“Leave the kitchen door standing open until we have lighted one of these hanging lamps,” she said.
Babs did this and they had advanced to the middle of the room when a breeze from somewhere swept through, blew out the tiny flame on the candle and closed the kitchen door with a bang. Babs uttered a shrill scream.
“Be still girls,” Virg said in her calm voice. “There is nothing to be afraid of even if we are in the dark. Now all of you stand here where you are. I know this house better than any of the rest of you and so I will grope my way back and reopen the kitchen door.”
Betsy Clossen’s detective instinct was on the alert. She seized Virg by the arm as she whispered, “There’s something queer about this. The light in the kitchen must also have been put out, otherwise we would see it shining under the door, wouldn’t we?”
“I should think so,” Virg said slowly as she paused, then she added, “even so, I will investigate. The boys are near. If we are frightened, we will call them.”
She groped her way toward the wall, where she believed she would find the kitchen door. “Good!” she told the waiting group. “Here it is.” But, when she turned the knob, the door would not open. She pushed and pulled, but all to no effect.
“Please call Peyton,” Megsy implored. “I have the chilly shivers going up and down my spine. I just know this house is haunted and that the haunt is angry because we came, and wishes to scare us away.”
“Girls,” Betsy Clossen said in a low voice, “I believe that I understand it all. It’s that mysterious Trujillo. He has some object in living here, I’ll wager, and he fears that this object, whatever it is, will be defeated if so many girls are around to watch him, and so he is trying to scare us away. Well, I for one shall stay.”
Virginia’s laugh from out of the dark sounded merry and natural. Then, just at that moment, having found the right knob, she opened the kitchen door and a flood of light from the big lamp fell upon the huddled group.
Margaret and Babs darted for the home-like kitchen as though it were a harbor of safety but Betsy Clossen remained in the darkness. “Virg,” she called, “let the other girls stay there and you bring one of the small lamps that won’t blow out easily and let’s look around and see where the wind came in that blew out the candle and slammed the door.”