to observe
the fun.

"A ghost pushed you, Ruth Kenway!" cried Carrie, from the stairs.

"Do you dare look down the well with a candle and see if you will see
your future husband's face floating in the water, Aggie?" demanded Lucy
Poole, Carrie's cousin.

"Don't want to see my future husband," declared Agnes. "It will be bad
enough to see him in reality when the awful time arrives."

CHAPTER XVI

THE FIVE-DOLLAR GOLD PIECE

"Hush!"

"A deep, deep silence, please!"

"Don't crowd so close--don't, Mary Breeze! If there are ghosts I can't
protect you from them," came in Eva Larry's shrill whisper. "I'm sure
I've not been vaccinated against seeing spirits."

This was after all the visitors had arrived, had removed their wraps,
had been ushered into the big double parlors and seated. Across the far
end of the room was drawn a sheet, and the lights were very dim.

A figure in long cloak and conical cap, leaning on a long wand, appeared
suddenly beside the curtain. A blue light seemed to glimmer faintly
around the Hallowe'en figure and outline it.

"Oh!" gasped Lucy Poole, "there's the very Old Witch of them all, I do
declare!"

"The Old Wizard, you mean," laughed Agnes, who knew that Neale O'Neil
was hidden behind the long cloak and the false face. He looked quite as
feminine in this rig as any witch ever does look.

"Silence!" commanded again the husky voice from behind the screen.

With some little bustle the party fell still. The Hallowe'en Witch
raised the wand and rapped the butt three times upon the little stand
near by.

"Oh! oh! real spirits," gasped Eva. "They always begin with
table-rappings, don't they?"

"Hush!" commanded the husky voice once more.

"This is a perverse and unbelieving generation," croaked the witch. "Ye
all doubt black magic and white astrology, and ghostly visitations. I am
sent by Those Who Fly By Night--at the head of whom flies the Witch of
Endor--who commune with goblins and fays--I am sent to convert you all
to the truth.

"Ha! Thunder! Lightning!"

The ears of the company were almost deafened and their eyes blinded by a
startling crash like thunder behind the screen and a vivid flash of
zig-zag light across it.

"See!" croaked the supposed hag. "Even Thunder and Lightning do my
bidding. Now! Rain! Sleet! Advance!"

The wondering spectators began to murmur. An almost perfect imitation of
dashing sleet against the window panes and rain pouring from the
wat