men had disappeared within
the old mansion.

The girls waited almost breathless--there was something so uncanny about
the place. But presently boyish shouts and merry calls from within assured
them that no trouble had been encountered, and it was Dorothy who proposed
that they follow and seek refuge from the winds, that found the girls'
ears and noses, in spite of the shelter of the old porch and the
protection of furs and wraps.

"Come on," suggested Dorothy. "Everything must be all right or the boys
would not be so jolly. I'm just dying to get indoors--anywhere."

"But the screaming ghost," Tavia reminded her. "And the traveling
lamp-post. I feel kind of scary--"

But Dorothy had poked her head in, and now stepped within the old hallway,
so that there was nothing left for Tavia to do but to follow.

"Here we are!" called Tom in that queer tone of voice peculiar to empty
houses.

"And look at the gorgeousness," announced Nat. "Ever see finer wood, or
better mantels? Why, I'll bet this was a regular castle, all right. Not so
bad now."

The young men were racing about from room to room, but the girls were not
so keen on investigating. Dorothy did walk through the great long parlors
and admire the handsome Italian marble mantels, and the library with
inlaid floor was also explored, but Tavia kept as near as possible to the
front door--ready to run, she explained.

"Why, there's nothing to be afraid of," said Dorothy, now quite at ease.
"The boys are in the very top of the house, over in the tower, and I am
sure if there was anything to fear, they would have discovered it by this
time."

"But the cellar," objected Tavia, who was really never as much frightened
as she pretended to be, for she had a way of "looking for trouble," as Nat
expressed it.

"When they come down I'll ask them to do the cellar," offered Dorothy,
with a laugh. "Then will you make yourself comfortable?"

Tavia sighed. "Oh, it's so spooky," she insisted. "I feel as if things are
getting ready to spring at us from every corner. And did you ever see so
many corners in one place in all your life?"

"Oh, come up and see the gallery room," called Nat from the top of the
stair-well. "If we don't bring the boys out here and have some doings!
This is the swellest kind of a place. Come on up, girls. Nary a ghost nor
a ghostie in the diggings."

Tom was singing snatches of songs, and Nat would join in when he came to a
"joining," so that the old