“I see your system,” I replied, “but I am not sure how I can explain Miss Frayne to Silvia. Silvia is not in the least narrow-minded, but still to leave the hotel at midnight with a perfectly strange young woman––”
“You can tell her I want a clear field for Beth. She will see it is in a good cause.”
The Polydores greeted us rapturously and roughly. When I had restored order, and they were once more right side up, I addressed the chief of the bandits.
“Ptolemy,” I began, “a young lady, 183 who is a reporter for a big newspaper, has come from many miles away to write up the haunted house and the ghost, and they will be pictured out in the Sunday edition.”
Ptolemy’s eyes glistened, and “Them Three” were instantly “at attention.”
“Oh, say, stepdaddy,” begged the young chief, “let me play ghost right for her, just once, will you?”
“You may for tonight,” I said, “but you will have to be very careful and not overdo the matter, for she isn’t the kind that is easily fooled. She’s had to keep her eyes and wits sharpened, else she wouldn’t be on a newspaper, so I want you to be very careful and not bungle. Make a neat job of it.”
“I’ll do it up brown, you bet!” he cried gleefully.
“Naw, do it up white,” drawled Pythagoras.