"What shall I do with my dear old pony?" asked Cyril. "He has nowhere to go—he loves me so, he will never leave me!"
"Can you get him along the path to the house?"
"Oh! yes. He followed me before, but I sent him back. He's very intelligent."
"Seems so," said Cynthy. "Well, you bring him along. I guess he'll be able to get into the kitchen."
"Oh! do you think so?—but the people of the house——"
"There are none. The old man who owned it is dead. And his son and heir daren't come back, because he thinks his father's ghost has returned!" Cynthy laughed. "Remember this, Cyril," she added, "there's nothing like a guilty conscience to make an out-and-out coward."
CHAPTER XVI.
THE DISCOVERY IN THE LOFT.
Blackie followed Cyril into the house through the back door when they entered it on their return from visiting the sleigh.
He did more; not content with his strange quarters in the kitchen he followed his master into the larger room, and trotted round it, looking hard at everything, including Mr. Morton in the arm-chair, and poking his nose into the hole in the middle of the floor as if to see why it was left there.