at they saw made the "Automobile Girls'" faces turn white with fear.

CHAPTER XI

GIVING AN ATTIC PARTY

PEERING in at them was a hideous yellow face with a nose that in the
light from the room seemed to be fiery red. The face was pressed against
the window pane. Now a long-drawn, dismal groan sounded from the other
side of the window.

"It's a ghost!" cried Grace.

Barbara, however, had seen more than the other girls, and, mustering up
all her courage, ran to the door.

"Come back!" called the girls anxiously. Bab kept on, unheeding their
cries. As she jerked the outside door open, they heard a crash and the
frightful face suddenly disappeared from the window. Ruth and Olive
rushed to the door. Both girls remembered that an old rain barrel had
stood under that window for a long time.

"I've got the spook!" shouted Bab triumphantly. "I picked it out of the
rain barrel." She came in, dragging by an ear the irrepressible Tom.

"Thomas Warrington Presby, what does this mean?" demanded Olive
sternly.

"The--the rain barrel went to pieces," complained Tom.

"Oh! Was it you who scared us out of our wits?" questioned Mollie.

"I knew it was a false face almost the instant I saw it," said Barbara.
"Thomas, I fear I shall have to turn you over to your father. You have
evidently forgotten some things."

Tom wriggled, his face worked anxiously.

"Please don't. Maul me, do anything you want to punish me. I won't
squeal, but don't peach to father."

"Girls, what shall we do with him?" asked Bab.

"I move we make him sit down on the rug and eat marshmallows," suggested
Ruth.

"The very idea," agreed Mollie.

"But we want them ourselves," objected Grace.

"I have another box," admitted Olive. "Your father sent two boxes,
though I did not intend to tell you about the second one just yet."

It was agreed that Tom's punishment should be a sweet one. Tom grinned
broadly.

"Those things are for girls. I can swallow a boxful without winking an
eyelid," he declared. "Gimme the box."

"No, Thomas, you aren't going to eat them that way. We are going to wait
on you and help you to every mouthful," answered Barbara sweetly. "It
isn't every boy who has five nice girls to wait on him when he eats. Is
it, Tommy?"

"No," answered the boy in a doubtful tone. He did not exactly like the
look of things now. Barbara placed a firm hand on his arm and set him
down on a rug in front of the fireplace. Tommy was closer to