of fresh water from the neighbouring spring, also said that she had not
seen Miss Margery, though the captain fancied that there was an odd
expression on her countenance when she spoke. He therefore
cross-questioned her, but not a word to show that she could even guess
what had become of Margery could he elicit. He next went to Molly
Scuttle's cottage, but the old woman could give him no information; she
could only suggest that the ghosts must to a certainty have had
something to do with it. When he replied that he did not believe in
such things, she answered that they had evidently carried off his
daughter to punish him for his incredulity, and to prove their existence
to him. He hurried round from cottage to cottage, but the people only
opened their eyes and mouths wide with astonishment, and gave him no
information likely to be of the slightest use. Disappointed, he
returned to the Tower. There the search had continued with unabated
diligence; Tom had made a discovery, but it seemed doubtful to what it
would lead. He had found one of the little girl's slippers in the dark
passage on the ground-floor, near the spot where he had fancied that he
had seen the light and heard the groan on the memorable night when the
pretended ghosts had appeared. How it had come there, however, was the
question. He carried it to Becky to consult with her on the subject.
It was not likely to have been dropped by Margery, because had she been
walking she would naturally have stopped to put it on again. Indeed it
was absurd to suppose that she had run away of her own free will; it
therefore seemed most probable that she had been carried along by some
one, and that her slipper had fallen off unobserved. Still the
questions, how those who had committed the outrage had got into the
house, and how they had got out again, remained unanswered. Becky could
solve neither. She was of opinion, "though she would not like to tell
the captain or the missus, that the ghosteses had done it, and that they
hadn't got in by either of the doors or windows, but somehow or other
out of the ground, for that's where them things, I have heard say,
always comes from; but it's dreadful to think that poor, dear, sweet
Miss Margery should have been carried off into such a place as they
lives in," she observed to Tom in a low voice.

"That's all nonsense, Becky," responded Tom. "The captain says as how
there's no such things as ghosteses, and therefore it'