But Jane continued soberly, with a sudden queer hush to her voice,
"It was standing in the air outside my window. I think it had been
looking in. When I sat up--I think I had cried out, though none of
you heard me evidently--when I sat up, it moved away; walked away.
When I got to the window, there was nothing to see." She smiled
again. "I decided it was all part of my dream. This morning--well, I
was afraid to tell you because I knew you'd laugh at me. So many
girls down in Somerset have been imagining things like that."
* * * * *
To me, this was certainly a new light on the matter. I think that
both Don and I, and certainly the police, had vaguely been of the
opinion that some very human trickster was at the bottom of all
this. Someone, criminal or otherwise, against whom our shotgun would
be efficacious. But here was level-headed Jane telling us of a man
standing in mid-air peering into her second-floor bedroom, and then
walking away. No trickster could accomplish that.
"Ain't we goin'?" Willie demanded. "I seen it, but it'll be gone."
"Right enough," Don exclaimed grimly. "Come on, Willie."
He disregarded Jane as he walked to the door, but she clung to him.
"I'm coming," she said obstinately, and snatched a white lace scarf
from the hall rack and flung it over her head like a mantilla. "Don,
may I come?" she added coaxingly.
He gazed at me dubiously. "Why, I suppose so," he said finally. Then
he grinned. "Certainly no harm is going to come to us from a ghost.
Might frighten us to death, but that's about all a ghost can do,
isn't it?"
We left the house. The only other member of the Dorrance household
was Jane's father--the Hon. Arthur Dorrance, M.P. He had been in
Hamilton all day, and had not yet returned. It was about nine
o'clock of an evening in mid-May. The huge moon rode high in a
fleecy sky, illumining the island with a light so bright one could
almost read by it.
"We'll walk," said Don. "No use riding, Willie."
"No. It's shorter over the hill. It ain't far."
* * * * *
We left our bicycles standing against the front veranda, and, with
Willie and Don leading us, we plunged off along the little dirt road
of the Dorrance estate. The poinsettia blooms were thick on both
sides of us. A lily field, which a month before had been solid white
with blossoms, still added its redolence to the perfumed night air.
Through the branches of the squat cedar trees, in almost every
direction there was water visible--deep purple this night, with a
rippled sheen of silver upon it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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