Grumblingly, Amy allowed Jessie to draw her away. Nell followed, and all climbed quickly into the car. In a moment they were off, burning up the road again in the direction of Forest Lodge.

Amy grumbled all the way back, but Jessie would hardly speak at all. She could not get the vision of Darry and that girl out of her mind. She wondered why it should hurt her so much to see his friendliness to some one else.

“You dragged me away before the last act,” Amy complained. “Don’t you know the best part was still to come—when we confronted the guilty man and maiden?”

“I didn’t want to confront any one,” Jessie returned, wearily. “And, besides, I don’t believe Darry is guilty of anything.”

“Well, we at least know he is guilty of friendship with a girl whose past, to say the least of it, is a trifle queer,” retorted Amy. “Darry will certainly hear my idea of his actions when he gets back.”

It was almost dark when Darry did finally return, and all that afternoon Jessie had been feverishly restless. She was unable to give her mind to anything. Even her beloved radio had lost much of its fascination for her, and she listened apathetically to a really fine concert from New York.

The other girls did not notice her mood, for the reason that they were considerably stirred up over the mystery of Darry’s actions. Then, too, though they would not for the world have acknowledged this to each other, they were rather dreading the approach of dark. They could not, however much they tried, put from their minds the memory of that dreadful wailing lament which had reached their ears from the direction of the swamp. Constantly before them was the mental vision of those ghostly figures, flitting among the trees.

“Looks a good deal like having a ghost hunt this afternoon, I must say,” Nell remarked once, as they scanned the mountain road for a sign of Darry’s roadster. “I can’t say that I relish spending another night here with those spooks wandering loose around the place.”

“We can go now if you want to,” Burd suggested. “There is still time to get to the swamp and back before dark, and perhaps you would rest easier to-night if you could see that there was nothing alarming there.”

“Ghosts aren’t supposed to walk till after dark, anyway; so I don’t see any use going down there just to look at the place,” was Amy’s ungracious response.

After that Burd and Fol left the girls to their own devices and went off to enjoy a little quiet fishing.

Later Amy declared she was tired after having slept so little the night before and went to lie down. Miss Alling was listening in to a concert, completely absorbed in her new fancy.

Jessie and Nell wandered down to the dock, embarked in their favorite green canoe, and drifted out upon the water.

It was there that Amy found them some time later when she came running down to the water’s edge, waving something in her hand.

“You will never guess what I’ve got,” she shouted, as the girls paddled nearer to the dock. “Darry is back and he brought me a present.”

As Nell and Jessie clambered out of the canoe, they saw that Amy held in her hand something green that fluttered in the breeze.

“A bill!” exclaimed Jessie. “Where did you get that from, Amy Drew?”

“You needn’t look as if I had robbed a bank or something,” chuckled Amy. “I came by it honestly, I assure you. Didn’t you hear me say Darry gave me a present?”

“Well, you can tell Darry for me that if he is distributing five-dollar bills as recklessly as all that he can throw some in this direction,” Nell remarked.

Jessie looked from the bill to Amy’s mischievous face and presently light dawned upon her.

“Why did he give you that, Amy Drew?” she demanded, excitedly. “Tell me quickly before I go to Darry and ask him.”

“That girl gave it to him,” Amy confessed, lowering her tone to a myste............