"Squirrel!" said the doctor angrily. "What are you talking about, man? Squirrels live in trees, not in old lofts. You mean a rat." "I know a squir'l when I see one, sir," said Peter; "and I see one go 'crost the yard and into that old stable." "Nonsense!" said the doctor. "Did you find it, Peter!" said Helen from under the tree. "Find what?" said the doctor. "A squirrel that ran from here across the yard." Peter looked from one to the other triumphantly, as he said-- "No, Miss, I didn't." "Humph!" grunted the doctor. "Then there was a squirrel!" "Yes, sir." "And you saw something strange!" "Yes, sir, something awful gashly, in the dark end, sir." "Bah!" cried the doctor. "There, go and get your stable lanthorn and we'll see. Helen, my dear, we've got a ghost in the old stable loft: like to come and see it!" "Very much, papa," said Helen, smiling in a way that put Peter on his mettle, for the moment before he had been ready to beg off. He went pretty quickly to get his stable lanthorn, and came back with it alight, and looking very pale and sickly, while he bore a stout broomstick in the other hand. "For shame, man! Put away that absurd thing," said the doctor, as he led the way through the gate in the wall, followed by Helen, Peter and Dan'l coming behind. "Go first with the lanthorn," said the doctor to the old gardener, but Peter was stirred to action now. "Mayn't I go first, sir!" he said. "Oh yes, if you have enough courage," said the doctor; and Peter, looking very white, led the way to the foot of the ladder, went up, and the others followed him to the loft, and stood together on the old worm-eaten boards. The lanthorn cast a yellow glow through its horn sides, and this, mingling with the faint pencils of daylight which came between the tiles, gave a very peculiar look to the place, festooned as the blackened beams were with cobwebs, which formed loops and pockets here and there. "There's an old door at the extreme end there, or ought to be," said the doctor. "Go and open it." Peter went on in advance. "Mind the holes, my dear," said the doctor. "What's that?" A curious rustling noise was heard, and, active as a young man, Dan'l ran back to the top of the ladder and descended quickly. "Well 'tain't me as is skeart now," said Peter triumphantly. Just then there was a sharp clap from somewhere in front, as if a small trap-door had been suddenly closed, and Dan'l's voice came up through the boards. "Look out!" he shouted, and his voice sounded distant. "There's some one up in the far loft there. He tried to get down into one of the hay-racks, but I frightened him back." "Stop there!" said the doctor. "We'll soon see who it is. Go on, Peter, and open that door. That young larder thief for a guinea, my dear," he continued to Helen, as Peter went on in advance. "Door's nailed up, sir," said the latter worthy, as he reached the old door, and held the lanthorn up and down.