie, do you see what you've let me in for?" said Ted miserably, but Billie only regarded him with laughing eyes while Laura and Violetseemed to be enjoying the situation immensely. 

"I don't see what I did, " Billie replied innocently. "I thought I waspaying you boys a compliment by saying that you could cook well. "

"But we can't, " cried Ferd, seizing the opportunity eagerly. "Gee, Billie, you couldn't eat the awful messes we make. Why, you're agood cook--"

Billie raised a cushion threateningly in the air. 

"None of that! None of that!" she warned him. "We see through you, villain!"

"Say, she must think you're one of the Cherry Corners ghosts, " broke inTeddy whimsically. "It's pretty hard on a fellow when you can see throughhim, Billie. "

"But honest you couldn't, " Ferd insisted, not to be defeated in this onelast hope. "Really, I don't know enough about an egg to take the shelloff when I fry it. "

"Idiot, " cried Billie, throwing the pillow at him in earnest. "Who everheard of fried egg in the shell?"

"I did, " cried Ferd, unabashed by the laughter and the scornful glancesturned his way. "Ladies and gentlemen, you see before you to-night theman that invented it. "

"Well, but nobody has answered my question, " said Billie demurely, after the laughter had subsided. "Are the boys going to help cook orare they not?"

"I tell you what, " said Chet desperately. "We'll cook if you will promiseto eat it. "

"Billie, " cried Laura in alarm, "don't make any rash promises. They wouldprobably put some awful thing into the food on purpose. "

"Laura, that's some idea, " cried Ferd, looking at her admiringly whileTeddy and Chet chuckled. "Thanks. We never would have thought of thatourselves. "

"Well, " said Billie with a little chuckle, "I imagine we would rather eatour own cooking anyway, so you needn't worry. Only, " she added warningly, as they sighed with relief, "there is one thing you _will_ have to do. "

"And what's that?" they cried fearfully. 

"Help wash the dishes, " she said; and in her tone was no relenting. 

And so, even to the impatient girls the time passed quickly until at lastthe great day arrived. 

It was a wonderful day, sunshiny and warm without being too hot, and allthree of them were up with the birds. They were to catch the eighto'clock morning train, and so they had no time to waste in bed. 

Billie was in a joyful mood as she got herself into the pretty new dressshe was to wear on the trip. She ran around the room, humming to herselfand every once in a while doing a little dance step as she realized thatthey were at last to embark upon their adventure. 

And an adventure she somehow felt sure it was to be. For even though, contrary to Chet's hopes, and she smiled as she thought of him, they didnot meet with ghosts at Cherry Corners, there would be the fun of seeingfor the first time her inheritance. 

It might be a queer old house and the contents and the grounds about itmight be of small value, but there was a wonderful thrill nevertheless inbeing the owner of it. 

And there was the fact that it dated back to revolutionary times, it wasreally historic and--it all belonged to her!

No wonder she sang as she gave a last fond pat to the pretty dress andtucked a wandering little strand of hair into place. Her eyes danced andher face was flushed, but Billie never noticed how pretty she was. 

She was the first in the dining-room that morning, but her mother sooncame in, scattering advice as she came and all through the meal Billietried hard to listen dutifully to all the "must nots" and "don't dos. "But all the time her eyes were on the clock and her mind was saying overand over again:

"In just half an hour we'll be on the train. In just half an hour we'llbe on the train. "

Then Chet came in and her father, and, finding that it was almost traintime, postponed their breakfast to see her off. A few minutes later theystarted off to pick up the girls on the way to the station. 

They found them waiting impatiently, and wildly eager to be off. About ablock from the station they heard the whistle of the train, and the girlswould run for it, though they really had plenty of time. 

At last they were in the train with the boys and their parents waving tothem. Then suddenly they realized that they were moving. They wereactually on their way!

"Give my regards to the ghosts!" cried Chet as the train moved off, "anddon't scare them all off before I get there!"

CHAPTER XIII

CHERRY CORNERS

As the train drew out of the station Billie leaned back with a sigh ofpure happiness. 

"You know, " she said, looking at the girls with sparkling eyes, "this isthe very first time that I have ever been away from North Bend withoutthe folks. "

"But don't forget you've got me to look after you, " put in Mrs. Gilligan, with a twinkle in her eyes. "I'm goin' to see that you don't get intomischief. "

"I don't know but what we shall have to look out that you don't get intomischief, " said Laura with a chuckle. "Mr. Gilligan told me once that youweren't to be trusted out alone. "

"Huh, " retorted Mrs. Gilligan good-naturedly, "it's him that Iwouldn't be trusting. But what, " she asked, looking curiously atBillie, "did your brother mean by saying not to scare away the ghostsbefore he gets there?"

"Oh, " laughed Billie, "he has a sort of idea that the house at CherryCorners is inhabited by spirits--just because mother said that thehalls and rooms were spooky. He will be terribly disappointed if hedoesn't see half a dozen ghosts. "

"Well, I wouldn't, " said Violet with a shudder, for now that they were onthe way to their adventure, her courage was beginning to fail. 

"Ghosts!" repeated Mrs. Gilligan, with a fun-loving light in her eyes. "Better not any ghosts come around me or I'll give 'em a taste of therolling pin. "

The girls laughed. The picture of Mrs. Maria Gilligan assaulting a ghostwith a rolling pin was indeed a funny one. 

"Well, " said Billie a little later, as she started to unpin her hat, "Idon't know about you girls, but I'm going to be comfortable. We have along ride before us. "

"I suppose we might as well take off our hats and stay awhile, " agreedLaura, following suit. "Say, girls, " she added, as she stuck her hat upin the rack above her head, "I just thought of something last night. "

"Was it anything important?" asked Billie, with a wicked little look. 

"I don't know whether you would think so, " Laura retorted calmly. "I waswondering why we didn't take the night train that reaches Roland, thenearest station to Cherry Corners, in the morning. "

"That would have been a good idea, wouldn't it?" said Billie. "Now wewill reach the house after dark. "

"When all the spooks are roaming, " added Laura, in a ghostly voice. 

"Goodness!" cried Violet, turning uncomfortably in her seat, "if yougirls don't stop talking about ghosts I'll just get out and go home. "

"Got your car fare?" asked Laura. 

"No. But I could always walk, " returned Violet. "And I'd almost rather doit than spend the night in the company of ghosts. "

"Well, you'd better decide in a hurry, " said Billie, with a chuckle, "because the longer you take to make up your mind, the farther you willhave to walk back. "

"All right, " said Violet, suddenly goaded into an unusual firmness. "Youpromise me this minute that you won't say another word about ghosts untilwe get there, or I'll get off at the very next station and walk back. "

"It's ten miles, " Laura warned her. 

"I don't care if it's twenty, " she returned stoutly, and laughingly thegirls promised. 

"It would be a crime to wear out those perfectly good shoes, " saidLaura, looking at Violet's trim suede footgear. "Especially with pricesgoing up. "

Billie groaned. 

"I think I'll have to try Violet's trick, " she said. "If anybody mentionsthe high cost of living to me while we're away on this vacation, I'llget out and walk home. I don't care if it's a hundred miles. "

"Going up?" laughed Laura, but they promised just the same. Forunderneath Billie's lightness they knew that she was still puzzling herwits for some way to pay for that broken statue. 

"Here comes a man with magazines, " said Laura. "We'd better get a coupleto pass the time away. An all-day trip is pretty tiresome. At least I'veheard mother say so. "

They bought the magazines, but they might just as well not have done so, for when they reached Roland late that afternoon they had hardly peepedinside the covers. 

The scenery was so beautiful and wild, the whole trip was so wonderfullynovel that the time flew, and before they realized it they had reachedthe station next to Roland. 

"Goodness, I didn't think we were anywhere near there, yet!" criedViolet, as she began to gather up her things. "I never knew a day to goso quickly in my life. Billie, are these your candies? You'd better notleave them on the seat. "

"Who said I was going to?" cried Billie, rescuing her sweets just asLaura was in the act of sitting on them. "Here, there's just roomfor them in the corner of my grip. Mrs. Gilligan, have you got thetrunk checks?"

"I hope so, " said the woman, opening her hand bag. 

The girls watched her breathlessly and sighed with relief when she drewout the checks. 

"All safe and sound, " she said. "Now get on your hats and coats, girls. We're apt to have a wild scramble at the last if you aren't readybeforehand. "

So, laughing and excited, the girls obeyed her, putting on their wrapshurriedly and laughing at Laura when she got her hat over one eye. 

"Here, put it on straight, " cried Billie, performing that service forher friend. "We don't want to have our reputations ruined the minute westep on the platform. Who ever heard of a perfect lady with her hatover one eye?"

"Well, if you don't like my company--" Laura began good-naturedly, as shesquinted at her distorted reflection in the little two-by-four mirror setin the tiny space of wall between the windows. "Gracious, Billie, youtook it off of one eye to put it over the other. Do I look more like aperfect lady with my hat over my right eye?"

Billie chuckled and pushed the hat over Laura's nose, at which Laurawould have protested vigorously and, if must be, forcefully, if there hadnot been other passengers in the train besides themselves. As it was, shehad to be content with an indignant stare, which Billie, with twinklingeyes, calmly turned her back upon. 

"Roland! Roland!" called the conductor in stentorian tones, and withlittle squeals of excitement the girls found their hand baggage, gave onelast little pat to their hats, and started toward the door. 

"You go first, Mrs. Gilligan, " cried Violet, pushing that womanbefore her. 

"I wonder if Vi expects the ghosts to meet us at the station?" chuckledLaura in Billie's ear. "She reminds me of a relative of ours who alwayspushes her escort in front of her when she meets a strange dog. "

Billie giggled, caught her grip on the arm of one of the seats, rescuedit again, and finally made her way with the others to the platform. 

It was a rather old and broken-down platform, just as Roland proved to bea rather old and broken-down place, and the girls stood on it ruefully asthey watched the train rumble off in the distance. 

"Now we're in for it, " said Billie, her eyes taking in adisconsolate-looking store or two and a drooping post-office. "I wonderif this is what they call the village?"

"Well, we're not going to live here, " said Mrs. Gilligan briskly. "Andyou can't expect to find a thriving town away off a hundred miles fromnowhere. Come on, let's see if we can find some sort of a wagon to takeus and our belongings to Cherry Corners. I don't suppose, " she added, asthey crossed the street toward a building a little more dilapidated thanthe rest that had the words Livery Stable painted on a blurred sign overthe door, "that there is any sort of hotel or boarding house where wemight put up for the night. "

"Mother didn't remember about that. You see she had been here only once, "said Billie. "But I don't imagine there is--any place that we would wantto stay at, " she added, making a wry little face. 

The place, in truth, was not attractive, nor did it promise much, outwardly at least, as a refuge for the night. Besides the street onwhich were the forlorn looking stores and the post-office and a fewother nondescript looking buildings that might have been used foralmost any possible purpose, there seemed to be but two streets onwhich were built the dwelling houses. These, for the most part, weresimple and plain enough, each with its yard, well or ill kept, in frontand a garden and chicken yard behind. Only one was a little morepretentious in appearance, but that, too, had attached to it its gardenand chicken yard. 

However, they found that there was no necessity for their finding aplace, if place there was to be found to stay for the night. They foundthe owner of the livery stable with two old but well-preserved vehicleswhich he was eager to place at their disposal. 

They spent some time in getting enough provisions to last for a time andto supplement what had been sent from North Bend; then, in half an hourmore, with their luggage coming on behind, they were lumbering off over avery rocky road toward the house at Cherry Corners. 

Mrs. Gilligan was sitting in front with the driver while the three girlswere wedged uncomfortably in the back seat. 

"It--it's lucky we're not fat!" gasped Laura, as a particularly roughplace in the road fairly shook the breath out of her. "I don't know wherewe would have put ourselves. "

"One of us would have had to sit on the trunks on the cart, " chuckledBillie. "Ouch!" she cried, as they bounced over another "thank youma'am, " "I'm glad we haven't any more than five miles to go. Therewouldn't be any of us left alive. "

"Five miles!" grumbled Violet. "And my foot's asleep already. "

"Here, have some candy, " offered Billie soothingly, fishing one out ofher pocket. "It may make you feel better. "

"Well, it couldn't make me feel worse, " said Violet, accepting theoffering. "Although, " she added, with a laugh, "I don't see how it isgoing to help my sleepy foot. "

"Well, get up and stretch, " advised Laura. "Seventh inning. "

Violet started to follow her advice but was flung back full force intoBillie's lap, thereby squeezing out a startled "Umph!" from the sufferer. 

"Say, you needn't take it out on me, " cried Billie indignantly. "I didn'tput your foot to sleep. "

"She's no nurse girl, " murmured Laura. 

The girls laughed and forgot their discomfort. 

After a long time of jostling and squeezing they rounded a turn of theroad and Billie cried out. 

"There it is!" she said, standing up in the jolting vehicle. "Over therethrough the trees! Oh, girls! doesn't it look gloomy?"

CHAPTER XIV

WEIRD TALES

"Aye, and it is gloomy. "

Startled, the girls looked around for the voice, then realized that itwas their driver who had spoken. He had been silent all the way from thestation, and they had all but forgotten him. 

"What made you say that?" asked Billie, rather wonderingly. For althoughthe man had only repeated her own words, the tone in which he said themmade them appear twice as ominous. 

"It's a gloomy place, " he said once more, with a shake of his head. "Aye, and there be some folks around here as says it is haunted. "

"Do--do they really think so?" stammered Violet Farrington, beginning towish herself back in North Bend. 

"Aye, they think so, " he answered, in the same monotonous voice. "Andthere be some times that I don't blame 'em for what they thinks. "

"Do you think it's haunted?" asked Billie, with the hint of a laugh inher voice. Even here, in this forsaken place, with dusk coming on and theprospect of spending a night in a house people called haunted, Billie'ssense of humor did not altogether leave her. "Do you?" she repeated, thelaughter still more marked in her voice. 

The driver twisted around in his seat to see her before he answered. 

"It's all very well for you to laugh now, " he answered. "But maybe youwon't feel so much like laughin' in the morning. "

In spite of herself, Billie shivered a little, and the other girls lookedfrightened. 

"If I was you, " the driver went on with his unasked advice, "I'd turnright back an' spend the night in Roland. There's a boardin' house--"

"Nonsense, we're not going to turn back, " spoke up Mrs. Gilligan, atrifle sharply, for she could see that the driver's evil prophecies weregetting on the girls' nerves. "If there are any ghosts in thathouse--which of course there ain't--they'd just better show their facesaround me, that's all. I'll give 'em such a taste of my rolling pin thatthey'll get discouraged for good and all. "

She nodded her head vigorously, and the girls laughed. 

"All right, all right, " grumbled the driver, disgruntled at having hisideas treated in this highhanded manner. "You can laugh all you'rewanting to. But I tell you, if it was me--"

"Which it isn't, " Mrs. Gilligan interrupted shortly. 

"I wouldn't stay in that there haunted place for a farm, I wouldn't. "

"What makes you think it's haunted?" Laura persisted, for, of the threegirls, Laura was by far the most curious. "Do people see lights and hearfunny noises and such things?"

"Laura--" began Violet in protest. 

"Why no, Miss, " said the driver reluctantly. "I don't know as theyactually seen things, but they has heard queer noises. There was someboys once, " he went on, warming to his task of story teller, "asthought they'd have some fun. You know the old lady what owned theplace was nearly allus away and just left it to a caretaker that didn'ttake over much care of it--" He stopped to chuckle, and the girlsleaned forward eagerly. 

"What about them?" asked Billie impatiently. 

"Well, they thought as they'd play burglar an' break into the place an'make a regular lark of it. "

"Weren't they afraid they'd get caught?" asked Laura. 

"Not with Sheriff Higgins on the job, " chuckled the driver, in high goodhumor now that he was getting off his favorite yarn. They were nearingthe house and the girls hurried him on impatiently. 

"Well, they heard such funny humming noises and jingling like therattling of chains an' things, " said the driver, "that they got mostscared to death and ran back home like the old Nick was after them. Eversince then folks has said the place was haunted. "

"Stuff and rubbish!" said Mrs. Gilligan, as the team came to a stopbefore the house. "A nice lot o' talk I call that to fill the girls upwith. Rattlin' of chains and hummin' noises! Huh!" And with her nosein the air to show her contempt of all such notions she swept out ofthe carriage. 

The girls followed, and ran back to the wagon that contained theirluggage and some provisions. The boy who had been driving this wagon wasalready unloading it, and the old fellow who had told them such gloomytales came hobbling back to lend a hand. 

Billie fished in her pocketbook for the key to the house which wassupposed to be haunted, and, finding it, held it up with a hand that wasnot quite steady. 

"Come on, " she said. "We've got to do it, I suppose. "

"Wh-who's going first?" asked Violet, regarding the gloomy bulk of therambling old house, now half hidden in the dusk, with troubled eyes. 

"I am, of course, " said Billie stoutly, adding with a gay little laugh:"I guess it's my right, isn't it? Why, this is my house--the first I'veever owned!"

"And welcome you be to it, " murmured the old man, to be promptly cowedby a withering look from Mrs. Gilligan. 

"Come on, " cried Billie again. "I'll go first, but you'll have to promiseto follow me in. "

"Why, of course we'll follow you in, " said Violet, loyal through allher fear. "You don't suppose we'd let you go into that awful placealone, do you?"

"Well, I like that!" cried Billie, leading the way up the stone-pavedwalk. "Calling my beautiful old homestead an awful place. "

"Yes, I'm surprised at you, Vi, " added Laura, as she followed close atBillie's heels. "Don't you know you should have some tact? Even if it isawful, you shouldn't talk about it--"

Billie stopped and stared indignantly. 

"If you say another word, " she threatened, "I'll make you go first. "

The threat had the desired effect, and both Violet and Laura protestedthat it was the most beautiful place on the face of the earth, or wordsto that effect. 

"You'd better be giving the key to me, " said Mrs. Gilligan. "Wecan't stand out here talkin' all night. Besides, the door probablyhas an old-fashioned lock on it, and they ain't a lock anywhere thatcan fool me. "

Billie meekly handed over the key, and Mrs. Gilligan marched majesticallybefore them up to the front door. She bent down to examine the lock, then fitted the key into it. 

With a groaning and squeaking of rusty hinges, the heavy door swunginward, and the girls found themselves staring into a black well ofhallway that seemed to have no windows anywhere. 

"Gracious! did anybody think to bring matches?" asked Laura in anawed whisper. 

"Sure and I did, " Mrs. Gilligan's matter-of-fact voice reassured her. "Five whole boxes I brought. But I've got something even better than thatfor the present occasion. "

She drew from the pocket of her coat a small electric torch and flashedit into the interior of the house. The bright light showed them glimpsesof queer chairs standing about in odd corners and finally lighted up abroad stairway. 

"It's the hall, " announced Mrs. Gilligan. "Now forward march, and we'llsoon find out where the lights are. "

"There must be a push button somewhere, " suggested Violet, and even intheir present nervous state the other girls laughed at her. 

"A push button!" cried Laura. "Do you expect to find electric lights outin this wilderness?"

"We're lucky if we find a chandelier somewhere, " added Billie. "I hope wedon't have to burn candles or lamps. They aren't just exactly what youmight call cheerful. "

"And something cheerful is what we need, " added Laura ruefully. 

"Well, if you're after acetylene gas I guess you'll be disappointed, "said Mrs. Gilligan as her torch lighted up a wonderful old-fashionedrichly carved candelabrum containing a dozen candles, half burned andlooking rather wilted. "It's candles we'll be burning while we're here. "

The girls groaned. 

"But they give such a ghostly, flickering light, " protested Violet, as ifit were in some way Mrs. Gilligan's fault. "I know I'll never be able tostand it, " and she glanced nervously over her shoulder. 

"Well, could you stand the dark any better?" asked Mrs. Gilliganpractically, as she began to light the candles one after another. "Therewill probably be other candelabra in the house, and if you get enough ofthem burning there's nothing in this world that is prettier. For myself Ijust love candle light. "

"Yes, when you're in civilization, " put in Laura. "But not out here. "

"I've found another one!" cried Billie, who had been prospecting on herown account. "And here's another! Why we'll have a big illuminationbefore we're through. "

"That's the way to talk, " said Mrs. Gilligan approvingly, as she crossedover to Billie's side of the large hall and began to light the othercandles. "If we just make the best of everything and make up our mindsto have a good time, we'll have a good time. And if we don't we mightjust as well take the driver's advice and go home again. "

"Go home? Well I should just say not!" cried Laura. "The very idea ofsuch a thing! The boys would tease the life out of us. We'd never hearthe end of it. "

"Well then, we're going to have a good time, " Mrs. Gilligan decided, adding, as she turned toward the door: "Where have those men gone? I toldthem to bring in the things. "

She went out to see about it with the girls at her heels and found theold man and the boy in a heated argument over something. 

"Well, if you want to go into that there haunted house, it's yourconcern, " the old man was saying in a querulous voice. "As for me, I wouldn't step a foot inside of it, no sir, not if you was to giveme a farm!"

CHAPTER XV

A NOISE IN THE DARK

"Maybe you wouldn't do it for a farm, " said Mrs. Gilligan, stridingresolutely toward the man and the boy, while the two drew apart andstared at her in surprise, "but you're goin' to do it for me. If youthink I'm going to lug those trunks and provisions and things into thehouse all by myself, you never was so much mistaken in your life. What doyou suppose I'm paying you my good money for? Now, get a move on andhurry those things inside, or I'll have to take a hand in the mattermyself. Trunks first!"

And too much surprised by this deluge of words to refuse, the oldman turned to the trunks, and, assisted by the boy, carried theminto the hall. 

"This is far enough, " he said, but Mrs. Maria Gilligan, accustomed tohaving her own way, would have none of it. 

"Upstairs, " she ordered. "You don't suppose we are going to sleep onthe ground floor, do you? And we're not going to carry themourselves, either. "

And once more the old man obeyed her, while the boy, wicked youngster, laughed at him behind his back. 

"If you meet a ghost coming downstairs, Gramper, " he taunted, "just tellhim to be careful and not stumble over you. There now, be careful, willyou? You almost dropped the thing on my foot. "

The girls watched the two go upstairs with Mrs. Gilligan bringing up therear to make sure they did not stop half way, and then turned to eachother with a queer expression, half of amusement, half of uneasiness, ontheir faces. 

"Well, we always wanted an adventure, " said Laura, as they turned back tothe open door, feeling an instinctive need of getting out of the house, "and now we're having one. "

"A regular one, " agreed Billie, adding decidedly: "And I'm going to enjoymyself. Why, Laura, " with a touch of excitement, "did you notice thosefunny old chairs and things? They're really very pretty, and they aresurely very old. I shouldn't wonder--"

"Oh, Billie, " cried Violet rapturously, "do you suppose you could getreal money for them? If you could, " she added with the air of amartyr that made the girls laugh, "it would be worth even braving theghosts for. "

"You don't really believe that silly thing, do you?" asked Billie, turning back into the hall. "It's all in a foolish old man'simagination. "

"All right. And now you can bring in the provisions, " they heard Mrs. Gilligan directing. "I don't know where the kitchen is, but I supposethere is one somewhere. I'll find it while you start to bring thethings in. "

"We'll each take a candle, " cried Billie, her eyes shining in theflickering candle light, "and look for the kitchen. Come on, girls, follow the leader. "

So, with Mrs. Gilligan at the head, they marched through what seemed tobe a library, seen dimly by the light thrown by their four candles, intoa room whose table and chairs showed it to be the dining-room. 

"The kitchen must be just beyond, then, " said Laura, beginning to enjoyherself immensely. "There's a door, Mrs. Gilligan. Look out--don't bumpyour head. "

But Mrs. Gilligan had no intention of bumping her head. She swung openthe door in question, and they found themselves in a butler's pantry thatseemed almost as large as Billie's bedroom at home. 

"Goodness! the Powerson that first built the house must have expectedto entertain lots of company, " exclaimed Violet, looking with wonderat the rows of curtained cupboards. "I wonder if there are dishes inall of them?"

"We haven't time to look now, " said Mrs. Gilligan, stopping her as shewas about to peep inside a closet. "We can do all that to-morrow when wehave daylight. Ah, here's the kitchen, " she added, as she stepped into ahuge room--the regular type of a very old kitchen that could be used assitting-room as well. 

"Gracious, it's a house!" cried Billie, moving her candle about in aneffort to light up the corners of the place. "There isn't any end to it. "

"I'm glad I don't have to keep it clean as a steady job, " said Mrs. Gilligan grimly. "Now, girls, let's go back and find our two friends withthe provisions. I don't know how you feel about it, but as for me, alittle something to eat wouldn't go at all bad. "

"We're just starved, " they cried, and began a concerted rush back to thefront of the house where their "friends with the provisions" were. 

However, when they arrived there, they found the provisions spread uponthe driveway but the man and boy had disappeared. 

"Humph!" grunted Mrs. Gilligan, her mouth straightening to a grim line, "I had more than a notion that that old fellow would clear out, and ofcourse the young one wouldn't stay alone. I shouldn't have trusted themout of my sight!"

She began picking up bags and packages, and the girls followed suit. Before very long they had gathered up all the provisions and werestaggering back, arms laden, toward the house. 

They found their way back to the kitchen again and dropped the thingsthankfully on the table. 

"Now for something to eat!" cried Laura. "What shall we have, Mrs. Gilligan? I suppose it will have to be a cold supper, " she added, looking about for some means of cooking and discovering only an immensecoal stove. 

"I suppose it would take forever to make a fire in that, " said Billie, indicating the stove and thinking longingly of hot steak and potatoes, "even if they have any coal. "

"Here's plenty of coal, " said Mrs. Gilligan, who had been finding thingsout in her own practical and efficient way, "and here is plenty of woodand old newspapers to start it going. Indeed and we're not going to haveany cold supper, " she added, while in imagination the girls already weresniffing the aroma of broiling steak. "Not after that long ride an'cheerful conversation!"

With the prospect of supper, and a hot supper, so close at hand, thegirls could laugh at the gloomy stories of the old driver. 

"We'll help, " cried Laura. "Come on, girls, let's see if we can findenough dishes to set the table. "

So they went gayly to work, setting the table and peeling potatoes, whichMrs. Gilligan proceeded to fry, and enjoyed themselves immensely. 

"Shall we eat in the kitchen?" asked Violet, pausing with a pile ofplates in her hand. "Or shall we be very proper and eat in thedining-room?"

"Oh, the kitchen's a lot more cheerful, " said Billie, shivering a littlein spite of herself as she thought of the dark, rather dreary room justthe other side of the door. 

"Besides, what we want we want in a hurry, " said Laura, taking the dishesfrom Violet and setting them decidedly on the table. "To-morrow will betime enough to put on airs. Just now all I want to do is to eat!"

While they were waiting for the supper to cook and after they had done asmuch as they could toward its preparation, the girls looked about thekitchen and the gloomy dining room a bit. The latter room was dark andcheerless, and they wondered that any one should have selected it for adining room. The woodwork was all of black walnut, and there was much ofit, the window frames and door frames being heavy and ornate and the roombeing wainscoted with the same dark wood. The room was large, too, andthere were windows at one end only, and that toward the north. 

"Oh, come! let us get out of here, " finally cried Laura, grabbing each ofthe other girls by an arm and running with them out into the morecheerful kitchen. 

"Oh, that steak!" cried Billie longingly, as she drifted over to thestove. "Isn't it nearly done, Mrs. Gilligan? This is cruelty to animals. "

Mrs. Gilligan chuckled and turned the steak on the other side. 

"Almost ready now, " she said, adding another piece of butter to thegolden browned potatoes. "Have you girls cut the cake? It's in one of thepackages I brought in--on the end of the table. Don't cut it all now, "she warned, as there was a joyful rush for the cake. "We want some of itleft for to-morrow. "

The girls did not cut it all--quite. But they did cut a good two-thirdsof it--and ate it all, too!

It was a strange sort of meal--the candle-lit kitchen, the hastily settable, the faces of the girls and Mrs. Gilligan brought out in boldrelief by the flickering candle light. 

The meal was delicious, and the girls ate ravenously, but from time totime one of them would shift uneasily in her seat and look nervously overher shoulder into the dark corners of the room. 

Instead of the dinner making them more courageous, it seemed to be havingthe opposite effect, for when they had finished their cake and thesteaming hot coffee, they found themselves talking in whispers as if theywere afraid of the sound of their own voices. 

Billie, suddenly realizing this, spoke aloud, and Laura and Violet jumpednervously. 

"What's the matter with us?" Billie asked, her voice sounding strangelyloud and unnatural even to herself in the hushed stillness all about. "We never used to be so awfully quiet. And I'm sure we don't have towhisper about it. "

"I--I suppose, " shivered Violet, "that it's because everything else isso quiet. It sort of has its effect on us. I wish, " she added, with asudden little outburst unusual in Violet, "that that horrid old driverhadn't told us that horrid story. I catch myself listening for noisesall the time. "

"But that's foolish, " said Mrs. Gilligan, in that every-day, matter-of-fact tone that never failed to give the girls courage. "Thereisn't one of us who believes anything he said, so why let it worry us?Come on, " she said, rising and beginning to gather together the dishes, "we'll get these things put away in a hurry, and then go up to bed. Ithink a good night's rest is what you need. "

"Oh, but I don't want to go up in the spooky upstairs part, " whisperedViolet to Billie, as she scraped some odds and ends off on a plate. "Oh, why didn't we travel by night, so that we could have reached herein the morning?"

"Well, we didn't, so there's no use worrying about it, " said Billiesharply, for the situation was beginning to get on her own nerves. Shehad caught herself dreading the moment when they must leave the more orless cheerful kitchen for the upper floor of the house. 

And then the minute came. 

"Take a couple of candles apiece and follow me, " Mrs. Gilligan said. "Ihad your grips all put in the upper hall. Now then, let's find out whatkind of beds we have to sleep in--if any!"

So, with little creepy chills chasing themselves up and down theirspines, the girls obeyed, keeping close together and looking fearfullyinto the dark shadows. 

They had just started up the stairs when Violet cried out, her voicesounding sharp in the stillness:

"What's that?"

Right over their heads there came a creepy, slithery sound, followed by aloud thump. 

The girls groaned and clutched each other. 

"The ghost!" said Violet, in a terrified whisper. 

CHAPTER XVI

SHADOWS AND MYSTERY

"Well, if it's a ghost, " announced Mrs. Maria Gilligan in a loudvoice, "I never did hear one that sounded so much like a suitcasesliding off a trunk. "

The girls giggled and followed Mrs. Gilligan as she strode up the stairs. The flickering candles made grotesque shadows on the walls; the house, after that noise, was as still as a tomb, and despite the comfortingpresence of their valiant chaperone, the girls kept close together forprotection. 

"D-do you suppose it was only a s-suitcase?" stammered Violet. 

"Don't whisper in my ear--you tickle, " hissed Billie, and again theylaughed hysterically. 

"Look out, now, go slow, " Mrs. Gilligan was cautioning them. "We don'twant to stumble over this luggage and get a broken leg or two. Ouch!" sheexclaimed, as she stubbed her toe against something hard. "I guess I'mthe first casualty!"

She bent down to find what she had stumbled against, while the girlsglanced nervously into the corners of the hall which the flickeringcandle light only seemed to make more dark. 

"Goodness, if we feel like this now, I don't see how we're ever going tospend the night here, " cried Laura, shivering a little. "I don't believeI'll be able to sleep a wink. "

"Oh, yes, you will, " said Billie, trying hard to make her voice soundnatural and unconcerned. "We're all so tired we couldn't help sleepinganywhere. "

"Just as I thought, " said Mrs. Gilligan, referring to the object she hadstubbed her toe against. "Your suitcase, Billie, and the creepy noise weheard was when it slid off the trunk. Come on now, " she added, holdingher candle high over her head again, "let's see what we can find in theway of bedrooms. "

"Let's go in the first door we reach, " suggested Billie, and at themoment Mrs. Gilligan's candle showed a wide, high doorway leading into ablack cavern of a room. 

"Well, here's the first one, " she said. "If we have luck and find somebedding--"

She was already feeling her way cautiously between several chairs andtables, with the girls following close behind. 

"There's the bed!" cried Laura. "Oh, isn't it funny? A regular oldfour-poster. "

"With a canopy over it!" marveled Violet. 

"And it's made up with clean things, " added Billie, making anotherdiscovery. "Goodness, it makes you feel like the 'Little Princess' whenshe found all the good things in her room. "

"Sure enough, it has been made fresh, " said Mrs. Gilligan, as shewonderingly turned down a somewhat dusty spread and disclosed snowysheets beneath. 

"Somebody's been keeping house anyway, " said Laura. 

"Here's room for two of you girls, " said Mrs. Gilligan. 

"Oh, we all three want to sleep together, " cried Violet, fearful that shemight be picked to sleep alone. "There's safety in numbers. "

"All right, but I have to sleep somewhere, " Mrs. Gilligan reminded herwith a wry little smile. "Aren't you going to help me find some place?This may be the only bed that's in sleeping condition in the house. "

"Then we'd have to sleep four in a bed, " said Billie, with a chuckle. "But come on, let's see if some kind fairy hasn't prepared for you too, Mrs. Gilligan. "

Laughing, the girls pushed out into the hall and looked for the nextdoorway. They no longer glanced fearfully in the corners for somethingthey were afraid to see. The thought of the nice clean bed pushed alltheir weird fancies into the background. Ghosts and clean beds did notseem to go together!

They found another room just as clean as the other one, and also with acanopied four-poster in one corner. With cries of delight the girlsdiscovered that it also was ready for occupancy. 

"Goodness, I wonder who could have done it?" mused Violet, as she droppeddown on the edge of the bed and regarded the girls wonderingly. 

"Maybe it was a ghost, " said Laura, with a chuckle, and Violet glancedaround uneasily. 

"Can't you forget about ghosts for five minutes?" she asked ratherirritably, for she was tired after the long day's trip. "Just when I'mbeginning to be happy--"

"There, there, " cried Billie soothingly. "Don't go and get mad, Vi, darling, or our last hope will be gone. I guess Aunt Beatrice left itthis way. Gracious! what's that?"

"Only me opening a door, " said Mrs. Gilligan from the farther end of theroom. "My, but you girls are jumpy! Better get to bed, " she added, crossing over to them with a decided step. "You're tired, and everythingwill seem better in the morning. Off with you now. No, not that way, " asthey started toward the hall, the way they had come in. "I've found adoor between our two rooms--it was opening that that made you jump. See?"

"A connecting door!" cried Billy delightedly. "Oh, that's fine!"

"Yes, you can lock your door, Mrs. Gilligan, and we'll lock ours, andwe'll all be as snug--"

"As bugs in a rug, " finished Laura, putting an arm about Violet andpushing her into the other room. 

"Aren't you going to take your candles?" Mrs. Gilligan called after them. "I fancy you'll need them to undress by. "

"I fancy I'll need mine all night, " said Laura in an undertone with a wrylittle grimace, as Violet went back for the candles. "I'm just scared todeath to stay here in the dark. "

"But we won't be able to keep these burning all night, " said Billie, pausing in the act of unlacing her shoe to gaze at her half-burnedcandle. "They will probably burn out in a couple of hours. "

Laura looked panicky. 

"Well, some one will have to go down and get some more, " she said, andgazed at Billie thoughtfully. 

"Goodness, you needn't look at me when you say that, " said the latter, going energetically to work on the other shoe. "I wouldn't go down intothat gloomy place again for all the money there is in the world. "

"But we'll be left in the dark, " said Laura, staring at Billie as if itwere all her fault. 

"Who said anything about being left in the dark?" asked Violet, returning with a candle in each hand, the flickering light illumining herface and making her look like some saint. 

"I did, and we will if you don't go down and get more candles, " saidLaura, turning her fire against the newcomer. 

"Go down and get candles all by myself?" asked Violet. Then she walkedover to the table and set the two candles down with a decided thump. "You're crazy, " she said. 

"Well, the best thing I can see to do, " said Billie, letting down herlong hair and brushing it vigorously, "is to get to bed, go to sleep, andforget all about it. "

"Yes, if we _can_ sleep, " said Laura doubtfully, as she took hernightgown out of the grip. 

The girls undressed as quickly as they could, said their prayers, andcrawled under the sheets, pulling them up tight beneath their chins. 

"You know, " whispered Billie, after they had been quiet for some timestaring up at the ceiling, "I have an idea that I've got the worst ofthis bargain. "

"Now what are you raving about?" asked Laura, turning a pair ofunnaturally bright eyes upon her. 

"Why, you chose the middle of the bed and Vi took the end nearestthe wall. That leaves me on the outside to ward off the ghosts. Itisn't fair. "

"Oh, but, Billie dear, you're ever so much braver than we are, " saidViolet cajolingly. "Don't you remember how you've said right along thatyou weren't afraid of ghosts?"

"Well, I'm not, " said Billie stoutly, while her eyes searched the farcorners of the room which were beginning to get very indistinct andcreepy in the flickering uncertain light of the fast shortening candles. "And, anyway, " she added, the thought seeming to comfort her, "I lockedthe door. "

"Well, don't you know a ghost can walk right through a door?" askedLaura, and Violet bounced in the bed and came down with a thud. 

"Stop it, " she commanded. "I'm trying my hardest to get to sleep beforethose candles burn out. When it gets pitch dark in here I never can. "

"And all this comes under the head of pleasure, " murmured Laura with alittle chuckle. 

"All right--we'll keep still, " agreed Billie. "I think myself that thebest thing we can do is get to sleep. Night, girls. We'll all feel betterin the morning. "

"If we're here to feel anything, " added Violet gloomily. 

For a long time the girls lay wide-eyed and quiet, but gradually the lawof nature asserted itself. Their eyelids drooped, and the deep regularbreathing showed that they were asleep. 

It was about three o'clock in the morning that it happened. Tortured bydreams in which she was being chased by a ghost in goggles and a greenmotor car, Violet finally awoke and lay staring out at the dark. 

Then suddenly she sat up. Her dream had followed her into the world ofreality. There was the same strange, weird purring noise that soundedlike, yet was strangely unlike, the chugging of a motor car. 

She sat absolutely still with every nerve tense, feeling chillyand scared. 

At last she could stand it no longer and, leaning over, touched Lauragently on the arm. 

"What's the matter?" cried the latter, starting up fearfully. At the samemoment Billie opened her eyes. 

"That noise!" whispered Violet. "Listen!"

CHAPTER XVII

ONLY A BAT

The three girls sat quiet, every nerve tense, that same chilly sensationcreeping up their spines, and their hair beginning to stand on end. 

Out there in that wilderness, at three o'clock in the morning, a noisethat sounded something like a motor car and yet was unlike anything theyhad ever heard before, might have frightened more experienced people thanthree fourteen-year-old girls. 

"H-here it comes!" whispered Violet, clutching at Laura's arm, whileLaura in her turn clutched at Billie's. "It's coming closer! Oh, girls--is it in the house?"

"Sh!" cried Billie. "It's a machine--it must be a machine--out onthe road. "

"But in this forsaken place, in the middle of the night?" cried Laura, beginning to shiver as though she were cold. "It--it can't be, Billie!"

"Sh-h, " said Billie again. "Listen!"

The purring sound was coming closer, seemed almost in the house, it wasso near--Then came an awful thought to Billie. Could it really be in thehouse? Was it possible that those awful stories about ghosts were true?

But no, the noise was passing on, getting softer, softer, dying off inthe distance. 

"It--it must have been a machine, " said Laura, beginning to laughhysterically. "Vi, what did you go and wake me up in the middle of thenight for just to hear an automobile? I was having such a lovely sleep. "

"But I'm not so sure it was a motor car, " insisted Violet stubbornly, thespell of the dream still upon her. "It didn't sound like it. "

"But it couldn't have been anything else, " said Billie, trembling alittle with the reaction. "We heard it coming down the road, heard itpass the house, and go on. It simply must have been a machine. "

"Oh, all right, " said Violet, adding with a little sigh: "Well, I guessnone of us will sleep any more to-night. I'm not even going to try. "

"Well, I am, " said Billie, leaning back and closing her eyes, yet knowingthat she was as wide awake as she had ever been in her life. "I don't seeany use in lying here and listening for things. Good night once more, girls--I'm off. "

"Meaning you're crazy?" asked Laura, to which Billie made no reply. 

As a matter of fact, even while they were saying they could sleep no morethat night, the girls did go to sleep, and, what is more, slept soundlyuntil they were awakened by Mrs. Gilligan's voice calling to them fromthe connecting doorway. 

"Do you expect to sleep all day?" she was asking them, her face rosy andherself very nice and trim in a light blue house dress. "This is thethird time I've spoken to you, and I was beginning to get worried. "

"Wh-what time is it?" demanded Laura sleepily. 

"About eleven, " Mrs. Gilligan answered calmly, and they gasped. 

"Eleven!" repeated Billie, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes hard. "For goodness' sake, how did it get that way? I feel as if I hadn't hadany sleep at all. "

"Well, I've had the most awful dreams, " complained Violet, turning overas if she intended to go to sleep again. "I've done nothing but dream ofghosts and motor cars all night. "

At the mention of ghosts Mrs. Gilligan broke into hearty laughter. 

"Ghosts?" she said, her eyes sparkling. "I shouldn't think you'd betalking of ghosts any more. Here you've spent a whole night in the houseand no spirits have bothered you yet. I should think you'd be satisfied. "

"Oh, but didn't you hear that noise in the night?" Violet asked her, turning over and forgetting the nap she had been about to take. "Wegirls were just about scared to death. "

"Speak for yourself, " said Laura, who, whether she had really beenfrightened or not, never liked to have anybody tell her about it. 

"You were scared too, what's the use of denying it?" Violet demandedhotly, but Mrs. Gilligan interrupted them. 

"Never mind about that, " she said, with a smile. "Just tell me about thisnoise you thought you heard. "

So the girls told her about their weird experience of the night before, all talking at once and making it as hard as possible for Mrs. Gilliganto understand what it was all about. 

"A noise that sounded like a motor car, " she said, when they had finishedand had paused for lack of breath. "Well, I don't see what's so veryqueer about that. May have been some joy-riders or something. "

"But who would be joy-riding in this part of the country?" Lauraobjected. "The country people hereabouts probably don't know what theword means. "

"That particular sport does seem to belong to the idle rich, " Mrs. Gilligan agreed, with a chuckle. "Well, " she added, getting up andstarting for the door, "whatever it is, or was, we needn't go withoutour breakfast because of it. How would you like some bacon and eggs andbiscuits?"

The suggestion worked like a charm, and before Mrs. Gilligan had finishedthe girls were out of bed and feeling about for their clothes. 

"You know the room doesn't look half bad by daylight, " remarked Violet, as she was arranging her hair before an elaborately framed old mirror. "And it surely is quite clean. "

"But it's horribly gloomy, just as mother said. " Billie was regarding thedingy woodwork, now almost black with age, and the huge four-poster withits funereal canopied top, and the large pictures of dead and goneancestors that adorned the walls. "The only really good things in thewhole room are the tables and chairs. They look, " she added hopefully, "as if they might bring in a little money. Perhaps I'll be able to payfor the statue after all. "

"Oh, and I'm just crazy to see the rest of the house by daylight, " saidLaura, clapping her hands. "Come on, you slow pokes, aren't you evergoing to be ready?"

"We're ready now, " said Billie, putting an arm about Violet and hurryingher to the door. "Oh, is that bacon I smell--and coffee?" she asked asthrough the open door came a whiff of the good things below. 

"You said it!" cried Laura, making a rush for lower floor with Billie andViolet not very far behind her. "And it isn't going to be more thanabout two minutes before I taste that same bacon and eggs. "

When they reached the lower hall they were surprised to see that itlooked almost as gloomy and forbidding as it had the night before, inspite of the fact that the front door was open and sunlight wasstreaming through. 

"Ugh!" said Laura, with a shudder, "I don't wonder that they had gloomydispositions in the old days if they had to live in houses like these. It's enough to give one the creeps. "

"I'm glad you like my property so much, " said Billie, with a demurelittle smile. "I haven't heard you say one nice thing about it yet. "

"We have treated our hostess rather rudely, haven't we?" laughedViolet, putting an arm about Billie and drawing her out into thesunshine. "But really, Billie, we're quite sure that you don't like itany better than we do. "

"And you are quite right, " Billie assured her, then added, breaking awayand running a little in front of them: "Girls, let's see if we can findany signs of that car we heard last night. "

Eagerly they scanned the rocky road, but could see no traces of anyvehicle that would be big enough to make the noise they had heard thenight before. 

"The plot thickens, " said Laura, as they started back to the houseto eat the bacon and eggs and biscuits. "We hear a car, but see notraces of it. "

"It must have been a spirit car, " said Violet, adding, with a plaintivelittle sigh that made the girls laugh: "In spite of all my perfectly goodtraining, I'm beginning to believe in ghosts. "

After breakfast the girls roamed around the big house, nosing intocorners, calling each other's attention to this and that queer ornamentor article of furniture--and there were plenty of them, --and otherwisethoroughly enjoying themselves. But as yet they did not venture into thegloomy cellar with its mysterious tunnels. 

In the drawing-room they found a queer old piano which Violet declaredmust date back farther than Revolutionary days and which Billie, amidgibes and laughter from her chums, tried to play. 

After she had tried and failed on half a dozen different compositions, she gave up the attempt, and they roamed upstairs, looking through oneroom after another until Billie accidentally opened the door that led tothe attic. 

"Here's where we want to go, girls, " she cried. "Mother said this was thespookiest place in the whole house--except the cellar. "

"Hadn't we better get Mrs. Gilligan to go with us?" asked Violet, holding back. "After last night I've had enough spooky experiences tolast me a week. "

"Oh, come on, " cried Laura, running ahead of them up the stairs. "I'llshow you two 'fraid cats--"

"Who's a 'fraid cat?" cried Billie, starting in hot pursuit. "I'll haveyou know that nobody dares call me such names and get away with it. Comeon, Vi, let's murder her. "

"Just try it, " Laura hissed at them dramatically from the head of thestairs. "I'd turn into another ghost and haunt you!"

"Oh, for goodness' sake, leave her alone, Billie, " Violet entreated. "We've got enough ghosts around here without Laura. What's that?"

"If you're going to scare me again, " began Laura, but it was Billie thistime who commanded silence. 

"Hush, I did hear something queer, " she said, and all threelistened intently. 

It came again, a weird little noise like the brushing of wings againstsome hard object, and the girls scarcely dared to breathe. Then out intothe hot open attic fluttered a tiny little object with webbed wings andthe body of a mouse. 

"A bat!" cried Laura, sinking down weakly and shaking with hystericallaughter. "Oh, girls, if I have to stay here another week I'll just dieof heart failure--I know I will!"

CHAPTER XVIII

A FISH STORY

The days passed without further scares until the time finally came whenthe boys were to arrive. 

During those days the girls roamed around the farm attached to CherryCorners. They found it for the most part a rocky place, with here andthere dense patches of woods. There was a brook and in this they saw somesmall fish darting about. 

"Maybe the boys will want to go fishing when they come, " suggestedBillie. 

The cherry trees also interested the chums--there were so many of them. The late cherries were ripe, and they spent a day in picking them, donning overalls for that purpose. Mrs. Gilligan took the fruit and madeseveral delicious pies and also a number of tarts. 

The place was certainly a lonesome one. Only once did they see twomen tramp by. The men eyed the girls curiously, but tramped onwithout speaking. 

"Certainly not very sociable, " was Violet's comment. 

At last came the time when the boys were to arrive. 

The girls were in a fever of excitement and anticipation, for they knewthat they would have just about twice as much fun with the boys aswithout them. 

"We can go on picnics, " said Laura, putting on her hat over one eye asshe had a habit of doing when unusually excited, "and long tramps in thewoods, and--oh, all sorts of things. "

"I wonder if that old wagon will ever come, " said Violet, lookinganxiously down the road. "If it doesn't hurry we'll be too late to meetthe train. "

The boy who daily brought them provisions from the village had beencommissioned to send the antiquated carriage after the girls so that theycould get down to the village in time to meet the early train. But thegirls, with no confidence in the country lad's memory, had been sure hewould forget all about it. 

"If he doesn't come pretty soon, the boys will get off the trainwith no one to meet them, " Violet went on worrying. "They won't knowwhere to go. "

"Goodness, they'll know where to go just as well as we did, " said Billie, regarding herself sideways in the mirror to be sure she had not forgottenanything. "They aren't infants, you know. "

"Here it comes! Here it comes!" sang out Laura from her place at thewindow. "Are you ready, girls?"

The answer was a concerted rush for the stairs and in another minute thegirls were out in the bright sunlight, running to meet the stage. 

The driver, who had been nodding in his seat, looked up as if surprisedat so much energy so early in the morning. 

"Oh, please hurry, " cried Billie, exasperated at the stupid look on theboy's face. "Don't you know that we're late already?"

"No'm, you're not late, " he assured her in a voice that matched hismanner. "The ten-thirty train's always 'bout half an hour late, anyways. "

"Well, that's just the reason it will probably be on time this morning, "remarked Billie, scrambling in after the girls. "When I'm late the trainsare always early. Please hurry, " she added, and the driver cluckedhalf-heartedly to his team. 

All the way down they worried for fear they would be late, but when theyreached Roland at last they found that their rural driver knew the habitsof trains in that part of the country better than they did, for they hada full thirty-five minutes to wait. 

However, they roused from their despondent attitudes when they heard afamiliar whistle in the distance, and began automatically to straightentheir hats. 

"Suppose they made up their minds not to come on this train?" Violetsuggested, but Laura cut in hastily. 

"If you're going to start worrying all over again about somethingdifferent, " she said, "I'll put you on the track and let the train runover you. "

At this dire threat Violet stopped worrying, vocally at least, and theystood first on one foot, then on the other, eagerly watching the train asit rounded a curve and came pounding down toward them. 

It had hardly drawn up to the station with a screeching of brakes andcome to a standstill before a cyclonic trio of boys leaped from one ofthe rear cars and came dashing toward the girls, waving hats and bags andvarious other personal articles high in the air as they came. 

"I say, but it was bully of you girls to come to meet us!" shouted FerdStowing, as they came within hailing distance. "It was more than weexpected, eh, fellows?"

"Sure! Didn't think you'd be up yet, " answered Teddy, looking exceedinglyhandsome--at least to Billie. 

"Up yet!" cried Billie, trying to look angry, which she could not dobecause she was altogether too happy and excited. "I don't know where youboys get your ideas, anyway. "

"Out of our brilliant craniums, " said Ferd modestly. "I say, girls, wheredo we go from here?"

"There's an old carriage that looks as if it were on its last legs, "laughed Violet, leading the way back to where the antiquated vehicle andits sleepy driver awaited them. "We came up in it, but I don't know howwe're all going to squeeze into it going back. "

"Say, fellows, we forgot to get our trunks, " said Chet, interruptinghimself in the midst of an earnest conversation with his sister. "Give meyour checks and I'll go back and see about them. "

"But if there isn't room for us, how are we ever going to get our baggageto the house?" Teddy asked. 

"We'll get the wagon that took ours up, " Laura answered. "We've got toget some provisions, anyway. "

So with a great deal of fun and laughter they looked up the ancient wagonand went to the general store to get a formidable supply of provisions. 

"Looks as if you were buying the store out, " Teddy remarked, as Billiepulled out a long list of items. "What's the big idea?"

"You boys, " said Billie, dimpling at him. "We knew what kind of appetitesyou would bring along with you, so we decided on safety first. "

"Now we know you girls are bright, " said Ferd admiringly, and Billie madea face at him. 

The ride to the house was one big lark. The boys sat on the trunks amongthe provisions, and the girls went off into gales of merriment at theircomical efforts not to step on the eggs or fall among the fruit. Theywere having such an awfully good time that even the solemn old driver hadto join in the fun. 

At last they reached Billie's house, and with much ceremony the boysjumped down from the wagon and ran to the carriage to help the girls out. And all they got for their pains was scorn and derision on the part ofthe girls. 

"Get out of the way before I step on you, little speck of dust, " Lauracried haughtily to Ferd, who turned up his collar and slunk along towardthe house as though his humiliation were more than he could bear, amidshouts of laughter from the merry crowd that followed him. 

"That's the way to treat 'em, Laura, " Chet cried, but at that Ferdturned upon him. 

"Say, you'd better look out, " he said belligerently. "I can't hit alady--"

"A which?" murmured Billie, with a wicked glance in Laura's direction. 

"For calling me names, " continued Ferd, glaring at Chet, who began totremble in mock fright; "but there's nothing to keep me from wiping theground up--"

"Yes there is! It's my ground, and I won't have it wiped up, " said Billiedecidedly, at which Ferd had to laugh and the mock war came to a close. 

"Say, this is some classy place, what?" said Chet, stopping in front ofthe rambling old house and regarding it admiringly. "Have you met withany ghosts yet, girls?"

"Oh, half a dozen, " said Laura indifferently, and he was just about toask some more questions when Mrs. Gilligan met them at the door and begangiving instructions. 

After that there was nothing to do but obey, and the boys and girls didnot meet again until lunch time. Then they regarded each other across thetable joyfully. 

"I say, let's go for a tramp in the woods this afternoon, " Ferdsuggested, after he and the other lads had taken a look around the house. "This is the prettiest, wildest country I've ever seen, and I'd like tonose about a little. "

"But we thought you'd like to see what the attic and cellar look like, "said Billie. "We had the afternoon all planned. "

"Let's do that to-morrow, " Ferd begged boyishly. "This is too nice a dayto spend indoors. "

So it was decided to go outside and as soon as the dinner dishes werecleared away--at which the boys assisted without so much as agrumble--the young folks started out on their tour of discovery. 

The girls had spent much of their time in the old house since theirarrival, for they had found an almost inexhaustible supply of strangecorners and unexpected rooms and peculiar ornaments that hadfascinated them. 

But to-day, as they felt the warm sunshine on their heads, as the windcaressed their faces and the scents of the woodland bathed them inperfume, they were glad they had let the boys have their way and haddecided to spend the glorious afternoon in the open. 

"Did you win the tennis singles?" Billie asked of Teddy, as she stoppedto smell a bunch of strange flowers. "I was rooting for you. "

"Were you?" asked Teddy eagerly. 

"For you--and Chet, " she added demurely, and laughed to see hisface fall. 

"But did you?" she asked. 

"What?"

"Win the tennis singles, silly? Can't you remember a thing two seconds?"

"Why, yes, we did, " he answered absently, his gray eyes onBillie's lovely mischievous face. "In fact, we just ran ringsaround them. I guess--"

He stopped short as they came upon the other young people. A couple ofbearded men had come out of the woods and confronted the crowd. Each mancarried a heavy club. They were the fellows who had once passed the girlswithout speaking. 

"You can't go any further this way, " one of them said in a rather grufftone. "We're growing a new variety of corn and want to keep the seed toourselves. "

"What's that?" demanded Chet in astonishment

"You heard what I said. You can't stay here, and you can't go that way. "

"You want to get out of here, " growled the second man. "Come, move on. "

"You can't steal any of our corn-growing secrets. Move on, " and the firstman shook his club suggestively. 

The strange men looked ugly, and the boys and girls, after a pause, turned off in another direction. 

"Humph!" grunted Ted, with a curious glance at the place where the menhad been. "They made a mistake. That wasn't a corn story. It was afish story!"

"Maybe, " returned Billie. "But what does it mean?"

CHAPTER XIX

IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT

There was so much of interest about the house, and outside of it, that aweek passed almost before the young folks knew it. 

The boys were for exploring the cellar, and did so one fine day, takingthe girls along. 

They had a flashlight, a lantern, and some candles, and all thesecombined gave them quite an illumination. But the girls kept close to theboys, for the cellar was certainly a creepy place, with its many nooksand corners and dark closets. 

They managed to find two tunnels, one about fifty feet long and the otherclose to a hundred. 

"Caved in!" cried Chet in disgust. 

He was right; dirt and rocks filled the openings, both of which werequite wet. 

"I'll bet they led to the brook, " remarked Teddy. "When the Indians madea raid the settlers could crawl through one tunnel or the other and sohide in the brook. "

"I think Ted must be right, " said Ferd. 

There was but little of value in the cellar. Old tools, rusted with age, and some empty bottles and jugs, and that was about all. 

"It's awfully musty, " said Billie presently. "I'm going upstairs and outinto the sunshine. " And she went, and the others soon followed. 

Billie had received the address of Miss Beggs, the school-teacher. It hadbeen sent to her address at home and forwarded by Mrs. Bradley. 

"Now, I guess I'll have to write that letter to the teacher and explainall about the broken statue, " said Billie dismally. "Oh, dear, I wish Ididn't have to do it. "

"It's too bad we haven't the money to pay for the old thing, " came fromChet. "Can't we sell some of this stuff? It must be worth something. "

"But who will buy it?"

"I don't know. "

There was a long consultation among the girls, and at last Billie managedto write the letter. 

"There, " she said, when she had given it to the store boy to post, "now Ifeel better. The confession part of it is off my mind, anyway. If I canonly pay for the old statue--or buy another one like it--I'll behappy--or nearly happy. "

She added the "nearly happy" as the thought came to her that even withthe broken statue paid for and off her mind she had still another ordealbefore her. In a couple of weeks their vacation would be up at CherryCorners, and soon after that she would have to see Violet and Laura andthe boys, except poor Chet, go off to boarding school, while she and herbrother would be left behind. 

Oh, well, she would not think of that just yet. They could at least enjoythe time they were to spend at Cherry Corners. 

And they did enjoy it! There was never a minute of the day for whichsomething interesting was not planned. 

Then one night, when they had almost forgotten that the house wassupposed to be haunted, they had an experience that brought back alltheir old fears of the place--"and then some, " as Teddy said. 

Billie sat up in bed suddenly with the familiar chilly feeling up anddown her spine and her hair showing a tendency to pull away from herprickly scalp. 

The piano was sounding--all the way from treble to bass! And it was themiddle of the night with everybody in bed!

She put out a hand and shook Laura and Violet to consciousness. 

"Oh, girls, it _is_ the ghost this time!" she said in a scared whisperthat made them wide awake in an instant. "It--it's playing the piano!"

"A--a musical ghost?" giggled Laura hysterically, but Billie pinched herinto silence. 

"Keep still, " she cried. "There it is again!"

The girls listened to the eeriest, weirdest music they had everheard, and Violet slipped shivering under the covers and hid her facewith the sheet. 

"C-come out of that, " cried Billie, pulling at the sheet. "What g-good doyou suppose it's going to do to put the sheet over your head? Come on, I'm going to investigate. "

With sudden determination she slipped out of bed and stood up. 

"Billie, " gasped Laura, "you're never going to go down there?"

"I'm going to call the boys, " said Billie, who, despite all herdetermination, could hardly stand up her knees trembled so. "We'll all goand rout that old ghost. He's got to, " she added with a hysterical gigglethat matched Laura's, "get off my piano!"

Fearfully the girls watched her start into Mrs. Gilligan's room. ThenLaura pushed down the covers and got to her feet. 

"If Billie isn't afraid, " she said stoutly, "I don't see why I should be. Are you coming, Vi?"

"I s-suppose so, " said poor Violet, more afraid of being left alone thanof facing the ghost in company with the others. "If you're goingI--I've got to. "

So it was that Mrs. Gilligan was startled to find three ghostly, scaredfigures standing by her bed calling nervously to her to "please wake up. "

"For goodness' sake, what's the matter?" she said, rubbing her eyes andstaring at them sleepily. "Have you heard your ghostly motor again?"

"Oh, much worse!" cried Violet. 

"We heard a ghost playing a piano!" said Laura. 

"Listen, " commanded Billie. "There it goes again. Oh, Mrs. Gilligan, I'mf-frightened. "

Mrs. Gilligan listened, and even she, matter-of-fact, humorous Irishwomanthat she was, felt that same strange tendency on the part of her hair tostand up straight in the air. 

"Well, here's the time for my rolling pin, " she said, jumping out of bedand wrapping a kimono hastily about her. "We'll call the boys and seewhat that piano thinks it's doing anyway. "

So they called the boys. The three lads were on tiptoe with excitement atthe thought of an actual encounter with a ghost. 

"And a musical ghost, at that, " crowed Ferd, as they started down thestairs with the girls following cautiously and holding their candles overtheir heads. 

"Say, don't make so much noise, " cried Chet in a stage whisper. "You'llfrighten his ghostship away. I wouldn't miss seeing a real ghost foranything you could offer me. "

"In here, fellows, here's the piano, " Ferd directed, and, their hearts intheir mouths, the girls watched them go into the dark room. 

"Ouch! hang that chair, " they heard Ferd cry out. "Come on with thoselights, girls. I'm ruining all the furniture. "

Nervously the girls followed them in, throwing the light of the candleson the old piano, but, as far as they could see, nothing had beendisturbed. 

The ancient instrument stood as dignified and aloof as ever, and in thewhole room not a chair was out of place. 

"Nothing here, " said Chet, looking disappointed. "Say, the girls promisedus a regular show, fellows, and they haven't come across. "

"What shall we do to 'em?" asked Teddy, looking almost equallydisappointed. 

"But we heard it, " said Billie, shivering with excitement. 

"It was just as if somebody had taken the back of his finger, " Lauraadded, "and run it all the way down the keyboard from the top note of thetreble to the last note of the bass. "

"Oh, you must have been dreaming, " said Ferd, opening the piano toexamine it inside. 

"No, they weren't dreaming, " said Mrs. Gilligan seriously. "Because I wasvery much awake when I heard it. "

"You heard it, too?" asked Chet, beginning to be interested again. 

"I certainly did, " said Mrs. Gilligan, with a grimness that left no roomfor doubt. "And I'm not given to imagining things, either. "

"Well, I move we look around a bit, " suggested Ferd, who was alwayseager for action. "The ghost may have retreated to the dining-room orsomething--"

"No, siree!" said Violet decidedly. "If the rest of you want to goroaming all over this gloomy old place at night you can do it, but you'llhave to leave me out. "

"Vi's right, " said Mrs. Gilligan, just as the boys were about toprotest. "There isn't any use going into this thing any further to-nightand getting the girls all upset. I'll stay down here awhile and see whatI can see. "

"Let me stay with you, " asked Chet eagerly. 

"And me. "

"And me. "

Ferd and Teddy spoke almost in the same breath. 

"No, I want you all to go up and get into bed, " said Mrs. Gilligandecidedly. "If I see anything, " she added, with a grim smile, "anythingthat looks like a ghost that is, I'll call you. "

"That's a promise, " said Chet, looking back over his shoulder as hereluctantly followed the others upstairs. "Because if I should missgetting a look at that ghost, I'd be disappointed for life. "

"Well, I've had enough of spooks to last _me_ forever, " said Laura, witha shivery glance over her shoulder as the boys left the girls at theirdoor and started off down the hall. "If that piano begins to play itselfagain to-night, I'll just die, that's all there is to it. "

The girls crept into bed, careful to leave their candles burning. 

"You know, Billie, " said Violet in an awed little voice, "this thing isreally getting serious. "

"I should say so, " agreed Laura, drawing the bed clothes a little tighterabout her. 

"Well, it isn't my fault, is it?" asked Billie. "I didn't ask AuntBeatrice to leave me a haunted house. And, anyway, " she added verytruthfully, "it was you, Laura, who first suggested coming here. "

"Yes, " went on Violet accusingly, "and it was you who said you'd bedisappointed if you didn't see a ghost or two. "

Laura groaned. 

"What's the use of holding things up against me that I said when I wasyoung and foolish?" she asked. "Anyway, I didn't think we would reallysee anything. "

"Well, we haven't, " said Billie. "All we've done is to hear things--"

"But we've heard plenty, " sighed Violet. "There! What's that?"

The girls listened, feeling almost ready to scream, but could hearnothing but the sighing of the wind in the tree tops. 

"Only the wind, silly, " said Laura, then added with an almostcomfortable feeling at the thought: "Mrs. Gilligan's on guard anyway. "

"Yes, " said Violet, adding with a sigh that seemed to come from her verytoes: "I only hope the piano doesn't swallow her up before morning. I'vecome to expect almost anything!"

CHAPTER XX

THE MOTOR AGAIN

The piano did not swallow Mrs. Gilligan up, and, as a matter of fact, thegood woman did not stand guard until morning. Half an hour of sittingalone in that gloomy room watching a piano that had played itself wasenough to ruin even her seasoned nerves. 

Once back in her room she scolded herself for being such an idiot, laughed at her fears, and, being a normal, healthy woman, fell almostinstantly to sleep. 

In the morning the girls themselves felt somewhat inclined to laugh atthe fright they had had, and yet they knew that what had happened hadbeen no figment of their imaginations. The sound, though weird and eerie, had been real--even Mrs. Gilligan would testify to that. 

"Well, I tell you what we ought to do, " said Ferd, as he sat down to ahuge plateful of breakfast. "We fellows ought to take turn and turn aboutkeeping watch. There must be some reason for the noise the girls heard, and I won't be happy until we find out what it was. "

"I think you have the right idea, " replied Chet, decidedly. "The onlycondition I make is that I be allowed to stand the first watch. "

"You'll do nothing of the kind, any of you, " broke in Mrs. Gilligan, withthat slight tightening of her upper lip that the girls and boys had cometo know--and respect. "That's a fine way to see all sorts of things thatain't and hear all sorts of things that never happened. Sit up in thedark, waiting for something to happen! I guess not!"

"But we can't just sit back and let the piano perform like that everynight, can we?" asked Ferd, in an argumentative tone. "I'd rather stayawake part of the night than all of it. "

"Don't you even want to solve the mystery?" asked Chet, in anaggrieved voice. 

"Mystery--humph, " grunted Mrs. Gilligan, feeling very brave anddisdainful in the bright sunshine. "I don't believe there's a bit ofmystery in the whole thing. "

"Then what made the piano play?" Teddy insisted. "You said yourself thatyou heard it. "

"Oh, I heard it all right, " said Mrs. Gilligan, helping herself to morejam. "There isn't any doubt about that. But I have an idea what causedit, all right. "

"Oh, tell us, " they cried eagerly. 

But their chaperone shook her head determinedly while her lip becamestill tighter. 

"No, indeed I won't tell you, " she said, adding with a little chuckle: "Iwant to try it out myself first. For I know that if I told you young onesabout it you'd only laugh. And I don't like being laughed at. "

"But we wouldn't laugh, " Billie assured her earnestly. "Really, Mrs. Gilligan, we'll promise on our word of honor not to so much aseven smile. "

"Get out with your promises, " said Mrs. Gilligan, relapsing into herbrogue. "I do be knowing you better. I'll try it to-night, " sheadded graciously, "and if it doesn't work I'll tell you about it inthe morning. "

"I suppose here's where I spend another sleepless night, " said Violetdolefully, helping herself to more biscuits. "Oh, well, I'm getting so Ican do without sleep now. "

"Well, you don't look as if you'd ever lost a wink in your life, " saidChet, glancing at her admiringly, for it was an open secret with theboys and girls of North Bend that Chet rather especially liked tall, dark, peace-loving Violet Farrington--perhaps because she was so muchlike himself. 

Violet blushed prettily at this complimentary remark, and the girlslooked at her teasingly. 

"Who was it that said something or other was blind?" asked Laurawickedly, and Violet kicked her under the table. 

"Peace, my children, " said Billie. "We're having enough trouble withghosts and things without starting a war among ourselves. Who'll havesome more jelly?"

There was a simultaneous shout of approval, and the jelly dish began itsfourth round of the table. 

However, they did at last get through eating and wandered out on thefront porch, where Mrs. Gilligan could not scoff at their ideas, todiscuss the doings of the night before. 

But it was only a little while later that Mrs. Gilligan put anotherdamper on their fun by announcing that some one would have to go to townfor more provisions. The boy had failed to come that morning, and theirsupply of canned goods was running dangerously low. 

"Let's all go, " Chet suggested. "We could walk down and ride back. "

"But, oh, Chet, it's so frightfully hot, " Billie objected. "I'm sure we'dget sunstroke or something. "

"Yes, it's a terribly long walk, " added Violet. 

"Well, we could wait till toward evening, " said Ferd. "It wouldn't be soscorching then. I admit, " he added, taking a slanting squint at the sun, "that even I am not eager to take a long hike just now. "

"But toward evening we'll be preparing supper, " objected Laura, and theboys threw up their hands in despair. 

"Well, then we'll just have to go without you, " said Teddy. "But it wouldbe lots more fun if you'd come. " This last was said to Billie and for herear alone. 

That afternoon the girls watched the boys down the road till theywere out of sight, then turned back to the house with a strangelylonesome feeling. 

"You know, " said Violet, pausing on the doorstep and looking back at thegirls with a rather sober face, "I have a sort of feeling thatsomething's going to happen. "

"Well, you'd better get rid of it right away, " retorted Laura. "We don'twant anything more to happen--especially when the boys are away. "

This time Violet proved to be right. Something did happen. It was afterdark, the boys had not yet got back from the village, and the girls weresetting the table in the kitchen--they had never found the courage to eatin the gloomy dining-room--when Violet set a dish down on the table witha bang that made the girls start and look at her in surprise. 

As for Violet, she was too scared to speak for a moment. Then shestammered out:

"The strange motor car!" she said, while Billie and Laura stared at her. "I thought I heard it before--"

"Sh-h, " cried Billie, and they listened, hardly daring to breathe. 

There was the same strange humming sound that had so startled them ontheir first night in the house, only this time, instead of coming from adistance and passing by, the noise seemed to get louder, then softer, louder and softer, as if whatever it was were approaching and retreatingat regular intervals. 

At that moment Mrs. Gilligan came into the room, and the girls called toher to listen also. 

"That?" she asked, with a little laugh. "Why that's an automobile ofcourse, " and started for the front door. "Only I must say it's behavingmighty queer. "

But when they opened the door and looked out into the rocky road therewas no sign of an automobile, and yet the humming sound still kept on. 

As they listened, wide-eyed, the noise grew softer and softer andgradually died away in the distance. 

The girls looked at each other wonderingly. Then it was Billie whooffered a solution. 

"Mightn't it be an aeroplane?"

"An aeroplane in this part of the country?" Laura was inclined to scoffat the idea, but Mrs. Gilligan and Violet both stood up for Billie. 

They were about to enter into a heated argument when they saw the wagonthat had by this time become familiar to them coming down the road withthe boys seated in it or hanging to it in characteristic attitudes. 

The girls ran out to them and deluged the lads with questions before theyhad time to learn what it was all about. 

"A motor car?" asked Chet. "No, we didn't pass a soul on the way uphere. "

When the girls had poured into their interested ears the story of thequeer humming sound that had just repeated itself, they agreed to one manto Billie's suggestion that it was very probably an aeroplane. 

"I'll tell you what we'll do next time we hear it, " said Teddy as theboys picked up the provisions they had brought and started toward thehouse. "We'll go up on the roof. Then we'll pretty soon see whether it'sa ghost or the real thing. "

"And in the meantime, " suggested Chet, sniffing the air hungrily, "howabout some supper?"

CHAPTER XXI

BOTH AT ONCE

It was not long before there came a recurrence of the strange hummingnoise which had so disturbed the girls. It was only a few nights laterthat Chet sat up in bed with the joyful feeling that here at last was achance to investigate at least one of the ghosts that haunted thehomestead at Cherry Corners. 

"Ferd! Teddy! Wake up! What's the matter? Are you dead?" he calledto the boys. 

The latter reluctantly opened their eyes and looked at him reproachfully. 

"Can't you let a fellow sleep?" Teddy asked. But Chet, with no ceremonywhatever, hauled him bodily out of bed and set him on his feet. 

"Don't talk, " he ordered. "Run as fast as you can to the roof beforewe miss it. "

"What are you raving about?" asked Ferd, although both he and Teddystarted obediently toward the attic stairs. 

"If you wouldn't talk so much, you could hear it, " Chet answered, pushingup a trap door that led to a small square platform on the roof. "It'sthe motor sound the girls heard and that scared them so. "

"It is, for a fact!" cried Teddy in a joyful whisper. "And it's comingright near, fellows, too. "

"It's an aeroplane all right, " said Ferd, with conviction. "Nothing elseever made a noise like that. "

"Say, what are you doing up there?" a girl's voice hailed them from thebottom of the steps, and Chet thought he recognized it as Billie's. "Areyou walking in your sleep or have you gone crazy? Come down here quick, we need you. "

"Keep still, " Chet yelled back. "We're looking for your aeroplane ghost. Can't you hear it?"

"Yes. But, oh, Chet, " Billie's voice was tremulous, "the piano is playingitself again. Won't you come down? We're afraid to stay here all alone. "

"Great Scott! all the spirits are roaming at once, " cried Teddy, straining his eyes to see through the darkness as the humming of themotor came nearer. 

"There, isn't that it?" cried Ferd, pointing eagerly through the treestoward a little patch of sky, palely illumined with stars. 

"I think I saw it, " said Chet, rubbing his eyes impatiently. "It's soconfoundedly dark--"

"Oh, won't you please come down?" wailed Billie's voice from thespooky depths of the attic. "I'll die of fright if I have to stay hereanother minute. "

This appeal moved the boys, and they began reluctantly to descend theladder, keeping their eyes all the time on the pale patch of sky. 

"Where are the others?" asked Teddy, as he reached Billie's side. 

"They're down looking for the ghost, " answered Billie, as she ran downthe stairs in front of them. "They sent me to get you boys, and I foundyou gone. Mrs. Gilligan, " she added, with a hysterical giggle, "has thebroom and Laura has the poker. "

"Maybe we'd better stop on the way and gather up a few bedposts, "suggested Ferd, as they took the last flight of stairs on a run andlanded in the lower hall. 

"Hello, did you find anything?" sang out Chet, as the girls, lookingscared but valiant, came out to meet them. "Where's Mrs. Gilligan?"

"Inside, " said Violet. "There isn't a thing to be seen any more thanthere was the other night. I'm absolutely positive now that it mustbe a ghost. "

"Well, if it is, he's got a sense of humor, " said Mrs. Gilligan, risingfrom her knees where she had been peering into the corner behind thepiano. "I've heard of all sorts of spirits, but I never heard of one whoinsisted upon playing the piano in the dead of night. "

"He must have been a musician in his life time, " suggested Chet. "That'sthe reason he comes and haunts the piano. "

"Well, I don't see why he doesn't choose a regular piano to haunt, "said Billie, feeling irritable because she was very sleepy and had beenvery much frightened. "It's bad enough for a live person to play, letalone a ghost. "

"And where could it have gone?" wondered Laura, her eyes big and darkwith excitement. "The minute we heard the noise--I guess we're sort oflistening for it even in our sleep--we jumped up and came down here whileBillie went to call you boys. It was playing almost up to the minute wecame into the room. "

"And maybe we weren't afraid to go in!" said Violet, with a shudder. "Idon't know how we ever got the courage. "

"Well, you only came because Mrs. Gilligan and I went ahead with thebroom and the poker, " sniffed Laura. 

"Was it playing when you came down the stairs?" asked Chet, interested. "And did it stop as soon as you entered the room?"

"Yes, " it was Mrs. Gilligan who answered this time. "And it was good forhim he did. I've lost enough sleep through the miserable rascal and I wasjust ripe for a tussle. "

"I don't blame him for running, " said Teddy, with a chuckle. 

"But where did he go?" asked Laura again. "We were sure that we'd seesomething--goodness knows what--when we turned the corner of the room. "

"And all we saw was a--a large amount of nothing at all, " added Violet, wide-eyed. 

"Perhaps, " suggested Ferd, with a chuckle, "the aeroplane we heardbelonged to him--"

"A ghost's aeroplane, " murmured Billie, smothering anotherhysterical chuckle. 

"And when you girls came in he just soared skyward and went off in it. "

"It's funny we never thought of that, " said Teddy scornfully. 

"Well, I wish we could find out what it is, " sighed Billie, as theystarted upstairs again. "This staying awake all night isn't verymuch fun. "

"But isn't it strange, " asked Laura, stopping on the landing and lookingback at them, "that both the piano and the motor should start again onthe same night?"

"Yes, it is, rather, " said Chet, adding seriously: "I wonder if therecould really be any connection between the two. "

"There's no use wondering, that I can see, " said Mrs. Gilligan, preparingto send them off to their respective bedrooms. "I think the best thing wecan do is not to notice them any more. Perhaps the ghosts will get tired, if they find they don't worry us, " this last with a chuckle. 

"Well, but they do worry us, " said Violet plaintively. "Every time I hearthat piano, I just about die of fright. "

"Listen, " commanded Billie, and as they listened they heard itagain! The ghost, or whatever it was, was surely making a joke ofthem that night!

As soon as the boys could recover from their surprise they tumbled downthe stairs, tripping over each other in their hurry, while the girlsfollowed more slowly. 

But again the noise stopped abruptly, and when they entered the roomthere was nothing to be seen or heard. 

"Say, this thing is making me mad!" cried Ferd, glaring at the old pianoas though it were the offender. "I don't mind meeting anhonest-to-goodness ghost, but I'll be hanged if I'll let him laugh atme!"

"I don't see how you're going to help it, " said Teddy. "Come on, fellows, it's pretty nearly morning, and we can decide then what we'll do to catchMr. Ghost. I'm so sleepy I'm apt to fall asleep on my feet. "

So they went upstairs again, feeling rather miserable and dragged outwith excitement, and crawled into bed. 

"If this thing keeps up much longer, I'll just be a wreck, that's all, "groaned Laura, and almost immediately she fell asleep. 

After a little while of staring into the dark, Billie and Violet followedher example, and once more there was quiet in the old house. 

Nothing more disturbed them, but they woke the next morning, tired andcross and with a decidedly "morning after" feeling. 

"I don't want to get up, " complained Violet, turning restlessly in bedand punching her pillow. "I can't get more than one eye open. "

"Shall we send for the doctor?" asked Billie, regarding her sleepily. "That sounds like a serious complaint. "

"Humph, I don't need a doctor, " grumbled Violet. "I can prescribe for mycase better than he could. What I need is a rest cure. "

"So say we all of us, " echoed Laura sleepily. "I'm going to takeanother nap, girls, and if anybody dares to wake me up, I'll throw myhair brush at them. "

"I'm going to get up, " decided Billie. "I'll only get a headachelying here. "

"Well, I hope you enjoy yourself, " said Laura, and settled herself in astill more comfortable position. 

While Billie was dressing the two girls fell asleep again, and asshe turned to look at them she almost wished that she had followedtheir example. 

"But I knew I couldn't sleep, " she said, turning away, "and, besides, I'mgetting very hungry. "

But when she started down the broad staircase she found that she was theonly one stirring in the house, and a strange, lonesome feeling tookpossession of her. 

"Ugh, " she cried, glancing about her distastefully, "it's the gloomiestplace I ever did see. I'll be glad when we leave it. That is, I wouldbe, " she added wistfully, "if only Chet and I were going with the othersto boarding school. "

She wandered into the room where the old piano stood and looked at itmusingly for a few minutes. Then suddenly a thought struck her, and sheclapped her hands gleefully. 

"I wonder--" she said, then, remembering an old rat trap that she hadcome across several days ago, ran into the pantry to get it. She baitedit with a fresh piece of cheese and set it carefully on the piano. 

"Now, " she said, standing back and regarding her work with satisfaction, "we shall see what we shall see!"

CHAPTER XXII

A THRILLING DISCOVERY

It was ten o'clock before the girls finally came down, and it was stilllater before the boys appeared. Mrs. Gilligan and Billie had hadbreakfast together, and Billie had confided to the older woman hersuspicions in regard to the ghostly player of the old piano. 

"But we won't tell the boys and girls, " Billie had said, with adelightful sense of conspiracy. "We'll wait and see if it works. "

As the young people came in, looking famished, Mrs. Gilligan rose and putsome cold muffins in the oven to heat. 

"You won't get very much to eat, " she warned them. "Billie and I had ourbreakfast at a respectable hour, and now you've got to take what's left. "

"I don't care what you give us, as long as it's food, " said Ferd, lookingabout him anxiously. "I'm just about starved to death. "

"It seems to me I've heard that remark somewhere before, " said Billie, laughing at him. "Hurry up and eat, you folks, " she added, as she set adish of fried hominy before them. "We girls haven't really made athorough examination of the attic yet, and I'm just dying to poke intoall the corners. "

"Yes, I always did like attics, " said Laura, adding, as she swallowed adelicious morsel: "But, I like fried hominy more!"

"Won't you come too?" Violet asked the boys, as, their breakfast over, the girls started up to the attic. "We'd love to have you and you mightfind it interesting. "

"No, thanks, " said Teddy decidedly. "I can think of lots better thingsto do than go roaming about a hot old attic when the thermometer isninety-six in the shade. I'm going for a walk in the woods. How aboutit, fellows?"

"Yes, and see if we can come across those old fellows with the beardsthat told us the corn-fish story, " chuckled Chet. "You know, " he added, "Ihave wondered several times since then what the old fellows were up to. Somehow, I'm mighty sure they didn't tell the truth. "

"I tell you what!" cried Ferd eagerly. "Let's push on in the direction wewere going the other day and see what's being pulled off in there. "

"Yes, and get shot most likely, " sniffed Laura. "I don't think much ofthat idea. "

"Well, we didn't ask you to come, did we?" Ferd asked. 

"No, and I don't think it was very nice of you, after we invited you toour party, " Violet put in, trying to look aggrieved. 

"Oh, please won't you come with us?" asked Ferd, bowing elaboratelybefore her. 

Laura gave him a little push which precipitated him in a rather abruptmanner into a chair and completely spoiled his gallantry. 

"I'll get even with you, " he threatened good-naturedly, during the laughthat followed at his expense. "But say, fellows, you haven't answered myquestion. Are you game?"

"Sure we're game, " they answered, and Chet added, as he picked up a stickhe had found in the woods several days before and had modeled into anexcellent club: "If they start any funny business they'll find me readyfor them. "

"Oh, boys, do be careful!" Billie begged, really afraid that their loveof adventure would get them into trouble. "I didn't like the looks ofthose men. And they had clubs. "

"Maybe--" said Violet in an awed voice. "Maybe they're--what do you callthem--the fellows that make whiskey--"

"Moonshiners?" Teddy helped her out, and the boys shouted with laughter. 

"All the more reason why we should find them out, " said Ferd, as theystarted from the room. "It's our duty, " he turned in the doorway to makethem a bow, "to turn them over to justice. "

"It must be a disease, " laughed Billie, as the girls ascended the oldstaircase together. 

"Well, I hope they live through it, " added Laura, with a chuckle. 

"I found a funny old closet yesterday, " said Billie, as they came outinto the musty attic. "I was just going to open it and see what wasinside when you girls called me for something. Here it is, " indicating asmall door, the top of which was only on a level with their shoulders. 

"I never saw so many queer things in one place in my life, " saidLaura, peering down as Billie opened the door. "I didn't know theygrew that way. "

"We'll have to stoop down to get in here, " said Billie, poking her headinto the stuffy dark hole disclosed. "And look, girls!" she exclaimedexcitedly, as her eyes became accustomed to the gloom. "The closet runsaway back an awfully long way, and there seems to be something bulky atthe other end of it. "

"Well, let's go in, " said Laura, giving Billie an impatient little push. "We can't find anything by standing here. Billie, what's the matter?" forBillie had started back so suddenly that she had almost thrown Laura offher balance. 

"It's another of those horrid old bats, " she gasped, bending down as anindistinct little shape fluttered past her. "I shouldn't think they couldlive in the closet without air or anything to eat. "

"It probably flew in when you opened the door the other day, " Violetsuggested. 

Once more Billie bent down and felt her way into the narrow closet. 

"Don't try to stand up, girls, " she cautioned. "You're apt to get anawful bump on the head. "

"I've already had one, " said Violet, rubbing the bumped spot tenderly. "Goodness, it smells musty in here. "

"Girls, it's a trunk!" cried Billie, leaning down to examine the bulkyobject she had seen at the other end. "A pretty big one, too, and oh, " asshe attempted to lift one end, "awfully heavy. "

"A trunk, " Laura repeated excitedly. "That sounds interesting. Can't youpull it out, Billie?"

"I'll try, " replied Billie, adding with a chuckle: "But Ishouldn't wonder if you girls would have to help by pulling me. My, but it's heavy!"

However, after much hauling and pulling, Billie finally succeeded inbacking out of the closet, pulling the trunk after her. Then standing upand brushing the hair out of her eyes, she regarded it gleefully. 

"Everything in the house is mine, " she reminded them, as she stooped downagain to examine the lock, "so I have a perfect right to look inanything I find. "

"Well, nobody's arguing about that, " said Laura, sitting down on thefloor, regardless of a fine coating of dust, and helping Billie in herexamination. 

"Hasn't it any key?" asked Violet eagerly. 

"Of course not, silly, " Laura answered. "What would be the use of alocked trunk if you kept the key around where everybody could see it?"

"Well, I didn't even know it was locked, " Violet said, ratherheatedly for her. 

Billie jumped to her feet and gave the trunk a sudden jerk. 

"Girls!" she cried, "did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" they chorused eagerly. 

"But, didn't you hear it rattle when we pulled it out of the closet? Ithought so then. Now I'm sure. Oh, girls!"

"What is the matter, Billie?"

"I jerked the trunk, " explained Billie, while the color tinged her face, "and it jingled! Yes it did, it actually jingled!"

"Billie!" cried Laura looking wide-eyed and awed, "do you mean it soundedlike _money_?"

For answer Billie reached down and gave the trunk another jerk. Sureenough, there was the unmistakable jingle of metal against metal asthough the trunk were filled with coins. 

Their hearts beating fast, hardly able to speak with excitement, thegirls stood and stared down at this new discovery. 

"I--I feel like Captain Kidd!" gasped Billie, her cheeks crimson now. "Like Captain Kidd when he found the treasure. Girls, do you really thinkit _is_ money?"

"It certainly sounds like it, " said Violet in a voice tremulous withexcitement, as she reached down and gave the trunk another jerk just forthe fun of hearing its contents jingle. 

"Well, let's get it downstairs, " suggested Laura, wildly impatient to seethe treasure, if treasure it were. "We certainly can't open it ourselveswithout a key. Oh, if the boys were only at home!" she added with animpatient little stamp of her foot "It seems to me they're never aroundwhen you want them. "

"Maybe we can call them back. They haven't had time to go far, " saidBillie, stirred to instant action by the thought. "Come on Laura, youtake one end, Vi can steady it at the side, and we'll at least get thetrunk downstairs. That's the way! Now then!"

After a good deal of pushing and lugging, and a spasm of fright when thetrunk almost fell on Laura, they finally succeeded in getting theirburden down to the second floor. 

There the girls left it and started hastily down the stairs in pursuit ofthe boys. They had gone only half the way, however, when they werestartled by a tremendous crash and explosion outside and stood still, their hearts in their mouths. 

"Oh, now what has happened?" cried Violet as they rushed down the rest ofthe steps and started for the front door. 

Half way to the door Mrs. Gilligan met them, holding a rat trap in herhand from which hung, suspended, a dead rat. 

"Where did you get that?" the girls cried in chorus. 

"It's Mr. Rat, the piano player, " said Mrs. Gilligan, adding as shepushed past them and ran to the door: "Did you hear that awful noiseoutside, girls?"

"Did we hear it?" they cried, following her. 

"Oh, Mrs. Gilligan, what do you suppose it was?" asked Violet, pressingclose to her. 

"Somebody is probably hurt, " answered the woman, adding as though toherself: "Terribly hurt! Hope it ain't the boys!"

CHAPTER XXIII

THE WRECKED AEROPLANE

The girls never remembered very clearly what happened after that. Theyhad a vague and confused recollection of seeing the boys gathered aroundsomething in the bushes at the brook that groaned a little and made queersputtering noises. 

Then the boys bent down and began extricating the groaning thing from thewreck of something. 

"Chet, what is it?" cried Billie, with an impression that she was livinga dream. She tried to push past him, but her brother stopped her. 

"Stay away, Sis, " he ordered. "The poor fellow's hurt--we don't know howbadly--and I'd rather you would go back to the house. "

"But if he's hurt, there's all the more need for us, " insisted Billie, sudden decision in her voice. "We know first aid. Let us past, boys. "

Not exactly knowing why they obeyed her, the boys drew aside and she ranto the side of the prostrate figure on the ground, the other girlsfollowing half reluctantly. 

The boys had succeeded in removing the man from the wreckage--oneglance about them told the girls that the wreck had once been anaeroplane--and the man, who was elderly, lay quite still, looking up atthem with sick eyes. 

"Oh, can't we get him up to the house?" cried Billie, clasping her handsin pity and looking appealingly at Mrs. Gilligan. "Then we can send fora doctor--"

But it was the hurt man himself who interrupted. 

"I--I'm all in, " he said, speaking with great effort. "It won't do anygood to move me--"

"But it might, " cried Violet, coming down and leaning compassionatelyover him while her eyes filled with tears. "Do you think--it wouldhurt--too much--"

"Come on. Let's try it, fellows, " said Teddy, speaking with suddendecision. "We can't leave him here to die, perhaps, " he added softly. "Wecan at least make an attempt to save his life. "

He bent down, and, putting a hand under each of the man's arms, liftedhim slightly, eliciting a moan of pain. 

"You take his feet, Chet, and, Ferd, you support his back, " he directed. "Now then--"

The boys started to obey, but at the first touch the man cried out insuch pain that they were forced to put him down again. 

"It's something in here, " said the old fellow, while the girls and boysstood looking helplessly at him, not knowing what to do. He put a handover his left side. "Something's broken. I--I was trying to--invent a newkind of aeroplane, " he went on jerkily, and in spite of the tragiccircumstances the young folks felt a thrill of excitement as theyrealized that here perhaps was the secret of that strange humming noisethat had so badly frightened and bewildered them. 

"The second ghost, " murmured Teddy softly, as though to himself, butBillie, standing close beside him, heard. 

"A new kind of aeroplane, " Chet prompted, gently but with an unusuallight in his eye. 

"Yes. And this was its--trial flight, " the old man said with a world ofbitterness in his voice. "The engine exploded. I guess it shows that I'mpretty much of a failure--in every way. "

"I don't see why, " cried Billie, her warm heart eager to give himcomfort. "There may have been just some little thing the matter thatyou--What's that?"

"That" was the sound of running feet and a crackling of bushes, and thenext minute two men burst out into the clearing. They were red of faceand breathless, and when they saw the old man and the wrecked machinethey stood stock still and stared in consternation. 

With a start the girls and boys recognized the men as those whom theyhad met in the woods that other day not so long ago--the men who had socurtly ordered them to "go the other way. "

So the corn story was a fish story after all, and the old inventor'svain attempt to make a new kind of flying machine was the key to allthe mystery!

"Are you very much hurt, Dad?" cried the younger of the two men, leaninganxiously over the old man. Again the young folks were startled. So oneof the bearded men was the old man's son!

"All in, Son, I guess, " answered the old man. With a sigh he laid hishand over his left side and whispered: "I'm all smashed to pieces. Theengine exploded. "

"Well, let's see about that, " said the second of the two men, pushing theyounger aside and beginning to rip open the old man's shirt. 

Up to that time neither of the men had thrown a glance in the directionof the wondering boys and girls--in fact they gave every impression ofnot having seen them at all. 

The older of the two men was working feverishly--he seemed to be adoctor, judging from the skill with which he tapped here and pressedthere, evidently trying to find out what bones were broken, if any. 

And all the time the old inventor kept up a feeble moaning. 

"He must be very much hurt indeed, or very, very old, " thought Billieas, with one hand clasped tightly in Laura's and the other grippingViolet's arm, she watched intently. 

"Why, this isn't so bad after all, " announced the man at last, looking upfrom his patient with a light in his eyes that made him look very boyishin spite of the beard on his face. "Your father's terribly bruised andbattered up, Stanton, " he said, addressing the old man's son, who hadbeen looking on with strained attention, "but as far as I can see theonly bones broken are a rib or two. We'll soon fix you up as good asnew, " he went on, turning again to the old man. 

The latter looked surprised and left off moaning. 

"You mean I'm going to live?" he asked incredulously, adding with a faintlittle attempt at a smile: "Why--why, I was sure I was--done for!"

"No indeed, " said the "doctor-person"--as Billie had already dubbed him, rising briskly to his feet. "You'll live to fly many another aeroplane, Mr. Parsons. Now will you let your son and me take you home?"

Such is the power of mind over matter, the inventor hardly made anyoutcry at all when his son and the "doctor-person" lifted him betweenthem and started off through the woods. 

As he turned about, the doctor's eyes rested on the boys and girls and hestopped short, apparently really seeing them for the first time. 

"Hello, " he said. "I beg your pardon, but I scarcely noticed you, "adding, more by way of explanation than excuse: "You see I was very muchoccupied. "

"Oh, we don't mind, " said Billie truthfully, adding as the doctor turnedtoward her: "Is there anything we can do to help the--the inventor?"

"Oh, so he told you then, " said the doctor, with a vexed frown. "No, thanks, there's nothing you can do. We'll be back for the pieces of theaeroplane later. "

And without another glance the strange trio disappeared into the woods. 

For a long minute the boys and girls stood staring after the strange mendazedly, then they turned to each other with a sigh. 

"Well!" said Laura explosively, "if everything isn't happening to us atonce, then my name isn't Laura Jordon. To think that our ghost turned outto be an inventor after all!"

"You look as if you were disappointed, " gibed Ferd, beginning to recoverfrom his bewilderment. "We'll manufacture a brand new ghost if you sayso, but it may take time--"

"Goodness, you needn't bother, " said Violet, going over to the wreckedmachine and regarding it wonderingly. "We've had enough of ghosts to lastus a lifetime. My, that poor old inventor must have had a terrible fall. "

"It's a miracle, " said Teddy, who had joined her and was looking down atthe wreck soberly, "that he ever came out alive. I agreed with him atfirst, that he was all in. "

"Well, let it be a lesson to you, " said Chet with mock gravity, "never tolet your ambitions soar to aeroplane inventing. "

"If that's meant to be a joke, " said Laura bitingly, "I must say it's asmuch of a failure as our old inventor himself. Well, girls, " she added, turning back to them, "I don't suppose there's any use staying aroundhere any longer. Let's go back to the house. "

It was not till they were entering the grim old door of the grim oldhouse that they thought again of Billie's new discovery--the trunkthat jingled. 

"Goodness! how could we ever have forgotten it?" cried Billie as she, with Violet and Laura, fairly flew up the stairs, leaving the bewilderedboys to follow them. 

"Now what's up?" asked Teddy, as he came into the room where the girlshad left their treasure. "So many things are happening all at once thatit's enough to make a fellow's brain reel. "

"It all depends on the brain, " said Billie, looking up at him with atwinkle in her eye. And all Teddy did was to look sad and reproachful. 

"Say, what shall I be doin' with this?" asked Mrs. Gilligan, and theyturned to see her great bulk looming in the doorway. In her hand sheheld the rat trap with the dangling rat. 

"Gee, where did you get it?" cried Chet, jumping to his feet from wherehe had been kneeling with Billie, examining the shabby trunk. 

Mrs. Gilligan paused a moment and a gleam of humor shot into her eyes. 

"You've been askin' to see ghosts, Mr. Chet, " she said, with a chuckle, "and you sure have got your wish this day. That airman was the first. Here is the second one!"

CHAPTER XXIV

COINS AND POSTAGE STAMPS

Chet looked bewildered for a minute--then disgusted, an expression thatwas faithfully reflected on the faces of the other boys. 

"A ghost! That?" he said, pointing scornfully at the dead rat. "What doyou mean?"

"Oh, Chet!" cried Billie, springing to her feet in her turn. "That'sanother thing we forgot. This is Mr. Rat, the piano player. "

"Have you all gone crazy, or have I?" cried poor Chet, looking still morebewildered. But suddenly Teddy saw light. 

"You mean the musical ghost, " he cried, laughter in his voice. "The onethat has had us chasing down flights of stairs on dark nights?"

"With the chills running up and down our spines and our hair standing onend?" added Ferd, following his lead. 

"The very same, " responded Mrs. Gilligan, the gleam deepening in hereyes. 

"But how did you catch it?" asked Violet, for the girls, allexcept Billie, who had originated the idea, were as much in thedark as the boys. 

"With a trap, " said Billie, her own eyes beginning to sparkle. 

"But who thought of it?" Violet insisted, ignoring the sarcasm. 

"You see before you the girl who invented it, " said Billie with achuckle. 

"Great pumpkins, another inventor!" groaned Ferd, and sent them off intoa spasm of laughter. 

"Oh, tell us about it, Billie, " Laura entreated. "You can be the mostaggravating thing!"

"Stop calling me names or I'll never tell you, " threatened Billie, atwhich Laura looked as meek as Laura could ever look. 

Thereupon Billie recounted to an interested audience the events that hadled to her idea that it might be a rat that was making a joke of them alland how she had decided to put her idea to the test. 

"Say, think of getting excited about a mouse!" cried Ferd incredulously, when she had finished. 

"It wasn't a mouse--it was a rat, " corrected Billie. 

"But it might have been a mouse, " Ferd protested, but Billie broke inagain. 

"No it mightn't, " she said decidedly. "A mouse could never have madenoise enough for us to hear when we were upstairs in bed. "

"Right you are, " said Ferd, taking off an imaginary cap to Billie. "Ihave to hand it to you, Billie--you're right there. "

"You said it that time, old man, " murmured Teddy very softly, but Billieheard him and looked up at him with laughing eyes. 

"Come help us open our trunk, " she said, turning away suddenly. 

"Whose trunk is it?"

"Where did you get it?"

"Looks as if it had come out of Noah's ark. "

These and many more comments piled one on top of the other as the boyslooked at the old trunk, which did indeed appear old enough to havesatisfied the most ardent collector of antiques. 

"Why, it's my trunk, " said Billie, when she could make herself heardabove the babble. "We found it in the attic. But I don't see whatdifference it makes where we got it, " she added impatiently, getting downon her knees once more and shaking the trunk as if it were to blame. "Won't you please get busy and open it, boys? Aren't you a bit curious tosee what's inside?"

"Is there a key?" asked Ferd, and Billie looked up at him in despair. 

"Of course not, silly, " she said. "Don't you suppose we'd have had itopen ages ago if there had been a key? You'll have to break it open, orpick the lock, or something. "

"Say, she's insulting us! Thinks we're thugs, " murmured Ferd, as he, with the other boys, got down on the floor and began to examine thetrunk eagerly. 

"Yes, where do you suppose we got our experience in picking locks?" addedChet, looking aggrieved. 

"Goodness, I don't care whether you pick the lock or what you do as longas you get it open, " cried Billie, half wild with impatience now that thefateful moment had arrived. "You can use dynamite for all I care. "

"Maybe that's what's in it, " suggested Teddy, and the girls screamed. 

"Teddy! Of all the wet blankets!"

"Well, you never can tell, " said Teddy, adding wickedly, as Ferd startedto set the trunk on end: "Be careful there, Ferd; she may explode, as theaeroplane did. "

"Somebody give me something to throw at him, " cried Laura indignantly. "Anyway, " she added triumphantly, "we know there isn't dynamite in it orwe'd have been blown to bits long ago. We dragged it down stairs. "

"Yes, and we didn't do it very gently either, " added Violet. 

"It has a pretty strong lock, " said Chet, getting to his feet andrumpling up his hair thoughtfully. "I'll have to get a hammer and a wedgeof some sort. "

"Oh, there are all sorts of tools down in the tool-house, " Billie criedeagerly, and Chet looked at her as though she had said she had discovereda gold mine in the back yard. 

"Tools!" he repeated, his eyes shining. "Are they good ones?"

"I don't know anything about tools, " said Billie. "But it looked as ifthere were hundreds of them--"

Chet waited to hear no more. Like a streak of lightning he was out of theroom and racing down the stairs. 

"Tools!" he was saying gloatingly to himself, "hundreds of them!"

Upstairs Billie turned and looked at Teddy in dismay. 

"Now what have I done?" she cried. "If he once gets among those tools wewon't see him for hours. Teddy, " and she looked appealing enough even tomelt Teddy's hard heart, "won't you go after him? You will have to justtear him away--"

However, the two boys were back sooner than the girls expected, for theywere very curious about the contents of the small shabby trunk, which hadso evidently been hidden away in the darkest corner of a dark closet inthe attic. 

"Say, those are some tools, Billie, " said Chet jubilantly, as he priedaway at the lock. "You could do just about anything with them--anythingfrom making a house, to breaking into one. I say, " he added, stoppingwork to look at her entreatingly, "don't you remember mother saying thatAunt Beatrice left you the house and me--the tools?"

The girls and boys laughed, and Billie patted his shoulder fondly. 

"No, I don't remember anything of the sort, " she said, imitating his toneto perfection. "But if you're a good boy and open the trunk in a hurry, I'll deed them to you, Chet--every last tool in the tool-house. "

"Honest to goodness?" cried Chet, his eyes beaming. 

"Honest to goodness, brother mine. "

Then Chet fell to work with fresh enthusiasm on the lock. 

It was a stubborn old lock, and required a good deal of patience--whichthe girls had not--and tinkering to make it give way. 

But it gave at last, and girls and boys leaned forward with sighs of pureexcitement. 

"Open it, " cried Laura impatiently, but Billie put her hand on the lidand faced them with shining eyes. 

"We'll each have just one guess, " she said, "and see who comes nearest toguessing right. "

"I bet it's money, " cried Chet. 

"That isn't fair, I was going to bet that too. "

"So was I--"

"And I--"

Billie threw up her hands in despair. 

"Of course, if you're all going to guess the same thing it's all ruined, "she said, then added, as she bent forward and started to lift the cover:"I don't know that I blame you, though, for I was going to guess the verysame thing!"

"Oh, Billie, hurry! You're so slow!" cried Laura, jumping up and downwith excitement. "Do get at it!"

"Shall I do it?" asked Violet, feeling an almost irresistible desire topush Billie away and fling back the lid. Why was she so slow?

"One--two--three!" cried Billie, and then the lid was off and they werestaring down into the contents of the trunk. 

For a minute they stood motionless. Then, as though moved by one impulse, they dropped to their knees and buried their hands in something thatjingled at their touch!

The trunk was full to the brim with old coins, many quite rare, whilescattered here and there were postage stamps on sheets and loose, queer, foreign looking things that made Billie's eyes glisten as shelooked at them. 

"It must have all belonged to Uncle Henry, " she said, in an awed voice. "Aunt Beatrice once said he had a hobby for collecting postage stamps andold coins--"

"But it _is_ money, " cried Laura, finding her voice at last, her blueeyes dark with excitement. "Why, Billie, these old coins must be worth abig lot of money!"

"You bet! It's a treasure, " said Teddy soberly. Then with a little smilehe turned to Billie--Billie who was vivid and breathless with the greatdiscovery. "Allow me to present to you, ladies and gentlemen, our oldfriend, Captain Kidd!"

CHAPTER XXV

"LARGE FORTUNES"

"Billie, it's worth a small fortune!"

"I'll bet the stuff is worth several thousand dollars. "

"Yes, every bit of it. "

"Oh, boys, as much as that?" questioned Billie, half hysterically. 

"Of course, " came from Teddy. He was on his knees in front of thetreasure box. "See these coins? Gold, every one of 'em--and as big as tendollar pieces, too. "

"Count 'em, " cried Chet. 

Then began a hasty move on the part of both girls and boys to count thegold and silver. Poor Billie's hands trembled so she could scarcely help. 

"I make it the gold and silver alone are worth at least three thousanddollars, " declared Teddy. 

"And don't forget the copper coins, " added Ferd. 

"And remember too they are old coins and worth something extra from acollector's point of view, " said Chet. 

From the coins the young folks turned to the postage stamps. Chet andTeddy had done a little stamp collecting once and knew that some of thestamps were rare. 

"I think they are worth at least fifteen hundred dollars more, " saidTeddy, "and maybe they are worth twice that. Some stamps are worth ahundred dollars apiece. "

It was not until they were called below by Mrs. Gilligan that they gaveup speculating about the value of the trunk. The boys went off, leavingthe girls to themselves. 

"It's too good to be true, " murmured Billie, over and over again. 

Both of the other girls put their arms about her. 

"You deserve it, " said Laura. 

"I'm awfully glad, Billie, really I am, " beamed Violet. 

"Why, I'll be able to go to Three Towers Hall!" cried Billie, a littlelater, when thinking it all over. "And I can send Chet to Boxton MilitaryAcademy. Won't that be fine?"

"And you can have enough left to pay for that old statue, " added Laura, with a smile. "I knew something good would come out of this queer oldhouse at Cherry Corners. "

"Well, you needn't take all the credit to yourself, " said Billie, thelilt of happiness and excitement in her voice. "Just remember, younglady, that it was little Billie Bradley who discovered the trunk. "

"You stuck up thing, " cried Violet, putting a fond arm again about her. "Billie, dear, " she went on in the serious voice that was Violet's veryown, "I'm just exactly as glad for myself that you found the money as Iam for you. Because if Laura and I had had to go to Three Towers withoutyou we wouldn't have enjoyed a single thing. "

"Yes, we've been worrying terribly about that, " sighed Laura, andaffectionately Billie patted a hand of each. 

"There never was a girl had such wonderful friends, " she said, andsomething in her throat tightened a little. "And it makes the trunk threetimes as valuable, " she added, in a lighter tone, "because it makes threepeople happy instead of one. Which reminds me--" she stopped short andput her hand over her mouth in consternation. 

"Now what's the matter?" Violet surveyed her anxiously. "Is there a pinsticking you, or something?"

"Of course not, " denied Billie absently, adding as she rose hastily toher feet: "It just struck me that I've known this wonderful thing forhours and I haven't written home about it yet. "

"Well, you'd better read these first, " sang out a cheery voice from thedoor, and they turned to find Teddy coming toward them with some lettersin his hand. 

"Letters!" was the joyful cry. "Give them to us, Teddy, before we takethem from you. "

"Oh, do you really think you could?" he asked, holding them behind hisback by way of challenge. "Just come on and try. I'll guarantee to holdoff the three of you with one hand. "

But it was Billie's pleading face that made him change his mind. 

"Please, Teddy, " she begged, "I've just been dying for some letters fromhome. Don't keep me waiting. "

"All right, your word is law, " said Teddy gallantly, remembering that hehad read the phrase somewhere and it had sounded very good. "Here youare, and here's one for Vi and two for Laura. "

"Goodness, what have I done to get only one?" cried Violet, feeling verymuch abused. 

"Well, your one looks fat enough to make up for our two, " Billie assuredher diplomatically, then settled back to enjoy her own letters, whileTeddy ran out to join the boys downstairs. 

One of her letters was from her mother, and with a loving smile she laidit aside to be read last--she always saved the best till the last. Thewriting on the other envelope puzzled her. 

"Now, who is writing to me from Mayport, Long Island?" she demanded, andthe girls looked up inquiringly from their letters. 

"Another mystery?" asked Laura, for there were not enough mysteries inthe world to satisfy Laura. 

"It doesn't look very mysterious, " answered Billie, turning the envelopearound and around in her hand and finally holding it up to the light tosee if she could get any clew to its contents that way. "But I surelynever did see that handwriting before. I wonder--"

"Well, why don't you open it?" Violet inquired impatiently. "It seems tome that's the best way to find out. "

"Isn't she the bright child?" sniffed Laura, as Billie tore open theenvelope and pulled out the letter inside. Hastily she looked for thesignature at the end, then gave a little excited exclamation. 

"Girls, " she said, "it's from Miss Beggs!" And she looked at them withwide eyes, forgetting for the moment that she had no more reason to feara letter from the teacher. Then she remembered, and a joyful smile dawnedon her face. 

"Girls, I've been sort of dreading this letter all summer, " she said, her eyes sparkling, "and now when it's come I don't mind a bit. Isn't itjust wonderful? I have money enough of my own to replace that horrid'Girl Reading a Book' and two or three more like it. Now, " she said, settling down with a satisfied little sigh, "if you'll allow me, I'llread my letter. "

The girls watched her as she read and were amazed to see her expressionchange from satisfaction to surprise and from surprise to somethinglike chagrin. 

"Well, if that isn't the limit!" she cried, laying down the letter andregarding the girls disgustedly. "Here I've been worrying myself--andChet--sick all summer about that horrid old statue and now when I've gotthe money to pay for it, I find out that I probably wouldn't have had toreplace the old thing anyway. "

"What do you mean?" the others asked, more puzzled than ever by thisflow of words. 

"Why, " Billie went on to explain, glancing at the letter again, "MissBeggs says that the statue had been broken before and she had attemptedto mend it. She says that I'm not to worry over it, for it would havebeen only a matter of time before it had fallen to pieces itself anyway. Now what do you think of that?"

"I think, " said Violet, with a sigh, "that we have wasted a good deal oftime and worry over nothing at all. "

"Well, I don't see any use of looking doleful about it, " said Laurabriskly. "I should think you'd be glad, Billie, that you won't have tobuy a statue. It will give you that much more money to have foryourself. "

"Oh, but I'll buy a little statue, anyway, " said Billie decidedly. "It'sawfully nice of Miss Beggs to tell me not to bother about it, but thefact is that I _re_broke the statue, whether it was broken before ornot. And, anyway, I'll be glad to do it now, " she added, with a littlegleam in her eye, "just to show Amanda Peabody that I can!"

"I say, up there, aren't you ever coming down?" called Chet's voice fromthe bottom of the stairs, and Laura went out into the hall to see whathe wanted. 

"We're making plans for the fall, " Chet added, and in his voice was alittle joyous thrill that made Billie's heart sing. Dear old Chet--ifever a boy deserved to get what he wanted, he did. "And if you don't comedown and help us, we're going to leave you out, " he added challengingly. 

"Better come up here, " suggested Laura, adding decidedly. "We can't comedown, you know. "

"I'd like to know why not!"

"We can't leave the trunk, " Laura explained patiently, as if she wereaddressing a particularly stupid child. "It's too precious. "

So in the end the girls had their way, and the boys joined them in theupstairs room which came the nearest to being cheerful of any room in thehouse, except the kitchen. 

At first the boys talked and the girls listened. But gradually the bitsof fancy work were laid aside, the girls joined in the conversation, while eyes shone bright and faces glowed with anticipation of what theautumn held in store for them. 

And while Laura and Violet and the two boys were talking happily and allat once, Teddy took the opportunity to whisper in Billie's ear:

"I suppose, being a young lady with a large fortune, " he said teasingly, delighting in the color that rose to her face, "you won't find time torecognize your old friends any more. "

And with a dimpling smile and mischief in her eyes Billie answered him. 

"Of course not, " she said, adding a trifle more seriously: "Except onlythe friends who stood by me so loyally and offered to help when I had no'large fortune, '"

"And are you going to tell me, " asked Teddy eagerly, "the names ofthose favored friends? I know I didn't do anything, Billie, but am Ione of them?"

"Your name, " said Billie, half laughing and half serious, "is at the veryhead of the list. "

"Do you really mean--" Teddy was beginning eagerly, when Laura called tothem laughingly. 

"Whispering in corners not allowed, " she cried. "Come over here and helpus decide what we'll eat for our first midnight feast at Three TowersHall. We must have midnight feasts, you know. "

"Of course we must, " cried Billie joyfully. "Doesn't it sound delicious?Oh, we're going to have a wonderful time!"

And just how wonderful a time they had and just how merry and fun-lovingthey found the girls at the boarding school will be told in the nextvolume of the series entitled, "Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall; or, Leading a Needed Rebellion. " In that volume may be met the girls and theboys again in adventures as queer and exciting as those alreadyexperienced. 

"Well, Billie, you can't complain of your inheritance after all, " saidChet some time later. 

"Indeed not!" she answered. "Wasn't it the best ever?"

THE END