d it is due to practical jokers. I'll tell you what I'll
do. If you wait here, I'll investigate and see what I can find out for
you."

"Oh, would you really dare, Mr. Wade? I don't believe men ever have
creepy nerves," she exclaimed.

I began to feel ashamed of my deception.

"I wouldn't go, Lucien," warned Rob, coming to my rescue. "There may
be a gang of desperadoes in there, or counterfeit money-makers, or
something of that kind. Besides, I have a far more interesting piece
of news than anything the ghost could give you."

"Rob!" protested Beth.

"We know it already," I laughed. "It's to be a story-and-a-half
high."

"I think I am getting material for quite a story," declared Miss
Frayne.

I knew Beth's dislike of scenes and display of emotions--mock
heroics--she called them, so I made no congratulatory speeches of the
bless-you-my-children order, but presently under the cover of
darkness, I felt a little hand slipped in mine, and my clasp was
eloquent of what I felt.

"I hope," said Miss Frayne, "that daylight will make me so ashamed of
my cowardice that I can come down here and take some pictures and go
inside the house."

"We'll all come with you," promised Beth. "There's safety in
numbers."

When we were back at the hotel I managed to have a few words with Rob
before we went upstairs.

"Bless the ghost!" he said cheerily. "When Beth first glimpsed it, she
just turned and fell into my arms. She was really frightened for the
first time. I shall feel under obligations to Ptolemy for a
lifetime."

"Thank goodness!" I ejaculated fervently, "that I am under no
obligations to a Polydore. Ptolemy certainly did put up the most
ghastly thing in the way of ghosts. The lights in the eyes of the
skeleton were frightful."

"Did you see the ghost?" asked Silvia sleepily, when I came in.

"Yes; same old ghost, only more of him," I assured her.

She was asleep before I had uttered this reply.

"Silvia," I said, "I have a more startling piece of news for you than
that."

She sat bolt upright.

"Are they engaged, Lucien?"

"They are. They are building their castle--I mean their story-and-a-half
cottage already."

Alas for my own desire to sleep! I had so effectually awakened Silvia
that she planned Beth's trousseau, the wedding, honeymoon, and the
furnishing of their house before she subsided.

CHAPTER XV

_What Miss Frayne Found Out_

We had planned to go to the haunted house at nine o'cl