of
the other girls by an arm and running with them out into the more
cheerful kitchen.

"Oh, that steak!" cried Billie longingly, as she drifted over to the
stove. "Isn't it nearly done, Mrs. Gilligan? This is cruelty to animals."

Mrs. Gilligan chuckled and turned the steak on the other side.

"Almost ready now," she said, adding another piece of butter to the
golden browned potatoes. "Have you girls cut the cake? It's in one of the
packages I brought in--on the end of the table. Don't cut it all now,"
she warned, as there was a joyful rush for the cake. "We want some of it
left for to-morrow."

The girls did not cut it all--quite. But they did cut a good two-thirds
of it--and ate it all, too!

It was a strange sort of meal--the candle-lit kitchen, the hastily set
table, the faces of the girls and Mrs. Gilligan brought out in bold
relief by the flickering candle light.

The meal was delicious, and the girls ate ravenously, but from time to
time one of them would shift uneasily in her seat and look nervously over
her shoulder into the dark corners of the room.

Instead of the dinner making them more courageous, it seemed to be having
the opposite effect, for when they had finished their cake and the
steaming hot coffee, they found themselves talking in whispers as if they
were afraid of the sound of their own voices.

Billie, suddenly realizing this, spoke aloud, and Laura and Violet jumped
nervously.

"What's the matter with us?" Billie asked, her voice sounding strangely
loud and unnatural even to herself in the hushed stillness all about.
"We never used to be so awfully quiet. And I'm sure we don't have to
whisper about it."

"I--I suppose," shivered Violet, "that it's because everything else is
so quiet. It sort of has its effect on us. I wish," she added, with a
sudden little outburst unusual in Violet, "that that horrid old driver
hadn't told us that horrid story. I catch myself listening for noises
all the time."

"But that's foolish," said Mrs. Gilligan, in that every-day,
matter-of-fact tone that never failed to give the girls courage. "There
isn't one of us who believes anything he said, so why let it worry us?
Come on," she said, rising and beginning to gather together the dishes,
"we'll get these things put away in a hurry, and then go up to bed. I
think a good night's rest is what you need."

"Oh, but I don't want to go up in the spooky upstairs part," whispered
Violet to Billie, as she scra