CHAPTER XI--THE MAJOR ENCOUNTERS THE GHOST
Ascending once more to the library the weary watchers resumed theirformer attitudes of waiting, as patiently as they might, for the comingof the day. Uncle John looked at his watch and found it was only alittle after two o'clock. The minutes seemed hours to-night.
Suddenly a tremendous shriek rent the night, a shriek so wild andblood-curdling in its intensity that they sprang up and clung to eachother in horror. While they stood motionless and terror-stricken therecame a thump!--thump!--as of some heavy object tumbling down the threeor four steps leading from the hall to the corridor of the old SouthWing, and then the door burst open and Major Doyle--clothed inred-and-white striped pajamas--fairly fell into the library, rolledtwice over and came to a stop in a sitting position, from whence he letout another yell that would have shamed a Cherokee Indian and which sostartled big Runyon that he held a tenor note at high C for fully aminute--much like the whistle of a peanut roaster--the which wasintended for an expression of unqualified terror.
Patsy was the first to recover and kneel beside the poor major, whoseeyes were literally bulging from their sockets.
"Oh, Dad--dear Dad!--what is it?" she cried.
The major shuddered and clapped his hands to his eyes. Then he rockedback and forth, moaning dismally, while Patsy clung to his neck, sobbingand nearly distracted.
"Speak, Major!" commanded Arthur.
"A--a ghost!" was the wailing reply.
"A ghost!" echoed the amazed spectators.
"Did you _see_ it?" questioned Uncle John in a trembling voice, as hebent over his brother-in-law.
"See it?" shouted the major, removing his hands to glare angrily at Mr.Merrick. "How could I see anything in the dark? The room was black aspitch."
"But you said a ghost."
"Of course I said a ghost," retorted the major, querulously, as herubbed his bare ankle with one hand to soothe a bump. "You don't have to_see_ a ghost to know it's there, do you? And this ghost--Oh, Patsy,darling, I can't say it!--it's too horrible."
Again a fit of shuddering seized him and he covered his eyes anew androcked his body back and forth while he maintained his seat upon thefloor. His legs were spread wide apart and he wiggled his big toesconvulsively.
Beth asked with bated breath:
"Did you _hear_ the ghost, then, Major?"
"Um! I heard it," he moaned. "And it's the end of all--the destroyer ofour hopes--the harbinger of despair!"
"Look here, Major," said Uncle John desperately, "be a man, and tell uswhat you mean."
"It--it was baby--baby Jane!"
Arthur sobbed and dropped his head upon the table. Rudolph groaned.Runyon swore softly, but with an accent that did not seem very wicked.Uncle John stared hard at the major.
"You're an ass," he said. "You've had a nightmare."
The major could not bear such an aspersion, even under the tryingcircumstances. He scrambled to his feet, this time trembling withindignant anger, and roared:
"I tell you I heard baby--baby Jane--and she was crying! Don't I know?Don't I know our baby's voice?"
Arthur leaped to his feet, a resolute expression upon his face.Instantly they all turned and followed him from the room. Into the hall,up the steps and through the corridor of the South Wing they passed, andjust inside the major's room Rudolph struck a match and lighted a lampthat stood upon the table.
The place was in wild disorder, for when the major leaped from the bedhe had dragged the coverings with him and they lay scattered upon thefloor. The chair in which he had placed his clothing had been overturnedand there was no question that his flight had been a precipitous rout.The casement of the window, set far back in the thick adobe wall, waswide open and the night breeze that came through it made the flame ofthe lamp flicker weirdly.
Beth proved her courage by bolding crossing the room and closing thewindow, while the others stood huddled just inside the door. Back ofthem all was the white face of Major Doyle, a brave soldier who hadfaced the enemy unflinchingly in many a hard fought battle, but averitable poltroon in an imaginary ghostly presence.
Scarcely daring to breathe, they stood in tense attitudes listening fora repetition of the baby's cry. Only an awesome, sustained silencerewarded them.
The major's open watch upon the table ticked out theminutes--five--ten--fifteen. Then the doctor crept back to the libraryand quietly resumed his book. Presently Runyon joined him.
"Between you and me, Doc," said the big fellow, "I don't take much stockin ghosts."
"Nor I," returned Dr. Knox. "Major Doyle is overwrought. His imaginationhas played him a trick."
Rudolph Hahn entered and lighted a fresh cigar.
"Curious thing, wasn't it?" he said.
"No; mere hallucination," declared the doctor.
"I don't know about that," answered the boy. "Seems to me a ghost woulddo about as a person in life did. The child cried--poor little babyJane!--and the ghostly wail was heard in the one room in this house thatis haunted--the blue room. Perhaps there's something about theatmosphere of that room that enables those who have passed over to makethemselves heard by us who are still in the flesh."
He was so earnest that the doctor glanced at him thoughtfully over thetop of his book.
"It's the dead of night, and you're agitated and unreasonable, Hahn. Inthe morning you'll be ashamed of your credulity."
Dolph sat down without reply. His wife came in and sat beside him,taking his hand in hers. In another quarter of an hour back came UncleJohn, shivering with the chill of the corridor, and stood warminghimself before the grate fire.
"If the major heard the baby," he said reflectively, "it must be proofthat--that something--has happened to the little dear, and--and we mustface the worst."
"Well, it was baby I heard," asserted the major, who, having hastilydonned his clothes, now made his reappearance in the library. "I waslying in a sort of dose when the cry first reached my ears. Then I satup and listened, and heard it again distinctly, as if little Jane wereonly two feet away. Then--then--"
"Then you tested your lungs and made your escape," added the doctordrily.
"I admit it, sir!" said Major Doyle, haughtily. "Had it been anyone elsewho encountered the experience--even a pill peddler--he would havefainted."
In the blue room Patsy and Beth alone remained with Arthur Weldon. Not asound broke the stillness. When an hour had passed, Patsy said:
"Won't you go away, Arthur? Beth and I will watch."
He shook his head.
"You can do no good by staying in this awful place," pleaded the girl,speaking in a whisper.
"If she--if baby--should be heard again, I--I'd like to be here," hesaid pathetically.
Patsy knew he was suffering and the fact aroused her to action.
"Father isn't a coward," she remarked, "and either he heard the cry, orhe dreamed it. In the latter case it amounts to nothing; but if Janereally cried out, that fact ought to give us an important clue."
He started at this suggestion, which the girl had uttered withoutthought, merely to reassure him. Yet now she started herself, struck bythe peculiar significance of her random words.
"In what way, Patsy?" asked Beth, calmly.
That was the spur she needed. She glanced around the room a moment andthen asked:
"Who built this wing, Arthur?"
"Cristoval, I suppose. I've heard it was the original dwelling," hereplied. "The rest of the house was built at a much later date. Perhapstwo generations labored in constructing the place. I do not know; but itis not important."
"Oh, yes it is!" cried Patsy with increasing ardor. "The rest of thehouse is like many other houses, but--these walls are six or eight feetin thickness."
"Adobe," said Arthur carelessly. "They built strongly in the missiondays."
"Yet these can't be solid blocks," persisted the girl, rising to walknervously back and forth before the walls. "There must be a space leftinside. And see! the major's bed stands c
lose to the outer wall, whichis the thickest of all."
He stared at her in amazement and then, realizing the meaning of herwords, sprang to his feet. Beth was equally amazed and looked at hercousin in wonder.
"Oh, Patsy!" she exclaimed, "the baby hasn't been lost at all."
"Of course not," declared Patsy, her great eyes brilliant withinspiration. "_She's imprisoned!_"
Aunt Jane's Nieces on the Ranch Page 11
