CHAPTER XIX
MYSTIFIED
"What can I do for you? What seems to be the trouble?" inquired the manwhom Betty and the others had hailed as they rushed to the door of thestrange house, and peered out into the darkness.
"We're in a haunted mansion, and the ghost has taken Mollie away!" criedGrace, hysterically. "Please make him give her up. Oh, please do!"
But Betty paid no heed to her chum. Instead she exclaimed:
"Mr. Blackford! It's Mr. Blackford--the man who lost the five hundreddollar bill!"
"What!" cried Amy.
"I certainly am that same Mr. Blackford," answered the young man, "andif these aren't the Outdoor Girls, I miss my guess!"
"That's who we are--all but one of us," spoke Betty. "Oh, it's true.Some one has Mollie a prisoner here! We tried to open the door, butit's locked. Will you come and help us try to batter it down?"
"I certainly will. But what are you doing here? Are you camping?"
"Camping in a haunted house? I guess not!" exclaimed Grace. "The idea!Oh, but it's good to have--a man!"
"Thank you!" laughed Mr. Blackford, who, it will be remembered, was sofortunate as to recover his lost money through the efforts of ourheroines, as told in the first volume of this series.
"You--you aren't afraid; are you?" asked Amy.
"Afraid of what?"
"The ghost!"
"Ghost!" and he laughed heartily.
"Well, there really have been some strange goings-on here," said Betty,standing in the doorway with her chums. She looked out at the weather.It was not raining much now, and the thunder and lightning had aboutceased.
"Suppose you explain," proposed Mr. Blackford. "I happened to be in thispart of the country looking after some of my business interests. I wasdelayed longer at one place than I expected to be, and got caught in thestorm. When I came past this house I thought I would see if I could notbe accommodated over night, for my horse was tired and needed stabling.Instead I----"
"You are appealed to to help lay a ghost and find a missing girl," brokein Betty. "But, oh, the last is most important! Please come and getMollie out!"
"Yes, I guess that is the most important. You can tell me about itlater. But I surely was astonished to meet you girls again--glad of it,though. Now for the prisoner. Lead the way, Miss Nelson."
Flashing her lantern, the other girls keeping at her side, and CousinJane bringing up in the rear, Betty advanced to the locked door. Mr.Blackford tried the knob, and then called:
"Stand back, whoever is in there. I'm going to burst this door open!"
Grace cried out.
"Quiet!" commanded Betty. "It is the only way."
Mr. Blackford placed his shoulder down near the lock. There was acracking and splintering of wood, and the door suddenly flew open with acrash.
"Mollie! Mollie!" cried Betty, as she flashed the rays of her lampinside.
But the room was empty! Mystified, the girls, their chaperone and Mr.Blackford, stared about it. No Mollie was there!
"But I'm sure she was thrust into this room by that figure in white,"declared Betty. "We all saw it."
"Are you sure?" asked Mr. Blackford, slowly.
"Positive. She was put in this room for some unknown purpose, and shecan't have gotten out, for we have been in the hall all the while, andthe door was locked."
"There is the window," said Mr. Blackford, as he took the lantern fromBetty. Walking over to the casement he uttered an exclamation, as he sawthe bent bars.
"This explains it!" he cried. "She has escaped!"
"Or else the--the ghost--came in here and took her away," faltered Amy.
"Well, we'll have a look about outside," suggested the young man. "Theremay be marks that will aid us, especially as the ground is soft now."
They all went outside. The rain was but a mere drizzle now. The fury ofthe storm had passed, and the night was becoming calm. The old house,and the mansion beyond it, which could now be seen dimly back of afringe of trees, was silent and seemingly deserted, even by the ghost.There were no more queer blue flames, no more hollow groans and clankingnoises.
"I didn't think to look and see if the other auto lamp was in that roomwhere poor Mollie was," said Grace. "Did you?"
"Yes," spoke Betty. "I looked. It was gone."
"We had better not all go under that window at once," suggested Mr.Blackford, as they neared the casement with the bent bars. "Let me goalone, with the light, and I'll see if I can make out any footprints."
Carefully he examined, and then he gave a joyful exclamation.
"It's all right!" he cried. "There are the marks of but one person'sshoes, and they are your friend's, I'm sure--for they are small. Itplainly shows where she let herself down out of the window."
"Oh, how glad I am!" cried Betty. "But where is she now? Can you tellwhich way she went?"
"Only for a short distance," answered Mr. Blackford, as he flashed therays of the lamp to and fro. "Then comes grass, and I am notsufficiently good on the trail to track a person over grass. However,we are sure of one thing--that she got out of the room herself, and ranoff. She was not carried away."
"That is everything," murmured Grace. "Oh, what a relief!"
"But where can she be now?" asked Betty, in bewilderment. "Why did shenot come back to us?"
"Probably she thought you, too, had left the place," suggested Mr.Blackford. "We must make further search. But suppose you tell me allthat happened. I am interested in this--ghost."
The girls told all that had occurred--told it in gasps--byexclamations--by "fits and starts," as Betty expressed it. At first Mr.Blackford was amused--then he was more interested--finally he wasimpressed.
"I don't like this," he said, when he had been informed of the failureof Mr. Lagg to dispose of the property because of the "ghostly"manifestations. "It looks to me as though some trick was beingperpetrated here. Possibly something more than a trick. There may becrimes contemplated. The authorities should be notified.
"Of course I don't believe in ghosts--neither do you--and, from what yousay, it must have been a very human one who caught Miss Billette. Butshe is our most important consideration now. We must find her! We mustsearch outside, for clearly she is not in the house, though it will dono harm to take another look."
"Go back there!" cried Grace, aghast.
"Why not?" asked Betty, coolly. "You forget we have a man with us now."
"Certainly we'll go back there and look," spoke Mrs. Mackson, inbusiness-like tones. "Though I don't believe Mollie would go back,unless it was to look for us. And how can she have gone in without usseeing her?"
"There may be many entrances to an old, rambling place like this," saidMr. Blackford. "It will do no harm to look about in it again, and thenwe can search up and down the road."
Rather gingerly the girls entered the old house again. The light wasflashed in all the rooms downstairs, but the girls balked at going tothe upper floors, though Mr. Blackford proposed it.
"Mollie would not go up there," said Betty, positively.
"Perhaps not," admitted Mr. Blackford.
"I think we ought to go back to where we left the auto," said Mrs.Mackson. "That would be the most likely place for Mollie to go."
"I agree with you!" exclaimed the young man, quickly. "We'll go to thestalled auto."
As they were leaving the place there burst upon them a shrill, weirdcry, like that of some animal, and it was followed by that deep groanthat vibrated through the vacant rooms.
"The ghost! The ghost!" cried Grace, clutching Mr. Blackford's arm.
The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car; Or, The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley Page 19
