Belle Ringold, who was really nervous over the noise, forgot for the moment her feud with the Roselawn girls. She cried:
“Jess Norwood! do you mean to say you knew snakes were here in this house?”
“Henrietta killed two here,” said Jessie, looking at the closed door of the stairway. “But if there are others up there they can’t get down while the door is shut.”
“I don’t believe it!” scoffed Sally Moon. “Somebody is trying to scare us.”
“Anyhow,” drawled Amy, “it probably isn’t a ghost.”
Her brother laughed aloud. “If it is,” he said, “it must be the ghost of an old hen. Sounds like a hen scratching on a barn floor.”
“Something with long toenails anyway,” declared Burd seriously. “You can hear ’em.”
“Would you say, Burd, that it sounded to you like a bear, for instance?” his college friend said with equal gravity.
“Now, boys, hush!” cried Amy. “We are not to be scared. Jess and I were worried that time by the snakes. But we saw them——”
“And nobody has seen these mysterious critters,” put in Chip Truro, who was of the party. “I shut that door when we came in here to fix the tables. Listen! I believe they are hopping down the stairs.”