When the boys drove Marjorie and Ethel into the yard of the Harris house, they found everything absolutely quiet. The doors were still locked, the occupants evidently still asleep.  
“Have you a key?” asked John of the girls.
 
“No, not with us,” replied Ethel. “But we’re going to wake everybody up anyhow. They’ll surely want to hear what happened.”
 
“Just wait till Marie Louise hears about it!” said Marjorie, now able to laugh at the incident. “My, but she’ll hold it over us!”
 
“Do you intend to inform the police?” asked John.
 
“No, I’d rather not,” answered Marjorie. “Because they wouldn’t believe us any more than they did Anna.”
 
They all got out of the car and ran up the steps to ring the bell. In a minute or two Mrs. Munsen answered it—fully dressed. She was just about to come downstairs to start her preparations for the day.
 
“Jack Wilkinson!” she exclaimed, in . Then, a moment later, she caught sight of Ethel and Marjorie and her fears vanished.
 
“Will you take in two wanderers?” asked Jack, with a smile. “We must go right back to the tea-house.”
 
As soon as Mrs. Munsen looked into the girls’ faces, she knew that they had been through an unpleasant experience. Her motherly heart went out to them instantly, and she put her arms about their shoulders.
 
“You’re neither of you hurt?” she asked, first of all.
 
“No! No!” replied Marjorie, . “But we have been frightened a little.”
 
“Come out in the kitchen while I make you some coffee,” she suggested; “and then you can tell me the whole story.”
 
While Mrs. Munsen busied herself with the preparations for breakfast, Marjorie related the incidents of their adventure—the strange knocking, the voice of warning, and finally their own flight after she had fired three times into the cellar. She mentioned their surprise and relief in finding the boys waiting for them, and their joy at being home again.
 
The older woman listened to the story with an increasing sense of alarm; now she was wholly convinced that the tea-house was overshadowed by some evil presence. She could not find words strong enough to express her opinions.
 
“Girls, you must take this warning,” she said, her voice full of anxiety. “From now on, we must do nothing foolish. It is unsafe to with matters like this.”
 
Marjorie did not make any attempt to oppose her; in fact both girls were too and too to know what they really thought. They drank their coffee gratefully in silence.
 
By the time the other were downstairs and breakfast was ready, the boys returned from their trip to the tea-house, but without evidence. Mrs. Munsen asked them to remain for the meal—an invitation which they both instantly accepted.
 
Ethel related the incidents over again for the benefit of those who had not heard them, and the girls listened in terrified . It seemed all the more incredible because two such self-possessed girls as Ethel Todd and Marjorie Wilkinson had been participants.
 
“Now maybe you will believe Anna!” remarked Marie Louise, .
 
“Yes, I believe something happened to Anna, all right!” Marjorie. “But I still don’t acknowledge that a spirit is the cause.”
 
“Oh, Marjorie,” exclaimed Mrs. Munsen, in a pained tone. “How can you doubt so—with such facts as these before you?”
 
“Well, the main question,” said Florence, “is—what are we going to do about it?”
 
“Yes. Shall we close the tea-house?” asked Alice.
 
“I should say not!” announced Marjorie, . “We’re going to stick it out till we solve this mystery!”
 
“But if anybody really is afraid, I think she better go home,” put in Ethel. “It’s too serious a thing to force any girl to go through with—”
 
“Oh, certainly!” Marjorie hastened to add.
 
“Anyway,” remarked Alice, “whatever we decide to do later, there’s only one thing to do now—let Ethel and Marjorie get some rest. And that reminds me, don’t forget our picnic today. We’ll go just the same, won’t we?”
 
“Oh, certainly!” replied Ethel, immediately.
 
The picnic, which had been arranged through the of Agnes Taylor and a group of her friends who had offered to substitute for the girls, was to be held at an outlying pleasure park. All of the scouts who were not Philadelphians had been anxious to visit this spot, but, on account of the rush of business, had been unable to find a time. Marjorie happened to express her regret one day in Agnes’s presence, and the girl cheerfully offered to serve with her friends in the scouts’ places.
 
Since both Marjorie and Ethel felt sure that nothing unusual would happen at the tea-house during the hours of daylight, they resolved to say nothing of their early morning adventure to the girls in charge. There seemed to be no reason to arouse their fears unnecessarily.
 
After several hours’ good sleep, Marjorie and Ethel appeared at the table as bright and as fresh as if they had gone through no harrowing experience. Both girls even insisted upon with the preparations for the picnic supper.
 
“The boys still want to go,” remarked Alice, as she packed the waxed-paper sandwiches into a basket. “John made one more plea as he left the house this afternoon.”
 
Marjorie was amused at his , but she showed no signs of relenting.
 
“Nobody but Roger!” she said, firmly. “He has to come or Doris would pass away.”
 
“That’s just what Jack and John denounced as unfair,” continued Alice. “They said if Roger could come, they could!”
 
“But Roger’s married. And besides, even he isn’t expected for supper.”
 
“I’m putting in a little extra,” observed Mrs. Munsen, “in case he should turn up unexpectedly. You don’t want the poor boy to go hungry!”
 
“Oh, Mrs. Munsen, you’re too kind-hearted!” said Marjorie. “Let the man go to a restaurant for once; it wouldn’t hurt him!”
 
“What’s all this I hear about my husband?” inquired Doris, from the kitchen. “Don’t you dare abuse him!”
 
“Nobody’s abusing him,” laughed Ethel. “Come on, girls, hurry! It’s after two, and if we don’t get to the park early, we won’t have time to try all the amusements before supper.”
 
“And if we don’t try them before we eat, I’m sure we won’t want to afterwards,” remarked Alice.
 
“And no matter which way we do it, we’ll all probably see Marj’s ghost tonight,” added Florence. “At least if we succeed in making away with all this food Mrs. Munsen is providing.”
 
The preparations were finished at last, and the girls, each with a basket or a box of some sort, walked to the trolley-car which was to take them on their excursion. In vain John had offered his car, suggesting that they also make use of Lily’s, which was at their disposal during the latter&r............