nd loose. I'll have
two at the dock, see?"

"I see your system," I replied, "but I am not sure how I can explain
Miss Frayne to Silvia. Silvia is not in the least narrow-minded, but
still to leave the hotel at midnight with a perfectly strange young
woman--"

"You can tell her I want a clear field for Beth. She will see it is in
a good cause."

The Polydores greeted us rapturously and roughly. When I had restored
order, and they were once more right side up, I addressed the chief of
the bandits.

"Ptolemy," I began, "a young lady, who is a reporter for a big
newspaper, has come from many miles away to write up the haunted house
and the ghost, and they will be pictured out in the Sunday edition."

Ptolemy's eyes glistened, and "Them Three" were instantly "at
attention."

"Oh, say, stepdaddy," begged the young chief, "let me play ghost right
for her, just once, will you?"

"You may for tonight," I said, "but you will have to be very careful
and not overdo the matter, for she isn't the kind that is easily
fooled. She's had to keep her eyes and wits sharpened, else she
wouldn't be on a newspaper, so I want you to be very careful and not
bungle. Make a neat job of it."

"I'll do it up brown, you bet!" he cried gleefully.

"Naw, do it up white," drawled Pythagoras.

"Show me your ghost stuff by daylight," I demanded, "and let me see
how you are going to rig him up."

He brought forth a head and shoulders and arms that were ghastly even
in sunlight, and proceeded to explain them.

"I got this skull out of father's study, and the arms came off a
skeleton mother had in her antiquities. I dressed them up in a pillow
case and the white cotton gloves are Huldah's. I can get some
phosphorus in the woods and put it in the eyes. And Demetrius bought
two electric flashlights yesterday, and Pythagoras can snap them once
in a while from the lower windows."

"You are some little property man," said Rob in admiration. "But tell
me who produces those heart-rending shrieks?"

"That was Pythagoras who did the high ones. And Em came in with low
groans. Show 'em, boys."

Pythagoras uttered high-trebled, thin-toned whines and ever and anon
Emerald added a _basso profundo_ accompaniment, making a combination
that was most trying to the ears at close range.

"I don't know," said Rob, "as I want Beth subjected to such a
realistic performance. We will loiter in the distance."

"Your rehearsal," I assured Ptolemy, "is very goo