"Oh, Dave," called Belle Meade, "I'm so glad to see you!"
"You usually are," laughed Darrin, "but I never knew you to make so much noise about it before."
"What's the trouble?" Dick inquired, after a hasty greeting to
Mrs. Bentley, Laura Bentley, Belle Meade, Fannie Upham and Margery
White, the latter four all Gridley High School girls.
"A man—-he must have been crazy!" replied Laura. Her voice shook slightly, and she was still trembling, though the color was beginning to return to her face.
"Did he offer to molest you?" flared Dick.
"No, indeed!" replied Mrs. Bentley promptly and laughing nervously. "In fact, I think we must have frightened the man, for his desire seemed to be to get away from us as fast as he could."
"But that face!" cried Miss Fanny. "I never want to see it again."
"It must have been our Man of the Haunting Face," murmured Dick, turning to his chums.
"That was he—-just who it was!" declared Belle, with emphasis. "I don't know whom you're talking about, but 'haunting face' just describes the man who frightened us."
"It was so silly of us!" murmured Laura Bentley. "It was clear nonsense for us to be so frightened, but when, we saw that face peering at us from behind a tree we simply couldn't help screaming."