“Show me your ghost stuff by daylight,” I demanded, “and let me see how you are going to rig him up.”
He brought forth a head and shoulders and arms that were ghastly even in sunlight, and proceeded to explain them.
“I got this skull out of father’s study, and the arms came off a skeleton mother had in her antiquities. I dressed them up in a pillow case and the white cotton gloves are Huldah’s. I can get some phosphorus in the woods and put it in the eyes. And Demetrius bought two electric flashlights yesterday, and Pythagoras can snap them once in a while from the lower windows.”
“You are some little property man,” said Rob in admiration. “But tell me who produces those heart-rending shrieks?”
“That was Pythagoras who did the high 185 ones. And Em came in with low groans. Show ’em, boys.”
Pythagoras uttered high-trebled, thin-toned whines and ever and anon Emerald added a basso profundo accompaniment, making a combination that was most trying to the ears at close range.
“I don’t know,” said Rob, “as I want Beth subjected to such a realistic performance. We will loiter in the distance.”
“Your rehearsal,” I assured Ptolemy, “is very good, but you must remember that Miss Frayne is used to encountering things far more terrible than ghosts. She may insist on coming right in here to investigate. Of course, if she does, I can’t refuse or she’ll think I am afraid, or else that I put up a fake ghost here, myself.”
“We’ll lock the door with a chair,” suggested Emerald.
“She’ll be quite capable of breaking into 186 a little house like this, but I’ll keep her back until you have time to haul in your ghost and make a quick and quiet getaway by a back window. Then another thing, she’ll be over here tomorrow morning to take some pictures of the house, so by sunrise I want you all to take up your abode in the tent you have in the woods and stay there until I come and tell you the coast is clear.”