"We're ready now," said Billie, putting an arm about Violet and hurrying her to the door. "Oh, is that bacon I smell—and coffee?" she asked as through the open door came a whiff of the good things below.
"You said it!" cried Laura, making a rush for lower floor with Billie and Violet not very far behind her. "And it isn't going to be more than about two minutes before I taste that same bacon and eggs."
When they reached the lower hall they were surprised to see that it looked almost as gloomy and forbidding as it had the night before, in spite of the fact that the front door was open and sunlight was streaming through.
"Ugh!" said Laura, with a shudder, "I don't wonder that they had gloomy dispositions in the old days if they had to live in houses like these. It's enough to give one the creeps."
"I'm glad you like my property so much," said Billie, with a demure little smile. "I haven't heard you say one nice thing about it yet."
"We have treated our hostess rather rudely, haven't we?" laughed Violet, putting an arm about Billie and drawing her out into the sunshine. "But really, Billie, we're quite sure that you don't like it any better than we do."
"And you are quite right," Billie assured her, then added, breaking away and running a little in front of them: "Girls, let's see if we can find any signs of that car we heard last night."
Eagerly they scanned the rocky road, but could see no traces of any vehicle that would be big enough to make the noise they had heard the night before.
"The plot thickens," said Laura, as they started back to the house to eat the bacon and eggs and biscuits. "We hear a car, but see no traces of it."
"It must have been a spirit car," said Violet, adding, with a plaintive little sigh that made the girls laugh: "In spite of all my perfectly good training, I'm beginning to believe in ghosts."