on of
the meal that they had forgotten the ghost.

It was only after they were seated on the floor, and had time to look
around, that Marjorie recalled the situation to their minds by
remarking,

"Can you imagine Frieda Hammer staying here all night long by herself?"

The girls shuddered at the suggestion.

"Wouldn't it be great if we could trace her?" said Edith, after a
moment's silence. "I hate to think of her all alone--with no
protection."

"Yes," answered Miss Phillips, "though I haven't said much about the
matter, the girl has been constantly in my mind. And I wanted to tell
you that I have written to a friend of mine, a woman who is a private
detective, and asked her to look into the matter. She would, of course,
make nothing public, but would only try to bring Frieda back here, or
send her home.

"But I have been thinking that perhaps some of you girls might have a
plan, so I am going to offer a medal of merit to any Scout who locates
her. During Thanksgiving--well, I will leave it to you! But we simply
must find Frieda!"

The fire had died down to the coals, and the girls grew silent as they
gazed dreamily at the pictures their imaginations invented. It was Doris
who spoke first.

"Now is a good time for the story, Captain. Please tell us!" she
pleaded.

Miss Phillips hesitated, glancing keenly at the eager faces of the girls
around her, who now seemed perfectly calm and self-possessed. Then she
looked at her watch; it was not quite six o'clock. There would still be
time; but she hesitated to tell a ghost-story in the same house--in the
very room!--where the ghost was supposed to appear. It was the girls'
own tranquil manner that decided her.

"When I was a freshman at Miss Allen's," she began, "I roomed with a
sophomore whose home was not far from here. Several times I went with
her to spend week-ends with her parents. On one of these occasions,
after we had finished dinner and were comfortably seated around the open
fire, her grandfather--a very old man with snow-white hair--was talking
of his boyhood in this neighborhood. Even then this house was believed
haunted, but the story was better known than it is now, when there are
few living who could tell the details. It was my good fortune to hear it
from his own lips, just as his grandfather had told him.

"His grandfather, he said, was a frequent guest here in the old days.
The man who built this house came over from England, it was said, to
e