CHAPTER XXI
THE MISSING GIRL
"Who would ever think we could be frightened here?" asked Mollie.
"Yes, it's quiet enough now," replied Betty. "Not a sign of a ghost."
"Nor flashes of blue fire," added Grace.
"Nor hollow groans," remarked Amy.
The Outdoor Girls, with Mrs. Mackson and Mr. Blackford, had reached theso-called "haunted mansion." The day was a sunny one, perhaps that addedto the lack of nervous fears they felt as they stopped the auto, andentered the place. This time they had gone to the mansion proper, havingdriven through what were once beautiful and extensive grounds. But theyhad long since fallen into a tangle of weeds and shrubbery.
They had decided to explore the mansion itself first, and go from thereto the annex, as it might be called--the former abode of the housekeeperand staff of servants the rich Mr. Kenyon once kept.
During the week that had intervened, the keys of the place had beensecured from Mr. Lagg. He was delighted that the girls had finallyconsented, through a chain of circumstances, to investigate the queermanifestations.
"You'll do better than the boys, I'm sure," said the storekeeper."Anyhow, they've gone camping. Now find out what that ghost is, and--getit out of there. I have received word from the doctors who want to usethe place as a sanitarium, that if I cannot, within a week, deliver themthe property with a guarantee that there will be no disturbances, theywill take another place."
"We will do all we can," promised Mollie.
They entered the old mansion. Truly it had been a magnificent place inits day, and even now the hand of decay had touched it but lightly. Witha few repairs, some decorating, a cutting down of the trees that weretoo thick about the place, it could be made into a most cheerfulsanitarium.
"And it's so big!" cried Grace, as she wandered about the spaciousrooms. But she had hold of Amy's arm, it might be noticed, and bothgirls kept rather near to Mr. Blackford. He had come back unsuccessfulin his search for his sister.
"Yes, it must have been fine here when the place was new," agreedMollie. "Well, let's go at this search systematically."
"That is the only way," spoke Mr. Blackford. "We might start in at thetop and work downward."
They did this, ascending by means of the grand staircase to the secondfloor, and thence to the third and fourth. The latter contained but fewrooms, mostly for storage, it seemed, and it was soon evident that noghost--of the human kind at least--had been at work here. The dust andgrime of years had accumulated in the apartments.
The third floor offered no solution. This was rather larger in extent,and contained many guest-rooms. Some showed evidence of having beenbeautifully decorated, being paneled in tapestry that now hung in shabbystrips--a relic of former beauty.
It was not until the second floor was reached that anything like apromising clue was found. Meanwhile many queer nooks and corners hadbeen explored. Mr. Kenyon had evidently built the house after his owneccentric ideas, for it contained strange rooms, connecting with oneanother by little, unexpected passages, short flights of stairs, andmany winding ways. Some of the rooms might well have been secret ones,so strangely were they tucked away.
But in two apartments on the second floor--two rooms that had evidentlybeen choice guest chambers--the searchers came upon signs whichindicated clearly that some one had been in them recently. There wasless dust, and in one corner was a pile of bags and rags that seemed toindicate a bed. On the hearth--there were big fireplaces in eachroom--were ashes that had been hot not many days gone by.
"Tramps!" exclaimed Mr. Blackford. "To my way of thinking tramps havebeen sleeping here."
"Do you think the ghost was a tramp?" asked Mollie. "The one who caughtme?"
"He may have been."
"But why was he all in white?"
"Probably to keep up the illusion. We haven't gotten to the bottom ofthis yet. Let's keep on."
But aside from the two rooms no others in the big mansion showed signsof habitation. All were gloomy and dust-encumbered. On the first floornothing was discovered, and the cellar yielded no clues.
"Well, all we have established so far," said Mr. Blackford, "is thatsomeone has been sleeping here. Now let's keep on to the annex, and seeif we can establish a connection. It may be that the secret is there."
They found the passage that led from the mansion to the house in whichso much had happened to them that stormy night. There was a room in themain house, whence the passage began, and this room, too, showed signsof having been used recently.
And when they came to the place where the girls had dined sounexpectedly they saw unmistakable signs that other meals than the onethey had helped themselves to had been eaten there.
"Our friend, the ghost, has been here since," said Mr. Blackford."Perhaps we shall have to set a trap for him."
They walked on, their footsteps echoing and re-echoing through thesilent old house. They were in the annex now, but a search thererevealed nothing.
The girls looked at one another, and then at Mr. Blackford. He shook hishead.
"I confess I am baffled," he said. "I did hope to find something. But wehaven't come across it. If there was a systematic effort to give theimpression that this mansion was haunted, there would have been someevidences of it.
"I mean we would have some material evidence. There would have to besome way of producing that bluish light, that groaning sound and theclanking of metal. But, unless the apparatus is more cleverly hiddenthan I suspect, it isn't here."
"Then the only thing to do is to give it up, and confess ourselvesbeaten," suggested Betty.
"I don't like to do that," spoke Mollie.
"Well, we can go over the place again," remarked Mr. Blackford slowly,"but I don't see----"
He paused abruptly and seemed to be listening. The girls glanced at oneanother curiously.
Then there sounded through the house a cry as of fear, and it wasfollowed by a heavy fall that jarred the floor.
Mr. Blackford sprang to the door, rushed down the hall, and a momentlater cried:
"Girls, come here!"
"Have you--have you found the ghost?" asked Betty.
"No, it's a girl, and she seems to have fainted."
"A--a girl!" faltered Mollie.
They all ran to where Mr. Blackford's voice sounded. It was in the veryroom where Mollie had been held a prisoner. And there, in the center ofthe apartment, supported in Mr. Blackford's arms, was a girl. At thesight of her Betty cried:
"It is she! It is she! It is the girl who so strangely ran away from us.The one who fell out of the tree! Carrie Norton!"