Page:Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car.djvu/175

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MYSTIFIED
165

over grass. However, ve are sure of one thing—that she got out of the room herself, and ran off. She was not carried away."

"That is everything," murmured Grace. "Oh, what a relief!"

"But where can she be now?" asked Betty, in bewilderment. "Why did she not come back to us?"

"Probably she thought you, too, had left the place," suggested Mr. Blackford. "We must make further search. But suppose you tell me all that happened. I am interested in this—ghost."

The girls told all that had occurred—told it in gasps—by exclamations—by "fits and starts," as Betty expressed it. At first Mr. Blackford was amused—then he was more interested—finally he was impressed.

"I don't like this," he said, when he had been informed of the failure of Mr. Lagg to dispose of the property because of the "ghostly" manifestations. "It looks to me as though some trick was being perpetrated here. Possibly something more than a trick. There may be crimes contemplated. The authorities should be notified.

"Of course I don't believe in ghosts—neither do you—and, from what you say, it must have