"Oh, yes," Jack put in quickly. "It was a mighty good thing we found you, but the mean part of it was that we lost you. I had no idea of letting you get out of my sight, after we started." He laughed strangely. But it was the thought of the detectives with the two odd women from the strawberry patch that occasioned the mirth. "You must not laugh at us, Jack. It really was not a bit funny." Jack put his arm about his sister. For one brief moment they stood there in the clear moonlight. "Well, I must retire," said Cora, "although I feel more like sitting the night out. Good-night, Jack dear. We must be up with----" She stopped. "What was that?" asked the young man, as a slight figure seemed to glide over the path at the very edge of the steps they stood facing. "It--looked like a boy,--no, a girl," replied Cora, instinctively clutching her brother's arm. "There it goes," Jack indicated, as the figure almost disappeared in the thick hedge. "I thought at first the boys might be up to some prank, but that 'ghost' walks too firmly to be a spirit." "Queer for a girl to be out at this hour," reflected Cora. "I wonder who it can be, and what does she want, prowling about after midnight?" "Want me to investigate?" "What; run after it?" "Or--whistle," he said jestingly. Cora walked down the stone steps. She hesitated and listened. There was not a sound amid the leaves, through which the figure had just disappeared. "I declare!" she said, "I feel creepy. I guess I had better go to bed. I have had enough of ghosts for one night." Jack went with her up the stairs and left her at the door of the room she was to occupy. But he did not go farther down the hall, to the big room in the alcove, where he and his chums were to sleep, although he noticed that blades of light were escaping under the door which meant, of course, that Ed and Walter were waiting up for him. "I'll just take another look for that specter," he told himself, going down the stairs noiselessly. "I rather think he, she, or it, had something to say either to me or Cora." It was a curious thought, and Jack could not account for it, but he actually did make directly for the hedge where the streaks of moonlight fell, like silvery showers on the dark green foliage. A narrow path was outlined by a low hedge. He walked down this dark aisle, peering into the banks of green at either side. "Who's that?" he asked, as he distinctly heard a rustle, and at the same time saw the branches move. No answer. "Is there any one there?" he demanded, this time more emphatically. Still no answer came. Following the direction whence the movement and rustle came, Jack slipped under the hedge. As he did so a figure glided out, darted across the path, and ran toward the roadway. As quickly as he could disengage himself from the tangled brush, Jack, too, ran down the path after the fast-disappearing shadow. Again the figure made for the hedge.