e
they had left the girl.

"No, best let her be," said the woman--Mrs. Meckelburn, she had said her
name was.

"Hark!" exclaimed Amy a little later.

"It's an auto!" said Betty, going to the window.

She saw Mollie and Grace in the car, a young man, with a professional
air about him, at the steering wheel.

"That's Dr. Brown!" exclaimed Mrs. Meckelburn, "but I didn't know he
could drive one of them things."

"I guess Mollie got too nervous," explained Betty.

The doctor caught up his bag and hurried toward the house, followed by
Grace and Mollie.

"An accident!" he exclaimed in brisk tones, bowing to Betty and Amy, and
taking in the woman in his greeting. "Where is she?"

"In my bedroom, Dr. Brown," said Mrs. Meckelburn. "I do hope there's
nothing much the matter with the poor dear."

They clustered around as the physician pushed open the door. Then he
turned to them with a queer look on his face.

"Must be some mistake," he said. "There is no one here."

"No one there!" cried Betty in strange tones. "Why----"

She looked over his shoulder. There in the bed was the imprint of a
human form, but the girl herself had vanished!

CHAPTER IV

THE QUEER PEDDLER

For a moment after this surprising discovery had been made no one spoke.
Dr. Brown looked oddly from one girl to the other, and at Mrs.
Meckelburn.

"There is evidently some mystery here," he said. "I supposed there was
really some one here who needed my services?" and he glanced
questioningly at Mollie, who had summoned him.

"Oh, indeed there _was_," she said, quickly. "A girl fell out of a
tree----"

"Out of a tree!" exclaimed the doctor, and for a moment it seemed as
though he believed a joke had been attempted on him.

"Yes," went on Betty, taking up the story, "didn't Mollie tell you that?
She really fell from a tree as our auto passed, and at first we thought
we had struck her." Betty shot a glance of inquiry at Mollie.

"No, I didn't tell that part," confessed the owner of the new car. "I
was so flustrated, and I guess Grace didn't say anything either."

"No," answered the willowy one.

"Well, I'm here, at all events, but there is no patient," said the
doctor, with a smile.

"Oh, we'll pay you for your call!" exclaimed Betty, quickly taking out
her silver mesh bag. "How much----"

"No, no!" said Dr. Brown somewhat sharply, "you misunderstand me. I
never accept a fee in a simple accident case. What I meant about there
b