It seems that she has tried several ways of getting
the money and has attempted to borrow it. She thought maybe I could
lend it to her, and I may be able to later on, only I would have to
tell mother some reason why I needed twenty-five dollars all of a
sudden from our small supply."

"No, you must not. Maybe I may be able to help. Or we may persuade
Edith to confess. I believe she will when she thinks more about our
old Camp Fire teachings. Anyhow, as we are at home now, let us wait
and talk it all over again tonight after we get to bed. It is then, of
course, that I do my most brilliant thinking."

So with this in mind, obliterating all other thoughts at their hour of
retiring, for the first evening since their fright ten days before,
neither Polly nor Betty remembered the locking of their outside door
upon getting into bed.

And this time it was Polly O'Neill who was aroused first a short while
after midnight by the slow turning of their doorknob and then the sense
of an almost noiseless figure entering their bedroom.

Immediately she awoke Betty by suddenly calling her name aloud, and at
the same instant sprang out of bed, again touching the electric button
and flooding the room with revealing light.

CHAPTER XX

THE BEGINNING OF LIGHT

"Why, why!" exclaimed Polly in surprise and consternation, standing
perfectly still with her hand upraised toward the light, too puzzled to
let it drop down at her side.

But with a little, warning cry Betty had called to her and almost at
the same moment was across the room, with her arms about a tall, slight
figure.

"Mother, mother," she whispered quietly, "wake up. You have gotten up
out of your bed and wandered into Polly's and my room. And you have
frightened us nearly to death! Dear me, you have not walked in your
sleep for years, have you?"

At Betty's first words following the stream of light, Mrs. Ashton had
opened her eyes with returning consciousness until now she appeared
almost entirely wide awake. And an expression both of fear and
annoyance crossed her face.

"You poor children, so I am your ghost and your burglar," she declared,
"and I believed it was you who were having nightmares! I am awfully
sorry. Betty knows I used to have this unfortunate habit of strolling
about the house in my sleep long ago. But I am quite sure that I have
not done it for several years now. The truth is I have not yet gotten
over the nervous shock of Be