er assistants, "and tell them Miss Tucker had a bad
dream,--nothing wrong. We will have a dozen bed patients from this
night's foolishness."

Miss Tucker refused to be left alone and a nurse was detailed to spend
the night with her.

When the nurses on their rounds reached Miss Landbury's room in the
McCormick Building, they had another fright. The room was empty. The
bed was cold,--had not been occupied for hours, likely. They rushed to
the head nurse, and a wild search was instituted.

The Dukes' room, Number Six, McCormick, was wrapped in darkness.

"Don't go near them," Miss Alien said. "Perhaps they did not hear the
noise, and Mr. Duke should not be disturbed."

So the wild search went on.

But after a time, a Mexican porter, with a lantern, seeking every nook
and corner, plodded stealthily around a corner of the McCormick.

He heard a gasp beside him, and turning his lantern he looked directly
into the window, where four white, tense faces peered at him with
staring eyes. He returned their stare, speechlessly. Then he saw Miss
Landbury.

"Ain't you lost?" he ejaculated.

Miss Landbury, frightened out of her senses, and not recognizing the
porter in the darkness, shot into her bed on the floor, and David
answered the man's questions. A moment later an outraged matron,
flanked by two nurses, marched in upon them.

"What is the meaning of this?" they demanded.

"Search me," said David pleasantly. "Our friends and neighbors got
lonesome in the night and refused to sleep alone and let us rest in
contentment. So they moved in, and here we are."

Both Gooding and Miss Landbury positively declined to go home alone,
and other nurses were appointed to guard them during the brief
remaining hours of the night. At four o'clock came sleep and silence
and serenity, with Carol on the floor, clutching David's hand, which
even in sleep she did not resign.

The next morning a huge notice was posted on the bulletin board.

"Any one who tells a ghost story, or discusses departed spirits, in
this institution or on the grounds thereof, shall have all privileges
suspended for a period of six weeks.

"By order of the Superintendent."

CHAPTER XVII

RUBBING ELBOWS

"Chicago, Illinois.

"Dearly Beloveds:

"Nearly I am converted to matrimony as a life career. Almost I feel it
is worth the sacrifice of independence, the death of originality, the
banishment of special friendship, and the monotonou