“Have you, or Lillie, been up in the attic?” asked Ruth, sharply. “There was something at the window up there——” “What are you trying to do, girl?” demanded the lady from Ypsilanti, scornfully. “Trying to scare me with a ridiculous ghost story?” “I don’t know what it is,” said Ruth. “I mean to find out. Were you up there?” “I should have gone to the garret had I wished,” Mrs. Treble said, scornfully. “You must have something hidden away there, that you don’t want me to see. I wonder what it is?” “Oh, Mrs. Treble!” began Ruth, and just then she saw that Aunt Sarah’s door was open. Aunt Sarah stood at the opening. “Niece Ruth!” exclaimed the old lady, harshly, “why don’t you send that woman away? She’s got no business here.” “I’ve more right here than _you_ have, I should hope,” cried Mrs. Treble, loudly. “And more right than these girls. You’ll all find out when the courts take the matter up.” “Oh, Mrs. Treble! We none of us know——” “Yes we do, too,” declared the lady from Ypsilanti, interrupting Ruth. “My husband’s mother was Peter Stower’s sister. Perhaps my Lillie shall have _all_ the property—and this ugly old house, too. I tell you what I’ll do first thing, when it comes into my hands as guardian of my child.” Ruth and Agnes were speechless. Mrs. Treble was more passionate than she had ever been before. “I shall tear this ugly old house down—that’s what I’ll do,” Mrs. Treble declared. “I’ll raze it to the ground——” Aunt Sarah suddenly advanced into the hall. Her black eyes flashed as though there were sparks in them. “You will do _what_?” she asked, in a low, hoarse voice. “I’ll tear down the house. It is no good.” “This beautiful old house!” groaned Agnes, forgetting about the ghost at that moment. Aunt Sarah’s wrath was rising. It broke the bonds she had put upon her tongue so many years before. “You will tear this house down?” she repeated. “Niece Ruth! is there any chance of this woman getting control of Peter’s property?” “We don’t know,” said Ruth desperately. “If we can’t find Uncle Peter’s will that Mr. Howbridge made, and which leaves the estate to you and us girls, Aunt Sarah—” “There never was such a will,” put in Mrs. Treble. “Mr. Howbridge says there was. He thinks Mr. Stower must have hidden it away with other papers, somewhere in the house——” “And I know where,” said Aunt Sarah, speaking out at last. “Peter never thought I knew where he hid things. But I did. You gals come with me.” She stalked toward the stairs that led upward. Ruth and Agnes, half awed by her manner and speech, followed her. So did Mrs. Treble. Aunt Sarah went directly to the garret. Agnes forgot to be scared of the ghost they had seen from outside, in her interest in this affair. Aunt Sarah went to the old secretary, or desk, standing in the middle of the garret floor. “Oh, we’ve looked all through _that_,” whispered Agnes. “You did not look in the right place,” said Aunt Sarah.