After the excitement of the previous night, Marjorie found it exceedingly difficult to keep her attention upon the routine duties of the tea-room. The day seemed endless; but the promise of the coming adventure up her spirits and kept her from becoming too impatient.  
At last, however, the guests had all left the tea-house and the place was ; Eugene Schofield and Pierce Ellison closed and locked the doors and the girls went home. There were only two hours to wait now until Marjorie should return to spend the night at the haunted spot. She resolved, if possible, to pass them in sleep.
 
Shortly after ten o’clock, she was by a knocking at her door.
 
“Come in!” she called; and Daisy entered the room.
 
“The boys are here!” she announced. “Wake up, Marj!”
 
Marjorie sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
 
“Don’t say boys,” she cautioned. “I’ve got to my mind to the fact that they are girls—for tonight.”
 
“But John is dressed as a boy!” laughed Daisy.
 
“Oh, of course he is! I forgot! But how about ?”
 
“He’s too funny for words! He’s down stairs in the living-room smoking a cigarette and practicing walking like a girl. He has an idea he has to make his skirt switch, like the flappers.”
 
“Does he look like a girl?”
 
“He’s perfect! He has on Ethel’s uniform, and it fits beautifully. Ethel does have broad shoulders, you know; and they are both about the same height. It’s lucky you thought to have him wear the uniform; the fullness of the middy hides his form.”
 
Marjorie was while she listened to Daisy’s description. When she reached for her pumps, she stopped short in dismay.
 
“What about his feet?”
 
“Oh, they’re fine!” laughed Daisy. “I noticed that right away. Jack has small feet for a boy, you know—”
 
“I never noticed,” interrupted his sister.
 
“Now imagine never having noticed whether your own brother had large feet or small ones! You’re a funny girl, Marj! Well, he managed to squeeze into Ethel’s brown sport-shoes. He looked ridiculous when he wanted a match to light his cigarette; he up his skirt to get at his trousers-pockets—he has his trousers rolled up above his knee.”
 
Marjorie as she gave the finishing pats to her hair.
 
“Now I’m ready,” she announced. “What time is it?”
 
“Ten-fifteen,” replied Daisy, consulting her wristwatch. Then, throwing her arms about Marjorie, “Oh, I wish you weren’t going, Marj! Promise me nothing will happen to you!”
 
“There! there! Don’t worry, Daisy!” she said patting the girl’s shoulder. “You know nothing will happen to me with John and Jack along.”
 
“No, I hope not. I have great confidence in those two boys.”
 
“Now let’s go downstairs; the boys will be getting impatient.”
 
Marjorie paused on the stairway and looked around for Jack. Several other girls had on uniforms, so she did not identify him immediately. Then she saw a strange girl whom she recognized, upon closer , to be Jack; and she burst out laughing.
 
“How do I look?” cried the masquerader, pirouetting in the middle of the room. “Hadn’t you better come powder my nose, Sis?”
 
“You’re splendid! You had me guessing for a moment. Your is great! Who you up?”
 
“Lily. She’s a dandy lady’s maid.”
 
“Well, I’ll tell you what, Lily wouldn’t,” said his sister. “You must pull your tie tighter, and hide your neck. Girls don’t have necks like that. And Jack, couldn’t you swallow your Adam’s-apple?”
 
“Oh, I know I’m a scare-crow,” laughed Jack, good-naturedly. “But if the fellow we’re after gets close enough to see all those things, I’ll let him know in another way that I’m not a girl!”
 
“You’ll do, Jack,” commented Mrs. Hadley, who had driven over with the boys. “If you just stop trying to put your hands into your pockets!”
 
“I hope you’ve re-read Tom Sawyer lately,” remarked Alice, “and don’t make any of those blunders he did when he was trying to pass off for a girl.”
 
The young people all laughed as they recalled the situation; notwithstanding the mystery and possible danger of the occasion, the whole thing struck them as decidedly funny.
 
Mrs. Munsen, however, looked exceedingly grave as she kissed Marjorie goodbye.
 
“I shall be thankful when I see you safely home in the morning,” she said. “Do come as early as possible.”
 
“We probably shall,” laughed Marjorie. “I am taking a key this time, so that if anything happens in the middle of the night I needn’t disturb you.”
 
She sat in the back of the car between Mrs. Hadley and Jack, while Dick Roberts, who was to share with John in the adventure, took the seat up front.
 
“From now on,” announced Marjorie, “we’re . Not a single word of the real situation must be mentioned.”
 
“Agreed!” replied John. “And you want to go in boldly—letting them know you are there?”
 
“Absolutely!” said the girl.
 
“And don’t forget to call me Ethel,” warned Jack.
 
The night was clear and still; the stars were shining, but there was no moon. The boys were glad of this; it would be easier for John and Dick to themselves in the darkness.
 
“Well, here we are!” said John, as he turned into the drive. “Shall I stop right here at the steps?”
 
“I wish,” said Marjorie as she from the machine, “that you would go all around the outside of the place and listen. Of course, we have Jack’s revolver, but still, I’d feel a little safer to know that there is no human-being about.”
 
“Hadn’t you girls better change your minds, and let me sleep downstairs?” suggested John, in a clearly audible tone.
 
“No, indeed!” replied Marjorie. “It’s evident the ghost has a of men, because he never shows himself when they’re around.”
 
“Displays a lot of good taste,” remarked John, “in his preference for the ladies. Now—you and mother and Ethel wait here on the porch till I come back! I don’t want you entering that empty house alone!”
 
“But we aren’t a bit afraid!” protested Marjorie. “Ethel and I both have our revolvers.”
 
Taking his own out from his pocket, John started around to the rear of the house, thinking all the while of the previous night at the tea-house, when he and Jack had searched so cautiously for the cause of the sounds that must have been imaginary, or produced by the storm. As before, he found nothing. Nevertheless, his time was not wasted; for he upon his own and Dick’s place of hiding for the night. After Marjorie’s two experiences with voices, which seemed both times to come from the cellar confirming what Anna had said of her own experience early in the summer—John was convinced that whatever it was that threatened the girls, it actually did originate there. But each time, he remembered, upon exploration Marjorie............