y did "fall to." Cans and tins were opened,
crackers and slices of bread spread, and with peach juice to drink, for
they did not like to draw any water, fearing it might not be fresh--they
ate--and ate--and ate again.

"Oh, how good I feel!" cried Grace, as there came a pause.

"But how in the world do you imagine this stuff got here?" asked Amy.

"Why seek to inquire?" spoke Mollie. "That it is here is sufficient for
me. Another olive, Betty, dear?"

"The--our friend the ghost may have provided it," said Grace.

"You are coming on bravely," commented Betty. "If you will----"

She paused--they all did--mouths half opened. For from somewhere in the
structure came a hollow and terrifying groan, and then followed the
unmistakable sound of clinking metal, while a bluish light flashed
around them. Then came another long-drawn cry--a shrill, eerie wail, and
both their lights went out, leaving them in total darkness, while the
storm shrieked about the old house, rocking it, and swaying it as though
to tear it from its foundations.

CHAPTER XVI

"SO YOU HAVE COME BACK!"

Screams and frightened exclamations on the part of the girls followed
the queer manifestations. Even Cousin Jane gave a cry of alarm, and
clung to Betty. In fact, everyone was clinging to some one else, the
table having been deserted at the first alarm.

There was silence for a moment--no, not altogether a silence, for the
noise of the storm indicated that it was not in the least lessening, but
there was comparative quiet in the room, and then again came that
strange bluish, flickering glare, and the metallic clanging sound. Then
there was that startling, hollow groan, that seemed to echo and re-echo
through the deserted house.

"Oh! Oh!" moaned Grace. "This is awful--terrible!"

It was sufficiently terrible there in the darkness, illuminated only by
the lightning, or by that weird blue glare that seemed to come from no
place in particular, but which shone through the whole room--throwing
into ghastly outlines the faces of the girls.

Their lamps had gone out--or been blown out--they did not know which,
and as they clung to each other, their hearts pounding, every startled
nerve on the alert, Amy gasped:

"What--what made the lights go out? Can anyone tell?"

Even then, Betty confessed afterward, she felt a hysterical desire to
propound the old question of where a certain Biblical personage was when
the light went out, but instead Grac