Avalon shivered and Cathalina put an arm around her. “Hurry up and tell us, Isabel. What did she look like and how did you happen to be in the hall or did she come into your room?” Cathalina was laughing, yet it was “sort of spooky”, as she admitted later.
“No, she did not come in. Avalon was feeling sick and finally had such a headache that I said I’d get up and go over to see if one of you did not have something that would help her. I didn’t want to go up to the third and wake Miss Wood and maybe have Avalon taken to the pest house, and anyhow I don’t like these old dark halls. So I was kind of sleepy and didn’t turn on the light in our room for fear some teacher would see it—and I just got out into the hall when I heard a sort of moan and something all black and floaty and tall, like a big shadow whisked by me and disappeared around the corner. So there!”
“What’s your story, Avalon? Got your headache yet?”
“Not much; scared out of me, I guess. Why, I just heard Isabel scream and went to the door and saw you and Cathalina.”
“Maybe it was a thief.”
“Or one of the servants.”
“Maybe it was the ‘mysterious girl’!”
“What would she be doing snooping around on this floor at midnight?”
“It’s a wonder all the girls are not awake—the way you screamed, Isabel.”
“I couldn’t help it. Wouldn’t you have screamed too?”