The Corner House Girls Part 16

n.o.body was looking out of the windows on the watch for her, that she could see. The parlors were on this side of the main building, and the girls did not use them. Above, on the second floor, were the sleeping room and library in which Uncle Peter had spent the last years of his life.

Above those blind windows was another row of windows on the third floor, with the shades pulled down tightly. And then, above those, in the peak of the roof, were several small garret windows.

"That's where that girl said the ghost came and looked out," Ruth said aloud, stopping suddenly.

And just at that identical moment the ghost _did_ look out!

Ruth saw it. Only for a moment, but just as plain as plain could be! A white, fluttering figure-a sort of faceless figure with what seemed to be long garments fluttering about it.

n.o.body ever has to see a ghost to know just what one looks like.

People who see ghosts recognize their appearance by intuition. This was the garret ghost of the old Corner House, and Ruth was the first of the Kenway girls to see it.

She had made fun of Agnes' belief in things supernatural, but she could not control the shaking of her own limbs now. It was visible up there at the garret window for only half a minute; yet Ruth knew it was no hallucination.

It disappeared with a jump. She did not wait to see if it came back again, but scurried across the street and in at the side gate, and so to the back porch, with scarcely a breath left in her body.

Ruth was just as scared as she could be.

CHAPTER XI

IN THE GARRET

It would never do to burst into the house and scare the younger girls.

This thought halted Ruth Kenway, with her hand upon the k.n.o.b of the outer door.

She waited, getting her breath back slowly, and recovering from the shock that had set every nerve in her body trembling. Of course she did not believe in ghosts! Then, why should she have been so frightened by the fluttering figure seen-for only half a minute, or so-in the garret window of the old Corner House?

Like the old lady in the fable, she did not believe in ghosts, but she was very much afraid of them!

"It's quite ridiculous, I know," Ruth told herself, "for a great big thing like me to shake and s.h.i.+ver over what I positively _know_ is merely imagination. That was an old skirt-or a bag-or a cloak-or _something_, waving there at that window.

"Er-er, that's just it!" breathed Ruth. "It was _something_. And until I find out just what it is, I shall not be satisfied. Now, I'm going to be brave, and walk in there to the girls and Mrs. McCall, and say nothing. But we'll start cleaning that garret this very afternoon," she concluded, nodding a determined head.

So she ran into the house to find her three sisters in the dining-room, with such a peculiar air upon them that Ruth could not fail to be shocked. "What under the canopy, as Mrs. McCall says, is the matter with you all!" she demanded.

"Well! I am glad you have come home, Ruth," Agnes began, impulsively.

"The most mysterious things happen around this house--"

"Hus.h.!.+" commanded Ruth. "What is it now? You come up stairs to our room and tell me while I change my clothes. You little ones stay down here till sister comes back."

Agnes had stopped at her warning, and meekly followed Ruth up stairs.

In their room the older girl turned on her and demanded:

"What did you see, Aggie?"

"I didn't-it was Tess saw him," replied Agnes, quickly.

"_Him?_" gasped Ruth.

"Yes. Of course, it's foolish. But so many strange things happen in this old house. First, you know, what Eva Larry told me about the ghost--"

"s.h.!.+ you haven't seen it?"

"The ghost!" squealed Agnes. "I should hope not. If I had--"

She signified by her look and manner that such an apparition would have quite overcome her.

"It was Tess," she said.

"She hasn't been to the garret?"

"Of course not! You believe in that old ghost, after all, Ruth."

"What nonsense!"

"Well, if it wasn't a ghost Tess saw, it was something like it. The child is convinced. And coming on top of those vanis.h.i.+ng kittens--"

"For mercy's sake, Aggie Kenway!" screamed Ruth, grabbing her by the shoulders and giving Agnes a little shake. "_Do_ be more lucid."

"Why-ee! I guess I haven't told you much," laughed Agnes. "It was Tess who looked out of the kitchen window a little while ago and saw Tommy Rooney going by the house-on Willow Street."

"Tommy Rooney?"

"Yes. Tess declares it was. And she's not imaginative like Dot, you know."

"Not Tommy Rooney, from Bloomingsburg?"

"There isn't any other Tommy Rooney that we know," said Agnes, quite calm now. "And if _that_ doesn't make a string of uncanny happenings, I don't know what _would_. First the ghost in the garret--"

"But-but you haven't seen that?" interrupted Ruth, faintly.

"No, thank goodness! But it's _there_. And then the vanis.h.i.+ng kittens--"

"Has Spotty gone?"

"No. But Sandy-face has, and has been gone ever since you went out, Ruth. I don't think much of that mother cat. She doesn't stay at home with her family hardly at all.

"Then this boy who looks like Tommy Rooney," concluded Agnes. "For of course it can't really _be_ Tommy any more than it can be his spirit."

"I'm glad to see you have some sense, Ag," said Ruth, with a sigh.

"Now let's go down to the other girls, or they will think we're hiding something from them."

Ruth carried down stairs in her hand the envelope Mr. Howbridge had given to her. The sisters gathered in the dining-room, and Agnes picked up Spotty to comfort him while his mother was absent. "Poor 'ittle s'ing!" she cooed over the funny little kitten. "He don't know wedder him's got any mudder, or not."

"It seems to me," said Dot, gravely, "that Sandy-face must be hunting for her lost children. She wouldn't really neglect this poor little Spotty for any other reason-would she?"