f in the brass mixing kettle."

"What about the queer blue light, and the smell of sulphur?" asked
Cousin Jane.

"That was the burning of sulphur which he used in the preparation.
Sulphur is often used in hair-tonics I believe, though I don't know that
this man used it to any advantage. At any rate he burned it, making the
ghostly flashes of blue fire, and the smell. The flashes were reflected
from the room where he worked into the smaller house, by the big window
panes."

"But why did he dress like a ghost?" asked Mollie.

"That was a big white garment he put on to avoid soiling his clothes
when he made his hair-tonic mixture. And he really did mistake you for
Carrie, Mollie. He admitted as much, and asked to be forgiven. It was
his lunch you ate. He had prepared for a long stay in the house."

"Well, I guess we won't bother to pay for it," said Betty. "He's made
trouble enough. Then the mansion isn't haunted, after all?"

"No, and never was. It was simply the making of his hair-tonic there
nights that produced the effect. He says he never even knew that the
doctors who were to buy the place were frightened away, and the night
you girls stopped there he thought you had, as was the case, taken
refuge from the storm. He did not know he had frightened you, but when
he saw Mollie he made a rush for her, thinking she was his ward, come
back. He locked her up, intending to come for her later, when he had
taken off the furnace some of his boiling mixture."

"Then Mr. Lagg can sell his property after all!" exclaimed Grace. "I'm
so glad!"

And so was the poetical store keeper himself, when he heard the news. He
composed an eight-line verse on the subject, and insisted on rewarding
the girls, saying it was due to their efforts that the "ghost was laid."
He received a substantial sum for the old mansion, which was turned into
a sanitarium.

"And, now that all the explanations are explained," said Mollie a day or
so later, "we may as well resume our tour. What do you say, girls?"

"Fine!" cried Betty. "And we'll take Carrie with us. She needs a change,
and traveling around will benefit her."

"Though I traveled considerable after I ran away from that horrid man,"
said the girl, with a smile at her new friends.

"There is one regret," spoke Grace, "and that is that Mr. Blackford
didn't find his missing sister."

"I had some hopes that you might prove to be she," he said, looking at
Carrie. "However, I have not yet g