"Oh, yes," she replied in answer to Silvia's eager inquiry. "We saw the ghost. I don't know whether it was the same little old last night's ghost or a new one. He showed more of himself this time though. He had two arms and a veiled head out of the window. As soon as our crowd glimpsed it, they all fled quicker than we did last night. Those two students fell all over each other and left me in the lurch." "What could you expect," asked Rob, "from such ladylike things? They ought to be kept in the confines of the croquet ground. If they are a fair specimen of the kind you have met, no wonder you--" [Illustration: The landlady intears waylaid me] He stopped abruptly. "No wonder what?" she asked quickly. "Nothing," he replied glumly. When I came down to breakfast the next morning, the landlady in tears waylaid me. "Oh, Mr. Wade," she began in trouble-telling tone, "this affair about the ghost is going to hurt my business. Some of those folks say they are going home, and they will tell others and--" "I'll fix the ghost story. Just leave it to me!" I assured her optimistically, as we went into the dining-room. There were only enough guests to fill one long table, and every one was excitedly dissecting the ghost. I took my seat and also the floor. "I hate to dispel your illusions," I said cheerfully, "but the fact is, I made a daylight investigation of the haunted house. First I looked in the window and I saw--" "Oh, what did you see?" chorused a dozen or more expectant voices. "A lot of--mice." "Oh!" came in disappointed and skeptical tones. "But, the ghost, Mr. Wade?" "Yes! The arms and the head?" "A fake figure put up by some practical joker for the purpose of frightening timid people and encouraging the credulous. I didn't want to spoil your little picnic, so I kept still." "Those sounds, Lucien!" reminded Silvia. "Were from a cat chorus. They were prowling about the house." "You're sure some lawyer, Mr. Wade," doubtfully complimented my grateful landlady, as we went out of the room after breakfast. "Lucien," asked Rob _sotto voce_, joining me on the veranda, "why don't the cats you speak of catch that lot of mice?" Fortunately Beth came up to us, and I didn't have to explain. "Oh!" she said with a shudder. "I'll never go near that awful place! I'd rather see a perfectly good ghost, or a loon, or a lunatic any day than a mouse." "You're surely not afraid of a mouse!" exclaimed Rob. "Why not?" she asked coolly as she walked on. "I told you she was feminine," I reminded him. He shook his head. "I can't understand," he remarked, "why a girl who is afraid of mice should be--" "You don't understand anything about women," I interrupted. "You're right, Lucien. I don't, but your sister is surely the greatest enigma of them all." I rented the stone fence farmer's "autoo" and took Silvia and Diogenes to a neighboring town that afternoon. We didn't get back to the hotel until dinner time.