They were forced to swallow things that felt like particularly fat and
squirmy worms. It was no wonder that the stomachs of the girls
threatened to turn inside out. Several times they were on the point of
revolt, but always they choked back protests and did as they were told.
For to have come so near being members of the secret society of Three
Towers and then to lose out at the last minute because they had not
nerve enough to go through with the initiation, would have been real
tragedy. So they gritted their teeth and went ahead.

At last it was over, the bandages were taken off their eyes, and they
were led before the head ghost to take the final oath of allegiance when
a strange thing happened.

Billie, happening to glance through the trees to the bright patch of
lawn beyond, uttered a startled cry. For across that bright patch of
lawn a man was running, crouched and furtive.

"Girls!" she cried, forgetting the club, forgetting everything but this
new and startling fact. "Look! Quick! Here, through the trees!"

They crowded behind her, stirred by the note of excitement in her voice,
straining their eyes in the direction she had pointed out.

The man was just about to enter the shelter of the woods when the
snapping of a twig under Laura's foot caused him to stop and look about
him, startled.

In that brief second the moon shone full upon his face, and with a start
of sheer amazement Billie recognized him.

"It's the 'Codfish'!" she cried. "Girls, it's the 'Codfish'!"

"The Codfish?" they repeated in excitement, and Laura shook her arm
wildly.

"Billie, are you sure?" she asked, then gave a gasp of amazement and
dismay.

For Billie, forgetting how ridiculous she must look in her ghostly garb,
had started in pursuit.

"She's crazy!" cried the "head ghost," speaking this time in the voice
of Rose Belser. "Some one go after her quick and get her back. Suppose
one of the Pickles should see her from the house!"

But before she could finish Laura was racing like mad after her chum.

Billie had stopped at the edge of the woods and was listening for some
sound that might tell her in what direction the man had disappeared.

Laura grasped the sheet that enfolded Billie and tugged at it wildly.

"Billie, come back, come back!" she cried. "We may be seen from the
house any minute."

"But it was the 'Codfish,'" cried Billie wildly. "If I only had a--a
gun, or something!"

"Yes, but you haven't, and he probably