CHAPTER XIX
IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT
There was so much of interest about the house, and outside of it, that aweek passed almost before the young folks knew it.
The boys were for exploring the cellar, and did so one fine day, takingthe girls along.
They had a flashlight, a lantern, and some candles, and all thesecombined gave them quite an illumination. But the girls kept close to theboys, for the cellar was certainly a creepy place, with its many nooksand corners and dark closets.
They managed to find two tunnels, one about fifty feet long and the otherclose to a hundred.
"Caved in!" cried Chet in disgust.
He was right; dirt and rocks filled the openings, both of which werequite wet.
"I'll bet they led to the brook," remarked Teddy. "When the Indians madea raid the settlers could crawl through one tunnel or the other and sohide in the brook."
"I think Ted must be right," said Ferd.
There was but little of value in the cellar. Old tools, rusted with age,and some empty bottles and jugs, and that was about all.
"It's awfully musty," said Billie presently. "I'm going upstairs and outinto the sunshine." And she went, and the others soon followed.
Billie had received the address of Miss Beggs, the school-teacher. It hadbeen sent to her address at home and forwarded by Mrs. Bradley.
"Now, I guess I'll have to write that letter to the teacher and explainall about the broken statue," said Billie dismally. "Oh, dear, I wish Ididn't have to do it."
"It's too bad we haven't the money to pay for the old thing," came fromChet. "Can't we sell some of this stuff? It must be worth something."
"But who will buy it?"
"I don't know."
There was a long consultation among the girls, and at last Billie managedto write the letter.
"There," she said, when she had given it to the store boy to post, "now Ifeel better. The confession part of it is off my mind, anyway. If I canonly pay for the old statue--or buy another one like it--I'll behappy--or nearly happy."
She added the "nearly happy" as the thought came to her that even withthe broken statue paid for and off her mind she had still another ordealbefore her. In a couple of weeks their vacation would be up at CherryCorners, and soon after that she would have to see Violet and Laura andthe boys, except poor Chet, go off to boarding school, while she and herbrother would be left behind.
Oh, well, she would not think of that just yet. They could at least enjoythe time they were to spend at Cherry Corners.
And they did enjoy it! There was never a minute of the day for whichsomething interesting was not planned.
Then one night, when they had almost forgotten that the house wassupposed to be haunted, they had an experience that brought back alltheir old fears of the place--"and then some," as Teddy said.
Billie sat up in bed suddenly with the familiar chilly feeling up anddown her spine and her hair showing a tendency to pull away from herprickly scalp.
The piano was sounding--all the way from treble to bass! And it was themiddle of the night with everybody in bed!
She put out a hand and shook Laura and Violet to consciousness.
"Oh, girls, it _is_ the ghost this time!" she said in a scared whisperthat made them wide awake in an instant. "It--it's playing the piano!"
"A--a musical ghost?" giggled Laura hysterically, but Billie pinched herinto silence.
"Keep still," she cried. "There it is again!"
The girls listened to the eeriest, weirdest music they had everheard, and Violet slipped shivering under the covers and hid her facewith the sheet.
"C-come out of that," cried Billie, pulling at the sheet. "What g-good doyou suppose it's going to do to put the sheet over your head? Come on,I'm going to investigate."
With sudden determination she slipped out of bed and stood up.
"Billie," gasped Laura, "you're never going to go down there?"
"I'm going to call the boys," said Billie, who, despite all herdetermination, could hardly stand up her knees trembled so. "We'll all goand rout that old ghost. He's got to," she added with a hysterical gigglethat matched Laura's, "get off my piano!"
Fearfully the girls watched her start into Mrs. Gilligan's room. ThenLaura pushed down the covers and got to her feet.
"If Billie isn't afraid," she said stoutly, "I don't see why I should be.Are you coming, Vi?"
"I s-suppose so," said poor Violet, more afraid of being left alone thanof facing the ghost in company with the others. "If you're goingI--I've got to."
So it was that Mrs. Gilligan was startled to find three ghostly, scaredfigures standing by her bed calling nervously to her to "please wake up."
"For goodness' sake, what's the matter?" she said, rubbing her eyes andstaring at them sleepily. "Have you heard your ghostly motor again?"
"Oh, much worse!" cried Violet.
"We heard a ghost playing a piano!" said Laura.
"Listen," commanded Billie. "There it goes again. Oh, Mrs. Gilligan, I'mf-frightened."
Mrs. Gilligan listened, and even she, matter-of-fact, humorous Irishwomanthat she was, felt that same strange tendency on the part of her hair tostand up straight in the air.
"Well, here's the time for my rolling pin," she said, jumping out of bedand wrapping a kimono hastily about her. "We'll call the boys and seewhat that piano thinks it's doing anyway."
So they called the boys. The three lads were on tiptoe with excitement atthe thought of an actual encounter with a ghost.
"And a musical ghost, at that," crowed Ferd, as they started down thestairs with the girls following cautiously and holding their candles overtheir heads.
"Say, don't make so much noise," cried Chet in a stage whisper. "You'llfrighten his ghostship away. I wouldn't miss seeing a real ghost foranything you could offer me."
"In here, fellows, here's the piano," Ferd directed, and, their hearts intheir mouths, the girls watched them go into the dark room.
"Ouch! hang that chair," they heard Ferd cry out. "Come on with thoselights, girls. I'm ruining all the furniture."
Nervously the girls followed them in, throwing the light of the candleson the old piano, but, as far as they could see, nothing had beendisturbed.
The ancient instrument stood as dignified and aloof as ever, and in thewhole room not a chair was out of place.
"Nothing here," said Chet, looking disappointed. "Say, the girls promisedus a regular show, fellows, and they haven't come across."
"What shall we do to 'em?" asked Teddy, looking almost equallydisappointed.
"But we heard it," said Billie, shivering with excitement.
"It was just as if somebody had taken the back of his finger," Lauraadded, "and run it all the way down the keyboard from the top note of thetreble to the last note of the bass."
"Oh, you must have been dreaming," said Ferd, opening the piano toexamine it inside.
"No, they weren't dreaming," said Mrs. Gilligan seriously. "Because I wasvery much awake when I heard it."
"You heard it, too?" asked Chet, beginning to be interested again.
"I certainly did," said Mrs. Gilligan, with a grimness that left no roomfor doubt. "And I'm not given to imagining things, either."
"Well, I move we look around a bit," suggested Ferd, who was alwayseager for action. "The ghost may have retreated to the dining-room orsomething--"
"No, siree!" said Violet decidedly. "If the rest of you want to goroaming all over this gloomy old place at night you can do it, but you'llhave to leave me out."
"Vi's right," said Mrs. Gilligan, just as the boys were about toprotest. "There isn't any use going into this thing any further to-nightand getting the girls all upset. I'll stay down here awhile and see whatI can see."
"Let me stay with you," asked Chet eagerly.
"And me."
"And me."
Ferd and Teddy spoke almost in the same breath.
"No, I want you all to go up and get into
bed," said Mrs. Gilligandecidedly. "If I see anything," she added, with a grim smile, "anythingthat looks like a ghost that is, I'll call you."
"That's a promise," said Chet, looking back over his shoulder as hereluctantly followed the others upstairs. "Because if I should missgetting a look at that ghost, I'd be disappointed for life."
"Well, I've had enough of spooks to last _me_ forever," said Laura, witha shivery glance over her shoulder as the boys left the girls at theirdoor and started off down the hall. "If that piano begins to play itselfagain to-night, I'll just die, that's all there is to it."
The girls crept into bed, careful to leave their candles burning.
"You know, Billie," said Violet in an awed little voice, "this thing isreally getting serious."
"I should say so," agreed Laura, drawing the bed clothes a little tighterabout her.
"Well, it isn't my fault, is it?" asked Billie. "I didn't ask AuntBeatrice to leave me a haunted house. And, anyway," she added verytruthfully, "it was you, Laura, who first suggested coming here."
"Yes," went on Violet accusingly, "and it was you who said you'd bedisappointed if you didn't see a ghost or two."
Laura groaned.
"What's the use of holding things up against me that I said when I wasyoung and foolish?" she asked. "Anyway, I didn't think we would reallysee anything."
"Well, we haven't," said Billie. "All we've done is to hear things--"
"But we've heard plenty," sighed Violet. "There! What's that?"
The girls listened, feeling almost ready to scream, but could hearnothing but the sighing of the wind in the tree tops.
"Only the wind, silly," said Laura, then added with an almostcomfortable feeling at the thought: "Mrs. Gilligan's on guard anyway."
"Yes," said Violet, adding with a sigh that seemed to come from her verytoes: "I only hope the piano doesn't swallow her up before morning. I'vecome to expect almost anything!"
Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance; Or, The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners Page 19