"I know he was," Eve spoke scornfully. "He was afraid, I'm positive. No one ought to have joined this party who was afraid." "We only asked him to fill in, you know," said Milly, rather apologizing for the minister's timidity. "And goodness knows, _I'm_ afraid! Or I should be, if Wynne weren't always with me. If that thing appeared to me,--well!" Milly could find no words to express her horror, and Landon looked at her anxiously. "It won't," said Zizi, reassuringly, "it won't, Mrs. Landon." "How do you know?" said Eve, a bit abruptly. "Your mama told my mama and my mama told me," returned Zizi, who could put such graphic impudence into the silly phrase, that it was impossible not to be amused at it. "Oh, do _you_ do that, too?" she added, as Eve bit her lip in annoyance. "So do I! It's such a hard habit to break, ain't it? But you oughtn't to, it scars your lips. Now, Penny Wise, if you'll go for a walk and a talk with your little otherwise, she'll tell you sumpum that you ought to know." "Look out, Ziz," Wise said to her, as they walked off by themselves, and followed the path by the lake, "you mustn't be too saucy to Miss Carnforth, or there'll be trouble." "Have to, honey. I've got to get her real mad at me, to find out her secret. She's no criminal, as I've told you, but she knows who is." "Do you?" "Not yet, but soon. Now, listen, while I expound a few. Friend Spook did appear to me last night." "Really?" "Sure as shootin'! I thought it over, and decided I'd better not admit it to the gaping crowd, or we'll never find out who does the stunt." "But, really, Zizi?" "Yes, really, Pen. It was about two o'clock,--not four. A tall shape, draped in white, breezed in and toddled around trying to attract my attention. I lay there and looked sort of glassy-eyed, as if I was awake, but kinda hypnotized, you know. Well, I kept up that attitude, and the thing came nearer and leaned over me, and sure enough it had a skull for a face; but, land, Penny, it was a _papier maché_ skull,--a mask, you know. 'Twould be fine in the movies, I must put Manager Reeves up to that dodge!" "Go on, Ziz." "Well, the thing,--the person, I mean, for it was a real, live person all right,--sashayed around a bit, then gave a hollow groan,--I guess that's what they call hollow,--and slid out. That's all." "You're a corker, Zizi! Why didn't you yell?" "I wanted to see the game. Then, when the pleasant-faced visitor left, I knew it was because I was supposed to have been sufficiently impressed. I thought it over, and I decided that at breakfast, I'd say I hadn't seen anything, and see who looked self-conscious. And, by jiminy! nobody did! If any one around that table was my visiting spook, he or she carried it off something marvellous! Not one of 'em flickered an eyelash when I said I'd had a sweet, sound sleep all night. I can't see how any one could be so self-controlled. Now, Penny, could it have been anybody who wasn't at the breakfast table?"