ttered
frightened cries. There were calls sounding throughout the house--voices
anxiously demanding to know what the matter was. The girls ran down the
front stairs, and then swung around and darted up the rear flight that
they might reach the room of the boys without passing the closet which
contained something that had frightened them so terribly.

"Oh!" screamed Tavia, pounding on the boys' door. "Do come out--quick!
There's a man in the big hall closet! He--he almost grabbed me!" she
panted.

But somehow the boys could not seem to hurry. Dorothy and Tavia were
almost in hysterics before Ned finally opened the door, just as if nothing
had happened. He was fully dressed, and it did seem as if he might have
responded more quickly to the frightened summons.

"What did you say?" he asked, as if just awakened from a sound sleep.

"A man--a man--in the hall closet--he nearly grabbed me!" cried Tavia, "I
put my arm in--to hang up my cloak--I shoved the clothes aside--then I--I
felt--something--terrible. Then I'm sure I saw--oh, for pity's sake get
help--don't go alone--he may kill all of us!"

Tavia trembled and seemed about to fall in a faint.

"Oh, come on," exclaimed Ned as he stepped out into the hall. "I guess we
can manage a little thing like this. Come on; we'll see what it is that
frightened you. Likely it was only Tavia's excited imagination."

"Oh, please don't go alone!" pleaded Dorothy, holding her cousin back by
the arm. "I--I saw--him--it--too. The awfullest-looking--"

"Ghost!" finished Ned with a laugh. "Well, I'm not afraid of anything,
from ghosts to--gillies!"

At this he lightly shook off Dorothy's detaining hand, and started down
the long hall toward the closet. Nat and the other boys were in the hall
now, and in spite of her terror Dorothy noticed that they were all
dressed, though it was supposed they had all retired--especially Roger and
Joe, who should have been asleep long ago.

"Now, come on out, whoever you are!" exclaimed Ned as he strode up to the
open closet. "Where is he?" he asked, poking through the garments hanging
on the rear hooks. "Nothing doing here."

"Then he has hidden himself in some other part of the house," declared
Tavia.

But at this Joe and Roger could hold back their laughter no longer. The
others also joined in. But Tavia would not be convinced.

"I certainly saw--him--it," she insisted. "It did not look like anything
human!"

"Come and see if it's here now,