“Let’s do it,” said Nancy to some suggestion of Billie’s. “What can harm us in this wilderness?”
“Mary,” said Billie, “if Cousin Helen should wake, tell her we are taking a little stroll in the avenue. We can’t endure this close, still place any longer.”
The two girls tiptoed from the room and presently found themselves in the broad road which led to the house. How beautiful the place looked by moonlight, with its galleries and noble Doric columns! It was too dark to see the stained and discolored walls, the staring, empty windows, but even in this light they could discern the rickety look of the house which appeared to have slipped over on one side.
“I can easily imagine this place was haunted,” whispered Billie.
They were standing in the avenue, examining the old building.
“Heavens, how you give me the creeps,” exclaimed Nancy, taking her friend’s hand and starting to walk.
They were like ghosts themselves as they flitted down the avenue in their white dresses. They felt it would soon be time for Edward to return, and they planned to meet him at the entrance and ride back.
“There he is now,” said Nancy at last.
Far down the avenue they could hear the whirring of a motor engine.
“He’s traveling fast,” observed Billie, listening with practised ears to the sound of the machinery. “I didn’t know the Comet could take such a pace as that.”