She took half a dozen steps, when she suddenly heard that weird sound from the direction toward which she was approaching. She stopped, breathless, and looked all around her. But, seeing nothing, she walked on, trying bravely to whistle.
Just as she was out of sight of the cabin, she saw a tall figure glide from one tree to another, and in an instant she heard the sound again. Her heart stood still. No mortal being had ever produced a sound like that. The boys were right: the spot was haunted.
Ruth felt that, although she could now plainly see the spring, she could not go a step farther. She looked around again. The figure had vanished, and except for the occasional hoot of an owl or the croak of a frog, absolute silence prevailed. “It must have been my imagination,” she thought. She was naturally a brave girl, and added to this fact, she longed for the admiration of her companions; so she forced herself to press on and fill her buckets at the spring.
But she had hardly taken another step, before she heard the weird sound and saw the figure again. This time she saw it distinctly: it was perfectly white; even its face had the deathly pallor of the ghost. It did not seem to possess eyes, only hollow sockets; and by this Ruth was convinced that it was no earthly being.
By this time the girl was thoroughly frightened; she cared no longer for her water, or the approval of the other girls; she thought only of her safe return to the cabin. Seeing the figure approach noiselessly in her direction, she dropped her pails and ran as fast as she could to the cabin. She reached the door and flung it open.
The girls started forward in alarm.
“What is it, Ruth?” asked Doris, trembling.
As soon as Ruth could get her breath, she described her adventure. Suddenly she stopped. “Listen—there!” The sounds became fainter and fainter, and finally died in the distance.
Miss Phillips would not permit Ethel to go to the spring by herself; she and Dorothy both accompanied her. But when they got back, Doris and Edith testified that through the one window of the cabin, they had seen the figure flit by.
“The only thing we can do,” said Ruth, the last thing before she fell asleep, “is to compare notes with the boys who have seen the ghost—or whatever it is!” she added.