Barely in time to avoid an accident, the girl twisted the steering wheel and brought the car back on the highway.
“Another second and I’d have been in the ditch!” she thought shakily. “If I must look for a ghost, guess I’ll do the job right.”
Penny pulled up, this time at the opposite side of the road. Getting out, she crossed to the iron fence and peered through it. The path which had attracted her attention had been pounded hard by someone who had walked just inside the enclosure.
“Odd!” she reflected. “Maybe Old Mose’s ghost has more substance than I thought.”
Penny glanced toward the big house, dark and majestic in its setting of evergreens. Obviously the place had been closed for the winter. Walks were not shoveled, blinds had been drawn, and no tire tracks led to and from the three-car garage.
“Wonder who or what could have made that path?” she mused. “Certainly not an animal.”
Unable to solve the mystery, Penny turned to re-enter the parked coupe. Before she could cross the road, a light went on in a third floor room of the estate house. Startled, she stared at it. As she watched, it was extinguished.
“Someone must live here!” thought Penny. “Or am I seeing spooks myself?”
For a long while she watched the upper floor of the house. The light did not reappear. At length, wearying of the vigil, she returned to the car.
Penny started the engine and bent down to open the fins of the heater. Straightening, she cast a last, careless glance toward the old estate. Her heart did a flip-flop.