Blackford. He shook his
head.
"I confess I am baffled," he said. "I did hope to find something. But we
haven't come across it. If there was a systematic effort to give the
impression that this mansion was haunted, there would have been some
evidences of it.
"I mean we would have some material evidence. There would have to be
some way of producing that bluish light, that groaning sound and the
clanking of metal. But, unless the apparatus is more cleverly hidden
than I suspect, it isn't here."
"Then the only thing to do is to give it up, and confess ourselves
beaten," suggested Betty.
"I don't like to do that," spoke Mollie.
"Well, we can go over the place again," remarked Mr. Blackford slowly,
"but I don't see----"
He paused abruptly and seemed to be listening. The girls glanced at one
another curiously.
Then there sounded through the house a cry as of fear, and it was
followed by a heavy fall that jarred the floor.
Mr. Blackford sprang to the door, rushed down the hall, and a moment
later cried:
"Girls, come here!"
"Have you--have you found the ghost?" asked Betty.
"No, it's a girl, and she seems to have fainted."
"A--a girl!" faltered Mollie.
They all ran to where Mr. Blackford's voice sounded. It was in the very
room where Mollie had been held a prisoner. And there, in the center of
the apartment, supported in Mr.
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