"But why did he dress like a ghost?" asked Mollie.
"That was a big white garment he put on to avoid soiling his clothes when he made his hair-tonic mixture. And he really did mistake you for Carrie, Mollie. He admitted as much, and asked to be forgiven. It was his lunch you ate. He had prepared for a long stay in the house."
"Well, I guess we won't bother to pay for it," said Betty. "He's made trouble enough. Then the mansion isn't haunted, after all?"
"No, and never was. It was simply the making of his hair-tonic there nights that produced the effect. He says he never even knew that the doctors who were to buy the place were frightened away, and the night you girls stopped there he thought you had, as was the case, taken refuge from the storm. He did not know he had frightened you, but when he saw Mollie he made a rush for her, thinking she was his ward, come back. He locked her up, intending to come for her later, when he had taken off the furnace some of his boiling mixture."
"Then Mr. Lagg can sell his property after all!" exclaimed Grace. "I'm so glad!"
And so was the poetical store keeper himself, when he heard the news. He composed an eight-line verse on the subject, and insisted on rewarding the girls, saying it was due to their efforts that the "ghost was laid." He received a substantial sum for the old mansion, which was turned into a sanitarium.
"And, now that all the explanations are explained," said Mollie a day or so later, "we may as well resume our tour. What do you say, girls?"
"Fine!" cried Betty. "And we'll take Carrie with us. She needs a change, and traveling around will benefit her."
"Though I traveled considerable after I ran away from that horrid man," said the girl, with a smile at her new friends.
"There is one regret," spoke Grace, "and that is that Mr. Blackford didn't find his missing sister."