“The right one had better come,” cried Mary. “The next Test may be a good deal worse than this one.”
“Oh, then I’ll take it!” cried the Lockwood twin who had been pushed.
“No, you don’t, Miss!” exclaimed her sister, elbowing her way to the front. “I’m Dora.”
“Well,” said Mary, “if I shut my eyes and you girls changed places I couldn’t tell you apart. I wish one of you had a different dimple in her cheek—or even a mole——”
“O—oh! How horrid!” chorused the Lockwoods.
“Then the right one must come forward. As Gee Gee says: ‘On your honor, young ladies!’”
The twins finally decided to own up to their rightful names, and Dora joined the other three candidates and accepted the three nails. To Laura was given the hammer.
“Remember what you have been told. Each must drive her own nails. And mark well where you drive them, for they will be examined—by daylight,” finished Mary, with a chuckle.
The crowd of girls parted and left an open lane for the four candidates to pass through. The owl hooted again and the cowbell tinkled upon the hillside. The quartette started on their mission slowly. It was very dark about the haunted house, for big trees overshadowed it.
“I’m scared clear down to the soles of my feet,” whispered Jess to Laura.