Instantly she heard somebody cry out, but outside of the house.
“What’s the matter mit you, Otto?” growled a deeper voice.
“I heard a voice, fader! Not nearer to dat house would I go—so hellup me! It iss de ha’nt!”
Laura’s muffled voice was audible a few yards away, but she could not tell them who she was, and how situated. She ran to the window. One sash was gone. Boys had used the windows as targets in times past.
“Ouch!” yelled the younger voice, in a long-drawn wail. “Dere iss oldt Sarah!”
“Be still! you are a fool!” commanded the gruffer voice.
Laura saw that a man and a boy were outside the fence. The man carried a lantern. It had been this light coming along the road that had so terrified the M. O. R.’s and the candidates for initiation.
The farmer raised his lantern so that the light fell full upon the face of the girl in the house. He saw the veil-bandage, and her tied wrists. In a moment he hopped over the broken-down fence and hurried to the casement.
“Come here, Otto!” he commanded. “See your ghost—fool! It is a harmless girl—and she is in trouble. What does this mean, eh?” he asked, in his queer English. “Somebody been fooling you, no?”
Then seeing that Laura could not answer him save by a murmur from behind the muffler, the farmer said: