CHAPTER XIV. A PUNT RIDE
The faint tinkle sounded again. Nann sprang up and lighted the lantern.To her amazement the bell was gone. Surprised as she was, she hadsufficient presence of mind not to tell her timid companion what hadhappened. Very softly she turned the knob. The door was still locked. Sheglanced at the window; the blind was still hooked. Then, blowing out thelight, she said in a tone meant to express unconcern, "All is serene onthe Potomac as far as I can see." After returning to bed, however, Nannremained awake, long after her companion's even breathing told that shewas asleep, wondering what it could all mean. Toward morning Nann fellinto a light slumber, from which she was awakened by the sun streaminginto the room. Sitting up, she saw that Dories was dressed and had openedthe blinds. For a moment she sat in a dazed puzzling. What was it thatshe had been pondering about in the night? Remembering suddenly, sheglanced quickly at the door. There hung the little bell as quietly asthough it had never disappeared. Dories, hearing a movement, turned fromthe window where she had been gazing out at the sparkling sea.
"Good morning to you, Nancy dear," she said gaily. "O, such a lovely daythis is! How I hope that I may go sailing with you and Gib." Then, as shesaw her friend continuing to stare at the bell as though fascinated,Dories remarked, "Well, I guess the ghost took warning all right andstayed away. We won't find a little paper in our room this morning, I'llwager." As she talked, she was crossing the room to the door. Lifting thelittle bell, she dropped it again with a clang.
Nann sprang out of bed, all excited interest. "Dories, what happened? Whydid you drop the bell?"
Dories pointed to the floor where it lay. Nann bent to pick it up. Tiedto the clapper was a bit of paper and on it was written in the familiarpenmanship and with the same red ink, "In eleven days you will know all."
Instead of acting frightened, Dories' look was one of triumph. "Therenow, Mistress Nann," she exclaimed, "you are always saying that it is nota being supernatural that is leaving these notes. What have you to sayabout it this morning?"
"That I am truly puzzled," was the confession Nann was forced to make;"that the joker is much too clever for us, but we'll catch him yet, ifI'm a prophet." She was dressing as she talked.
Dories, standing near the window, was examining the paper. "It seems tobe the sort that packages are wrapped in," she speculated. Then, after asilent moment and a closer scrutiny, "Nann, do you suppose that it iswritten with blood?"
"Good gracious, no!" the denial was emphatic. "Why do you ask such anabsurd question?"
"Well, that was what the red ink was made of in one of the ghost storiesthat I read to Aunt Jane yesterday morning."
Nann, having completed her toilet, went to the window to look out."Good!" she exclaimed. "There is Gibralter Strait in his little puntboat. He seems to have plenty of time to go sailing. Oh, I remember now.He did tell me that their country school does not open until afterChristmas. So many boys are needed to help their fathers on the farms andwith the cranberries until snow falls."
"I suppose I ought to stay at home again this morning and read to AuntJane." Dories' voice sounded so doleful that her friend whirled about,and, putting loving arms about her, she exclaimed: "Not a bit of it! Youmay sail with Gibralter this morning and I will stay here and read toyour Great-Aunt Jane."
But when the two girls visited the room of the elderly woman, she toldthem that she wished to be left quite alone.
Dories went to the bedside and, almost timidly, she touched the wrinkledhead. "Don't you feel well today, Aunt Jane!" she asked, feeling in herheart a sudden pity for the old woman. "Isn't there something I could dofor you?"
For one fleeting moment there was that strange expression in the dark,deeply-sunken eyes. It might have been a hungry yearning for love andaffection. Impulsively the girl kissed the sallow cheek, but the elderlywoman had closed her eyes and she did not open them again, and so Nannand Dories tiptoed out to the kitchen.
"Poor Aunt Jane!" the latter began. "She hasn't had much love in herlife. I don't remember just how it was. She was engaged to marry somebodyonce. Then something happened and she didn't. After that, Mother says shejust shut herself up in that fine home of hers outside of Boston andgrieved."
"Poor Aunt Jane, indeed!" Nann commented as she began to prepare thebreakfast. "She must be haunted by many of the ghosts that your mothertold about, memories of loving deeds that she might have done. With hermoney and her home, she could have made many people happy, but insteadshe has spent her life just being sorry for herself." Then more brightly,"I'm glad we can both go sailing with Gib."
Half an hour later, the girls in their bright colored sweater-coats andtams raced across the beach. The red-headed boy was on the watch for themand he soon had the punt alongside the broad rock which served as a dock."Do you want passengers this morning?" Nann called gaily.
"Sure sartin!" was the prompt reply. Then, when the two girls were seatedon the broad seat in the stem the lad hauled in the sheet and away theywent scudding. "Where are you going, Gib?" Nann inquired curiously.
"We'll cruise 'long the water side o' the ol' ruin," he told them. "Pasays he's sure sartin he saw a light burnin' thar agin late las' night,an' like's not, we'll see suthin'."