e more clutched her arm.

"Oh, what is it?"

The exclamation burst simultaneously from the lips of the two girls.
Close, almost, as it seemed, in their ears, echoed that horrible low
groan which had so terrified them twice before. Heard amidst such
strange and dim surroundings, it was more than flesh and blood could
stand. Without waiting to make any further investigations, they turned
and fled.

They hardly knew afterwards how they had stumbled across the rotten
floor and scrambled down the ladder. With blinking eyes they looked into
each other's scared faces as they emerged from the dark passage into the
bright daylight of the lantern room again.

"What a dreadful place!" shuddered Cicely. "I'm thankful we've got
safely away from it. I don't believe I'd venture up there again for all
the fortunes in the world."

"We must close the entrance," said Lindsay anxiously. "We must take care
to leave everything as we found it."

The secret door shut with a spring, and in a moment there was nothing to
be seen again but the innocent-looking cupboard. The lantern had
ascended to its former place in the ceiling; the chain worked on a
pulley, and, as it ran up or down, it fastened or unloosed the lock.

Cicely, at any rate, was not sorry to descend to the more civilized
portions of the house.

"I wonder if Merle explored as far as we did," she said.

"I hardly think so," returned Lindsay. "She couldn't have had time. I
believe she must have met 'The Griffin' coming out, and have been
frightened into not telling."

The more the girls talked the matter over, the more complicated seemed
the mystery. Though they had found Mrs. Wilson's hiding-place, they were
no nearer ascertaining whether the treasure was concealed there or
elsewhere. Out in the sunshine Lindsay's courage returned, and she began
to reproach herself for having given up the search so soon.

"We'll go some other day, and take two candles and a box of matches with
us," she announced.

"Is it really any good?"

Cicely's spirit quailed at the prospect of once more encountering the
unknown horrors that might be lurking in that dark attic. She could not
forget the groans she had heard there.

"Of course it is! I didn't think you'd be the one to draw back," said
Lindsay reproachfully. "We've both pledged ourselves to do everything in
our power to help Monica. It would be mean and cowardly to give in just
because we felt afraid. If you don't care to come with