"We'll get it!"
She started for the other room, followed by the others, when Grace
cried:
"Hark!"
They listened.
"What is it?" asked Betty.
"The sound of carriage wheels out in the road. And I heard a man's voice
speak to his horse."
"Maybe it's the--one who caught Mollie, and he's taking her away,"
faltered Grace, who seemed to have a faculty of suggesting unpleasant
possibilities at the wrong time.
"Then we must stop him!" cried Betty. She turned toward the front door,
but a short distance away. The others hurried on after her and saw, out
in the road, the dim outlines of a carriage. There was a driving-light
on the dashboard, and by its gleam the girls could make out the dark
form of a man alighting.
"At least he's not--a ghost!" whispered Amy.
"Help! Oh, please help us!" screamed Grace.
"Hello, there! What's the trouble?" asked a pleasant voice. "I'll be
with you in a minute. Whoa there, Jack, old man! Don't get uneasy. Show
your light, please, so I can see where you are."
Betty flashed her lantern, and in its rays a man came up the weed-grown
path. The girls were almost crying for sheer relief.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE PRISONER
Mollie tumbled in a heap on the floor of the room, into which the
white-robed figure had thrust her. She gasped once or twice, for her
breath had grown short, not alone from fright--though she admitted that
she was terribly scared--but from the rough treatment she had received.
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