has." Laura was dancing with
impatience, glancing now over her shoulder at the dark woods, now toward
the house, standing out boldly in the moonlight. "Billie, for goodness
sake, don't be so crazy. We can't do anything!"

So Billie at last allowed herself to be dragged away. They found the
"ghosts" talking excitedly about what had happened. And every once in a
while a girl would glance nervously over her shoulder into the dark
shadows of the woods.

"Goodness, he must be a regular robber," Connie said in an excited
whisper.

"And to think it's Billie's 'Codfish', the man who stole her trunk!"
said another. "I'm scared to death!"

"D-don't you t-think we'd better go back?" asked Vi, her teeth
chattering.

"I guess so," agreed Connie, looking fearfully about her. "He may be in
the woods now. He may even be listening to what we say!"

This was enough for the girls. Without even a backward glance they
scurried across the lawn like so many little white phantoms and in at
the side door of Three Towers Hall.

CHAPTER XIX

ROBBED!

For days the girls could think of little else than the initiation into
the "Ghost Club" and their startling meeting with the "Codfish."
Whenever they could get together between classes or at noon or before
they went to bed, these were the topics of conversation. And of these,
the "Codfish" held first place.

"He must be a real burglar," Connie said during one of these gatherings.

"Of course he was," said Rose, looking a little bored. "Respectable men
don't sneak around places at all hours of the night."

"But what in the world did he want?" Laura asked wonderingly. "You
wouldn't think he'd come out from the woods at all--especially when
there's such a bright moon. He might be sure some one would see him."

"Oh, I don't know," said Billie thoughtfully. "He probably knows the
rules of Three Towers and that the girls are all supposed to be in bed
before ten o'clock, and I suppose he felt safe enough. We _should_ have
been in bed, you know," she added, dimpling mischievously.

"But I wonder what he was sneaking around Three Towers for," Laura went
on, unwilling to change the subject. For to Laura, mysteries were the
very breath of life.

"Maybe he's waiting for a chance to rob us," said Vi in an awed little
voice, and the girls shuddered.

"Well, I hope he changes his mind," said Nellie Bane anxiously. "I never
did like burglars very much."

But as the days went by and no