"Lay me on a stretcher," gasped Molly, as she dropped on a bench inside
the gates while Nance went to inform the gate-keeper of the strange
presence on the campus.

Immediately the gate-keeper, who was also night watchman, rushed out
with a lantern to chase the phantom, which was a poor way to catch her,
you will admit.

Once in the privacy of their own sitting room, Nance had a real case of
hysterics, laughing and weeping alternately, and Molly felt quite faint
and had to lie on the sofa, while Judy, who had been moodily strumming
her guitar most of the evening, gave them aromatic spirits of ammonia.

"I should think you would have been frightened," she said
sympathetically, "but fancy old Nance's running! It's the first time on
record."

Nance shuddered.

"I don't think you would have stood still under the circumstances," she
answered.

"I don't think I would, but I should like to have known who the ghost
was just the same. Suppose you had stopped still and let her come up to
you, do you think she would?"

"Heavens!" exclaimed the other two in one breath.

"She ran after you because you were running from her," observed the wise
Judy.

"People always give advice about ghosts and robbers and mad dogs," said
Molly. "And they are the ones that run the fastest when the ghosts and
robbers and mad dogs appear."

"Do you think it was a ghost?" asked Judy, ignoring the irritation of
her friends.

"If it had been a ghost it would have caught up with us," answered
Molly, while Nance in the same breath said emphatically:

"I don't believe in ghosts."

Nance and Molly were heroines for several days after this, and during
this time the "ghost" did not reappear on the campus, although a close
watch was kept for her. The Williams sisters insisted on walking down
the avenue every night at half past nine in hopes of seeing a real
phantom, but she was careful to keep herself well out of sight during
this vigilance.

One night some ten days later, just as the town clock tolled midnight,
Molly waked suddenly with a draught of cold air in her face. She sat up
in bed and glanced sleepily through the open door into the sitting room.

"Where did the air come from?" she wondered, and then noticed that
Judy's door was open and slipped softly out of bed. Why she did not
simply close her own door she never could explain, but some hidden
impulse moved her to look into Judy's room. A shaded night lamp turned
quite low cast a s