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.