CHAPTER XV A NOISE IN THE DARK

CHAPTER XV

A NOISE IN THE DARK

"Maybe you wouldn't do it for a farm," said Mrs. Gilligan, striding resolutely toward the man and the boy, while the two drew apart and stared at her in surprise, "but you're goin' to do it for me. If you think I'm going to lug those trunks and provisions and things into the house all by myself, you never was so much mistaken in your life. What do you suppose I'm paying you my good money for? Now, get a move on and hurry those things inside, or I'll have to take a hand in the matter myself. Trunks first!"

And too much surprised by this deluge of words to refuse, the old man turned to the trunks, and, assisted by the boy, carried them into the hall.

"This is far enough," he said, but Mrs. Maria Gilligan, accustomed to having her own way, would have none of it.

"Upstairs," she ordered. "You don't suppose we are going to sleep on the ground floor, do you? And we're not going to carry them ourselves, either."

And once more the old man obeyed her, while the boy, wicked youngster, laughed at him behind his back.

"If you meet a ghost coming downstairs, Gramper," he taunted, "just tell him to be careful and not stumble over you. There now, be careful, will you? You almost dropped the thing on my foot."

The girls watched the two go upstairs with Mrs. Gilligan bringing up the rear to make sure they did not stop half way, and then turned to each other with a queer expression, half of amusement, half of uneasiness, on their faces.

"Well, we always wanted an adventure," said Laura, as they turned back to the open door, feeling an instinctive need of getting out of the house, "and now we're having one."

"A regular one," agreed Billie, adding decidedly: "And I'm going to enjoy myself. Why, Laura," with a touch of excitement, "did you notice those funny old chairs and things? They're really very pretty, and they are surely very old. I shouldn't wonder--"

"Oh, Billie," cried Violet rapturously, "do you suppose you could get real money for them? If you could," she added with the air of a martyr that made the girls laugh, "it would be worth even braving the ghosts for."

"You don't really believe that silly thing, do you?" asked Billie, turning back into the hall. "It's all in a foolish old man's imagination."

"All right. And now you can bring in the provisions," they heard Mrs. Gilligan directing. "I don't know where the kitchen is, but I suppose there is one somewhere. I'll find it while you start to bring the things in."

"We'll each take a candle," cried Billie, her eyes shining in the flickering candle light, "and look for the kitchen. Come on, girls, follow the leader."

So, with Mrs. Gilligan at the head, they marched through what seemed to be a library, seen dimly by the light thrown by their four candles, into a room whose table and chairs showed it to be the dining-room.

"The kitchen must be just beyond, then," said Laura, beginning to enjoy herself immensely. "There's a door, Mrs. Gilligan. Look out--don't bump your head."

But Mrs. Gilligan had no intention of bumping her head. She swung open the door in question, and they found themselves in a butler's pantry that seemed almost as large as Billie's bedroom at home.

"Goodness! the Powerson that first built the house must have expected to entertain lots of company," exclaimed Violet, looking with wonder at the rows of curtained cupboards. "I wonder if there are dishes in all of them?"

"We haven't time to look now," said Mrs. Gilligan, stopping her as she was about to peep inside a closet. "We can do all that to-morrow when we have daylight. Ah, here's the kitchen," she added, as she stepped into a huge room--the regular type of a very old kitchen that could be used as sitting-room as well.

"Gracious, it's a house!" cried Billie, moving her candle about in an effort to light up the corners of the place. "There isn't any end to it."

"I'm glad I don't have to keep it clean as a steady job," said Mrs. Gilligan grimly. "Now, girls, let's go back and find our two friends with the provisions. I don't know how you feel about it, but as for me, a little something to eat wouldn't go at all bad."

"We're just starved," they cried, and began a concerted rush back to the front of the house where their "friends with the provisions" were.

However, when they arrived there, they found the provisions spread upon the driveway but the man and boy had disappeared.

"Humph!" grunted Mrs. Gilligan, her mouth straightening to a grim line, "I had more than a notion that that old fellow would clear out, and of course the young one wouldn't stay alone. I shouldn't have trusted them out of my sight!"

She began picking up bags and packages, and the girls followed suit. Before very long they had gathered up all the provisions and were staggering back, arms laden, toward the house.

They found their way back to the kitchen again and dropped the things thankfully on the table.

"Now for something to eat!" cried Laura. "What shall we have, Mrs. Gilligan? I suppose it will have to be a cold supper," she added, looking about for some means of cooking and discovering only an immense coal stove.

"I suppose it would take forever to make a fire in that," said Billie, indicating the stove and thinking longingly of hot steak and potatoes, "even if they have any coal."

"Here's plenty of coal," said Mrs. Gilligan, who had been finding things out in her own practical and efficient way, "and here is plenty of wood and old newspapers to start it going. Indeed and we're not going to have any cold supper," she added, while in imagination the girls already were sniffing the aroma of broiling steak. "Not after that long ride an' cheerful conversation!"

With the prospect of supper, and a hot supper, so close at hand, the girls could laugh at the gloomy stories of the old driver.

"We'll help," cried Laura. "Come on, girls, let's see if we can find enough dishes to set the table."

So they went gayly to work, setting the table and peeling potatoes, which Mrs. Gilligan proceeded to fry, and enjoyed themselves immensely.

"Shall we eat in the kitchen?" asked Violet, pausing with a pile of plates in her hand. "Or shall we be very proper and eat in the dining-room?"

"Oh, the kitchen's a lot more cheerful," said Billie, shivering a little in spite of herself as she thought of the dark, rather dreary room just the other side of the door.

"Besides, what we want we want in a hurry," said Laura, taking the dishes from Violet and setting them decidedly on the table. "To-morrow will be time enough to put on airs. Just now all I want to do is to eat!"

While they were waiting for the supper to cook and after they had done as much as they could toward its preparation, the girls looked about the kitchen and the gloomy dining room a bit. The latter room was dark and cheerless, and they wondered that any one should have selected it for a dining room. The woodwork was all of black walnut, and there was much of it, the window frames and door frames being heavy and ornate and the room being wainscoted with the same dark wood. The room was large, too, and there were windows at one end only, and that toward the north.

"Oh, come! let us get out of here," finally cried Laura, grabbing each of the other girls by an arm and running with them out into the more cheerful kitchen.

"Oh, that steak!" cried Billie longingly, as she drifted over to the stove. "Isn't it nearly done, Mrs. Gilligan? This is cruelty to animals."

Mrs. Gilligan chuckled and turned the steak on the other side.

"Almost ready now," she said, adding another piece of butter to the golden browned potatoes. "Have you girls cut the cake? It's in one of the packages I brought in--on the end of the table. Don't cut it all now," she warned, as there was a joyful rush for the cake. "We want some of it left for to-morrow."

The girls did not cut it all--quite. But they did cut a good two-thirds of it--and ate it all, too!

It was a strange sort of meal--the candle-lit kitchen, the hastily set table, the faces of the girls and Mrs. Gilligan brought out in bold relief by the flickering candle light.

The meal was delicious, and the girls ate ravenously, but from time to time one of them would shift uneasily in her seat and look nervously over her shoulder into the dark corners of the room.

Instead of the dinner making them more courageous, it seemed to be having the opposite effect, for when they had finished their cake and the steaming hot coffee, they found themselves talking in whispers as if they were afraid of the sound of their own voices.

Billie, suddenly realizing this, spoke aloud, and Laura and Violet jumped nervously.

"What's the matter with us?" Billie asked, her voice sounding strangely loud and unnatural even to herself in the hushed stillness all about. "We never used to be so awfully quiet. And I'm sure we don't have to whisper about it."

"I--I suppose," shivered Violet, "that it's because everything else is so quiet. It sort of has its effect on us. I wish," she added, with a sudden little outburst unusual in Violet, "that that horrid old driver hadn't told us that horrid story. I catch myself listening for noises all the time."

"But that's foolish," said Mrs. Gilligan, in that every-day, matter-of-fact tone that never failed to give the girls courage. "There isn't one of us who believes anything he said, so why let it worry us? Come on," she said, rising and beginning to gather together the dishes, "we'll get these things put away in a hurry, and then go up to bed. I think a good night's rest is what you need."

"Oh, but I don't want to go up in the spooky upstairs part," whispered Violet to Billie, as she scraped some odds and ends off on a plate. "Oh, why didn't we travel by night, so that we could have reached here in the morning?"

"Well, we didn't, so there's no use worrying about it," said Billie sharply, for the situation was beginning to get on her own nerves. She had caught herself dreading the moment when they must leave the more or less cheerful kitchen for the upper floor of the house.

And then the minute came.

"Take a couple of candles apiece and follow me," Mrs. Gilligan said. "I had your grips all put in the upper hall. Now then, let's find out what kind of beds we have to sleep in--if any!"

So, with little creepy chills chasing themselves up and down their spines, the girls obeyed, keeping close together and looking fearfully into the dark shadows.

They had just started up the stairs when Violet cried out, her voice sounding sharp in the stillness:

"What's that?"

Right over their heads there came a creepy, slithery sound, followed by a loud thump.

The girls groaned and clutched each other.

"The ghost!" said Violet, in a terrified whisper.

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