CHAPTER XX THE MOTOR AGAIN

CHAPTER XX

THE MOTOR AGAIN

The piano did not swallow Mrs. Gilligan up, and, as a matter of fact, the good woman did not stand guard until morning. Half an hour of sitting alone in that gloomy room watching a piano that had played itself was enough to ruin even her seasoned nerves.

Once back in her room she scolded herself for being such an idiot, laughed at her fears, and, being a normal, healthy woman, fell almost instantly to sleep.

In the morning the girls themselves felt somewhat inclined to laugh at the fright they had had, and yet they knew that what had happened had been no figment of their imaginations. The sound, though weird and eerie, had been real--even Mrs. Gilligan would testify to that.

"Well, I tell you what we ought to do," said Ferd, as he sat down to a huge plateful of breakfast. "We fellows ought to take turn and turn about keeping watch. There must be some reason for the noise the girls heard, and I won't be happy until we find out what it was."

"I think you have the right idea," replied Chet, decidedly. "The only condition I make is that I be allowed to stand the first watch."

"You'll do nothing of the kind, any of you," broke in Mrs. Gilligan, with that slight tightening of her upper lip that the girls and boys had come to know--and respect. "That's a fine way to see all sorts of things that ain't and hear all sorts of things that never happened. Sit up in the dark, waiting for something to happen! I guess not!"

"But we can't just sit back and let the piano perform like that every night, can we?" asked Ferd, in an argumentative tone. "I'd rather stay awake part of the night than all of it."

"Don't you even want to solve the mystery?" asked Chet, in an aggrieved voice.

"Mystery--humph," grunted Mrs. Gilligan, feeling very brave and disdainful in the bright sunshine. "I don't believe there's a bit of mystery in the whole thing."

"Then what made the piano play?" Teddy insisted. "You said yourself that you heard it."

"Oh, I heard it all right," said Mrs. Gilligan, helping herself to more jam. "There isn't any doubt about that. But I have an idea what caused it, all right."

"Oh, tell us," they cried eagerly.

But their chaperone shook her head determinedly while her lip became still tighter.

"No, indeed I won't tell you," she said, adding with a little chuckle: "I want to try it out myself first. For I know that if I told you young ones about it you'd only laugh. And I don't like being laughed at."

"But we wouldn't laugh," Billie assured her earnestly. "Really, Mrs. Gilligan, we'll promise on our word of honor not to so much as even smile."

"Get out with your promises," said Mrs. Gilligan, relapsing into her brogue. "I do be knowing you better. I'll try it to-night," she added graciously, "and if it doesn't work I'll tell you about it in the morning."

"I suppose here's where I spend another sleepless night," said Violet dolefully, helping herself to more biscuits. "Oh, well, I'm getting so I can do without sleep now."

"Well, you don't look as if you'd ever lost a wink in your life," said Chet, glancing at her admiringly, for it was an open secret with the boys and girls of North Bend that Chet rather especially liked tall, dark, peace-loving Violet Farrington--perhaps because she was so much like himself.

Violet blushed prettily at this complimentary remark, and the girls looked at her teasingly.

"Who was it that said something or other was blind?" asked Laura wickedly, and Violet kicked her under the table.

"Peace, my children," said Billie. "We're having enough trouble with ghosts and things without starting a war among ourselves. Who'll have some more jelly?"

There was a simultaneous shout of approval, and the jelly dish began its fourth round of the table.

However, they did at last get through eating and wandered out on the front porch, where Mrs. Gilligan could not scoff at their ideas, to discuss the doings of the night before.

But it was only a little while later that Mrs. Gilligan put another damper on their fun by announcing that some one would have to go to town for more provisions. The boy had failed to come that morning, and their supply of canned goods was running dangerously low.

"Let's all go," Chet suggested. "We could walk down and ride back."

"But, oh, Chet, it's so frightfully hot," Billie objected. "I'm sure we'd get sunstroke or something."

"Yes, it's a terribly long walk," added Violet.

"Well, we could wait till toward evening," said Ferd. "It wouldn't be so scorching then. I admit," he added, taking a slanting squint at the sun, "that even I am not eager to take a long hike just now."

"But toward evening we'll be preparing supper," objected Laura, and the boys threw up their hands in despair.

"Well, then we'll just have to go without you," said Teddy. "But it would be lots more fun if you'd come." This last was said to Billie and for her ear alone.

That afternoon the girls watched the boys down the road till they were out of sight, then turned back to the house with a strangely lonesome feeling.

"You know," said Violet, pausing on the doorstep and looking back at the girls with a rather sober face, "I have a sort of feeling that something's going to happen."

"Well, you'd better get rid of it right away," retorted Laura. "We don't want anything more to happen--especially when the boys are away."

This time Violet proved to be right. Something did happen. It was after dark, the boys had not yet got back from the village, and the girls were setting the table in the kitchen--they had never found the courage to eat in the gloomy dining-room--when Violet set a dish down on the table with a bang that made the girls start and look at her in surprise.

As for Violet, she was too scared to speak for a moment. Then she stammered out:

"The strange motor car!" she said, while Billie and Laura stared at her. "I thought I heard it before--"

"Sh-h," cried Billie, and they listened, hardly daring to breathe.

There was the same strange humming sound that had so startled them on their first night in the house, only this time, instead of coming from a distance and passing by, the noise seemed to get louder, then softer, louder and softer, as if whatever it was were approaching and retreating at regular intervals.

At that moment Mrs. Gilligan came into the room, and the girls called to her to listen also.

"That?" she asked, with a little laugh. "Why that's an automobile of course," and started for the front door. "Only I must say it's behaving mighty queer."

But when they opened the door and looked out into the rocky road there was no sign of an automobile, and yet the humming sound still kept on.

As they listened, wide-eyed, the noise grew softer and softer and gradually died away in the distance.

The girls looked at each other wonderingly. Then it was Billie who offered a solution.

"Mightn't it be an aeroplane?"

"An aeroplane in this part of the country?" Laura was inclined to scoff at the idea, but Mrs. Gilligan and Violet both stood up for Billie.

They were about to enter into a heated argument when they saw the wagon that had by this time become familiar to them coming down the road with the boys seated in it or hanging to it in characteristic attitudes.

The girls ran out to them and deluged the lads with questions before they had time to learn what it was all about.

"A motor car?" asked Chet. "No, we didn't pass a soul on the way up here."

When the girls had poured into their interested ears the story of the queer humming sound that had just repeated itself, they agreed to one man to Billie's suggestion that it was very probably an aeroplane.

"I'll tell you what we'll do next time we hear it," said Teddy as the boys picked up the provisions they had brought and started toward the house. "We'll go up on the roof. Then we'll pretty soon see whether it's a ghost or the real thing."

"And in the meantime," suggested Chet, sniffing the air hungrily, "how about some supper?"

“One work. Many languages. One reading experience.”