"Do you think the ghost was a tramp?" asked Mollie. "The one who caught me?"
"He may have been."
"But why was he all in white?"
"Probably to keep up the illusion. We haven't gotten to the bottom of this yet. Let's keep on."
But aside from the two rooms no others in the big mansion showed signs of habitation. All were gloomy and dust-encumbered. On the first floor nothing was discovered, and the cellar yielded no clues.
"Well, all we have established so far," said Mr. Blackford, "is that someone has been sleeping here. Now let's keep on to the annex, and see if we can establish a connection. It may be that the secret is there."
They found the passage that led from the mansion to the house in which so much had happened to them that stormy night. There was a room in the main house, whence the passage began, and this room, too, showed signs of having been used recently.
And when they came to the place where the girls had dined so unexpectedly they saw unmistakable signs that other meals than the one they had helped themselves to had been eaten there.
"Our friend, the ghost, has been here since," said Mr. Blackford. "Perhaps we shall have to set a trap for him."
They walked on, their footsteps echoing and re-echoing through the silent old house. They were in the annex now, but a search there revealed nothing.