The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car/Chapter 20
CHAPTER XX
SEEKING THE GHOST
They all stood still for a moment. The eerie noises gradually died away, and then they all became conscious of a strong smell of sulphur.
"What is that?" asked Betty, in an awed whisper. She was more impressed than she had been.
"Smells as if some one had lighted old-fashioned brimstone matches," answered Mr. Blackford.
"And it isn't the lightning, now," spoke Amy, looking at Mrs. Mackson. "It's the—ghost."
"A very material ghost, in my opinion," said the young man, who had so providentially come along. "I'm going to find out who it is."
He started toward the passage that led to the mansion.
"Don't you dare leave us here alone!" cried Betty, half tragically. Mr. Blackford looked at her a moment, and then added quietly:
"Well, perhaps it will be better to postpone the investigation. And there is your missing friend. But I would like to know who has an object in doing this. I think Mr. Lagg would like to know, also."
Once more the mysterious house was in silence, and with a last look around at the mildewed walls, the girls and Mrs. Mackson preceded Mr. Blackford out of it.
"I'll get your secret yet!" exclaimed the young man, as he turned to look at the strange habitation. "Now, where did you leave the auto?"
Fortunately, Betty had a good sense of direction and could lead the way, flashing her lamp at intervals. Mr. Blackford had proposed that some of the girls wait while he drove one of them to the stalled car in his carriage, it holding but two. But the girls refused to consider this, wishing to stay together.
"And, too," said Betty, "we might miss poor Mollie on the way."
"That is so," he had agreed. So they tramped along the muddy road, making the turn on to the main highway, and then, when Betty was about to remark that they must be near the car, Grace cried out.
"Oh, what is it now?" demanded Betty, a trifle sharply, for her nerves were fast giving way under the strain, though the Little Captain had good nerves, ordinarily.
"There's a light!" exclaimed Grace.
"Yes; and it's at the auto!" added Amy. "Oh, girls"
"Perhaps it is Mollie," suggested Mrs. Mackson. "Call to her."
"Mollie! Mollie!" Betty cried, shrilly, and the others joined in with a school call.
"Oh, are you there?" came back the answering hail. "Oh, I am so glad."
"That's Mollie!" said Betty, in great relief. "We are united again," and presently the girls were clasping the lost one in their arms, and, let the truth be told—weeping over her for very joy.
"But of all things—to see you!" exclaimed Mollie, to Mr. Blackford, as she fastened her auto lamp on the bracket.
"Yes, and I was surprised to find your friends. But how did you get here?"
Mollie told how she had come to her senses, and had lighted the lamp she had with her. Then, when she was about to escape through the barred window she had heard the sound of a carriage approaching.
"That was mine," said Mr. Blackford.
"If I had known it I would not have been so frightened," remarked Mollie. "As it was, I put out my lamp, and then, when no one came for me, I decided to jump out. It was not far to the ground. Then I ran, and at first did not know what to do. Then I decided to try and find my auto. I must have blundered into the road, but I got here at last. I was going to hide in the car, and I wanted to leave some sort of a light on it so no one would run into it in the dark."
"But didn't you hear us talking and calling?" asked Amy.
"No," answered Mollie. "You see the room is some distance from the front of the house. And I was too frightened to know what I was doing. Besides, I fainted, at first, you know. And I thought you girls would run when—when you saw that white thing that grabbed me. I was disappointed when you were not at the auto here."
"What was—what was it that grabbed you?" faltered Amy, in awed tones.
"You needn't be so mysterious about it," laughed Mollie. She could laugh now—the strain was over. "It was a man who grabbed me, I'm certain of that. And a man I have seen before!"
"Seen before!" cried Betty. "What do you mean? Who was he?"
"I don't know. But what I do know is that he had a queer scar on the hand that grabbed me. And somewhere—I can't recall now, I'm in such a flutter—I've seen that man and his scar before."
"Try to think," urged Mr. Blackford. "We must get at the bottom of this outrage, and if you can give us a clue it will help a lot."
"I can't think now," protested Mollie, weakly.
"Maybe it will come to me later. Oh, what a night! If only our auto would work we could get to—some place."
"Suppose you let me have a look," suggested Mr. Blackford. "I know something of the mechanism of a car."
"Oh, if you can only get this one to—mote!" sighed Mollie.
Mr. Blackford proved that he did know considerable about a car, for he soon discovered that the trouble was a simple disarrangement of the ignition system.
"There!" he exclaimed, when, by the light of a held-up lantern, he had made the necessary adjustment. "We will see if it won't go. Of course you can't use the self-starter, since your storage battery is out of order, but we can crank up in the old-fashioned way."
"The car generates its own current when it is running," said Mollie. "But to-day I have been running on an extra battery, as something seemed to be the matter with the other one. I must have it looked to."
Mr. Blackford whirled the crank, and at once there sounded the welcome throb of the powerful motor.
"Oh, joy!" cried Betty. "Now we can go!"
The auto was indeed in running order again.
"What are your plans?" asked the young man.
"We'll go on to Wendell City, the next town, and stop there for the night," said Mollie. "We are very damp and miserable, and need rest, and"
"Food!" said Grace. "That little lunch we had was not very substantial."
"There were no chocolates for Grace," spoke Amy.
"I think I will drive on to the next town also, since it has stopped raining," went on Mr. Blackford. "I will see you in the morning, and we'll talk over this business some more. I want to lay that ghost if we can. You'll get to the town ahead of me in your car."
"And we'll see you at the Lafayette House," suggested Mollie. "We are going to stop there."
Four weary and much exhausted girls, and a rather used-up chaperone, were soon enjoying the comforts of the hotel. They had 'phoned on ahead for rooms that morning, but the proprietor had about given them up. However, it was only eleven o'clock.
"Wouldn't you think it was—next day?" asked Betty, as she noted the time.
"A great deal happened in a short space," said Mrs. Mackson. "Oh, but it is good to be in a house again."
"One that isn't haunted," added Grace.
Morning, as Betty put it, "dawned clear and bright," and with it came refreshment to the Outdoor Girls. They almost forgot the terrors of the night, and when Mr. Blackford met them in the parlor, he having arrived about an hour after they did, he found a very different set of young ladies.
"Well, are you ready for the ghost hunt?" he asked, with a smile.
"I am!" declared Mollie. "I think that ought to be investigated. The authorities should be notified, not so much for what happened to me—to all of us—as because of what might happen to others. Then there's poor Mr. Lagg—he'll lose what money he put into that property if the value goes down because of the ghosts. I say let's try to discover the secret."
"I'm with you!" exclaimed Betty, and Amy and Grace gave rather halting assents. Mrs. Mackson gamely agreed to do as the rest did.
"I did hope I could go with you to-day," said Mr. Blackford, "but I have received a telegram that calls me away. I wonder if you could postpone it?"
"Of course!" exclaimed Betty. "There is no great hurry, and besides, I think we will all be the better for a rest. Is your business prospering, Mr. Blackford?"
"Yes, indeed, thanks to the way you girls helped me out by finding my five hundred dollar bill. But this is not business. I don't mind telling you that I am seeking for a long-lost relative—a sister—and I have engaged a firm of private detectives to look for her. They just sent me word that they are on the track of a person who may be the one I have been looking for so long. So, under the circumstances"
"Oh, of course, go by all means!" exclaimed Mollie. "We can meet you later, anywhere you say."
"Then suppose we meet here, say a week from to-day, and try for the ghost secret. By that time I may have found my sister, or have suffered another disappointment—and there have been many of late," and he sighed.
The week that followed was a busy one for the Outdoor Girls. Mollie had her car put in perfect order, and they toured over many miles of splendid country. They had minor happenings and adventures, but nothing of moment, if we except a few punctures and a blowout. Oh, yes, they did run over a dog, breaking the creature's leg. But it was the dog's fault, and Mollie steered out of the way so quickly that she nearly sent the auto into a tree.
At the appointed time Mr. Blackford was at the hotel.
"Well, are you ready to go ghost-hunting?" he asked.
"We are!" cried Mollie, and once more they set off for the "haunted mansion," determined to discover its secret if at all possible.
"I wonder what we'll find?" said Betty, as the car raced on.