r-rd?'

"'It's an owl, I tell you!' exclaimed the butcher.

"'I know it's _ould_,' says the Irishman. 'But what d'ye want for it?
It'll make soup for me boar-r-rders!'"

"That's a good story," admitted Ruth, "but try to think up some way of
finding poor little Amy, instead of telling funny tales."

"Oh, how can I help----"

Curly stopped. Ann, who was sitting in the middle, grabbed both him and
Ruth. "Listen to that!" she whispered. "_That_ isn't another owl, is it?"

"What is it?" gasped Ruth.

Somewhere in the ruin of the mill there was a noise. It might have been
the voice of an animal or of a bird, but it sounded near enough like a
human being to scare all three of the young people on the doorstep.

"Sa-ay," quavered Curly. "You don't suppose there are such things as
ghosts, do you, girls?"

"No, I don't!" snapped Ruth. "Don't try to scare us either, Curly."

"Honest, I'm not. I'm right here," cried the boy. "You know I never made
that noise----"

"There it is again!" exclaimed Ann.

The sound was like the cry of something in distress. Ruth got up suddenly
and tried to put on a brave front. "I can't sit here and listen to that,"
she said.

"Let's go," urged Ann. "I'm ready."

"Oh, say----" began Curly, when Ruth interrupted him by seizing the
lantern.

"Don't fret, Curly Smith," she said. "We're not going without finding out
what that sound means."

"Maybe it's young owls, and the old one will come back and pick our eyes
out," suggested Ann.

"Get a club, Curly," commanded Ruth. "We'll be ready, then, for man or
beast."

This order gave Curly confidence, and made him pluck up his own waning
courage. These girls depended upon him, and he was not the boy to back
down before even a ghostly Unknown.

He found a club and went side by side with Ruth into the mill. The sound
that had disturbed them was repeated. Ruth was sure, now, that it was
somebody sobbing.

"Amy! Amy Gregg!" she called again.

"Pshaw!" murmured Ann. "It isn't Amy. She'd have been out of here in a
hurry when we shouted for her before."

Ruth was not so sure of that. They came to a break in the flooring. Once
there had been steps here leading down into the cellar of the mill, but
the steps had rotted away.

"Amy!" called Ruth again. She knelt and held the lantern as far down the
well as she could reach. The sound of sobbing had ceased.

"Amy, _dear_!" cried Ruth. "It's Ruth and Ann, And Curly is with us. Do
answer if you