"I just must feel _you_, dear, safe here with me--or I couldn't--stand it--waiting." * * * * * "Jerry! Look! That flash--it comes--and goes!" Gyp's voice, scarcely a whisper, breathed in Jerry's ear. The two girls were huddled in the little window of the tower room. Gyp was almost hysterical; Jerry had had all she wanted of ghosts. Gyp had felt thin fingers grip her elbow, her shoulder--even her ankle. Someone had breathed in her ear. Jerry, too, had admitted that she had heard sounds of irregular breathing from a corner of the room near the secret door. And there had been a constant tap-tapping! And something had laughed--a horrible, thin, ghost laugh, though Jerry said afterwards that it _might_ have been the wind. Gyp had seen white figures floating about outside, too. Uncle Peter had brought spirit-cronies with him! And now the ghostly flash of light---- "Gyp----" Jerry suddenly spoke aloud. "It's a--_flashlight_! See, someone is swinging it as they walk. _Oh_----" Inspired to action, Jerry seized a huge book and sent it crashing through the window. "_Help! Help!_" she screamed, through the broken glass. Startled, Uncle Johnny, Graham, Barbara Lee and the assistant janitor, whom they had aroused, halted. Graham, dropping the coil of rope, pointed excitedly to the tower. "Look--they're in the tower room! _Well, I never_----" That the tower room and its mysteries should remain under lock and key had been a grievance to Graham. Uncle Johnny shouted to the girls; a great relief, surging through him, made his voice vibrate with joy. And in the light of the electric flash he saw that Barbara Lee's eyes were glistening with something suspiciously like tears. "Now, to rescue the imprisoned maidens," he laughed, turning to the engineer. It took but a few moments for the little party to reach the third floor. Then from above came a plaintive voice. "If you'll just touch George Washington on the left-hand side of the--the frame--he'll move--and----" For a moment, John Westley, staring at the panel, wondered if _he_ were crazy or if Gyp and Jerry---- "We got in--that way," the voice explained. "You can't open the other door! And _please_ hurry--it's _dreadfully_ dark and----" The truth flashed over Graham. "Of all _things_! A secret door!" he shouted. He put his shoulder to the huge box of books that had been shoved close to the picture, until it could be unpacked. "Give a hand here!" he commanded excitedly. They all obeyed him--even Barbara Lee, next to Uncle Johnny, shoved with all the strength of her muscular arms. And Uncle Johnny commenced to chuckle softly. "The imps," he muttered. "Trapped in their lair." The box well out of the way, Graham pressed the left-hand side of the panel picture and it swung out under his amazed eyes, revealing a white-faced Gyp standing in the narrow aperture, and Jerry close behind. Their big, frightened eyes blinked in the flashlight.