then,
and afterward didn't think of it. I've washed the sweater since!"

"Good idea!" assented Joyce. "Momsie wanted to know how I'd torn mine
and got it so mussy, too. I told her I'd been chasing up Goliath,--which
was really quite true, you know."

"I never _can_ think of things to say that will be the truth and yet not
give the whole thing away!" sighed the downright Cynthia. "I wish I were
as quick as you!"

"Never mind! You've got the _sense_, Cynthia! I never would have thought
of the dust-cloth."

Getting into the Boarded-up House this time was accompanied by less
difficulty than the first. Before entering, Cynthia thoroughly dusted
the window-ledge and as far about it as she could reach, with the result
that there was less, if any, damage to their clothes. Armed as they were
with plenty of candles and matches, there were no shudders either, or
fears of the unknown and the dark. Even Cynthia was keen for the quest,
and Joyce was simply bursting with new ideas, some of which she
expounded to Cynthia as they were lighting their candles in the cellar.

"You know, Cyn, I've been looking at the place carefully from the
outside. We haven't seen a third of it yet,--no, not even a _quarter_!
There's the wing off the parlor toward your house, and the one off the
dining-room toward mine. I suppose the kitchen must be in that one, but
I can't think what's in the other, unless it's a library. We must see
these to-day. And then there's all up-stairs."

"What I want to see most of all is the picture you spoke of that hangs
in the parlor," said Cynthia. "Do you suppose we could turn it around?"

"Oh, I'd love to, only I don't know whether we ought! And it's heavy,
too. I hardly think we could. Perhaps we might just try to peep behind
it. You know, Cynthia, I realize we're doing something a little _queer_
being in this house and prying about. I'm not sure our folks would
approve of it. Only the old thing has been left _so_ long, and there's
such a mystery about it, and we're not harming or disturbing anything,
that perhaps it isn't so dreadful. Anyhow, we must be _very_ careful not
to pry into anything we ought not touch. Perhaps then it will be all
right." Cynthia agreed to all this without hesitation. She, indeed, had
even stronger feelings than Joyce on the subject of their trespassing,
but the joy of the adventure and the mystery with which they were
surrounding it, outweighed her scruples. When they were half-way up