ould have some material evidence. There would have to be
some way of producing that bluish light, that groaning sound and the
clanking of metal. But, unless the apparatus is more cleverly hidden
than I suspect, it isn't here."

"Then the only thing to do is to give it up, and confess ourselves
beaten," suggested Betty.

"I don't like to do that," spoke Mollie.

"Well, we can go over the place again," remarked Mr. Blackford slowly,
"but I don't see----"

He paused abruptly and seemed to be listening. The girls glanced at one
another curiously.

Then there sounded through the house a cry as of fear, and it was
followed by a heavy fall that jarred the floor.

Mr. Blackford sprang to the door, rushed down the hall, and a moment
later cried:

"Girls, come here!"

"Have you--have you found the ghost?" asked Betty.

"No, it's a girl, and she seems to have fainted."

"A--a girl!" faltered Mollie.

They all ran to where Mr. Blackford's voice sounded. It was in the very
room where Mollie had been held a prisoner. And there, in the center of
the apartment, supported in Mr. Blackford's arms, was a girl. At the
sight of her Betty cried:

"It is she! It is she! It is the girl who so strangely ran away from us.
The one who fell out of the tree! Carrie Norton!"

CHAPTER XXII

A SWINDLED FARMER

Surprise at Betty's exclamation held her companions silent for a moment,
and then Mollie cried:

"Are you sure, Betty? Are you sure? Can it be possible that we have
found her again?"

"Of course I'm sure!" declared Betty, as she advanced to assist Mr.
Blackford in caring for the girl, who lay white and senseless in his
arms. "You'll be sure, too, as soon as you take a good look at her.
Isn't that hair evidence enough?" and she let some of the girl's
luxurious tresses, that had come unbound, slip through her fingers. "And
see her face--and there's the scar she got when she fell from the tree.
Of course it's the same girl!"

"I believe it is," murmured Grace. "But how came she here?"

"Another one of the mysteries to be explained," said Amy. "But hadn't we
better see first if we can revive her?"

"An excellent idea," declared Mrs. Mackson. "If one of you will get some
water, I'll use my smelling salts on her. And we must loosen her collar.
It seems too tight."

Mr. Blackford had turned over the care of the girl to the others. He
hurried to a spring they had discovered in the yard of the old house,
and presentl