Our Next-Door Neighbors Part 18

Silvia's vague prophecy was fulfilled. When the event of the day, the arrival of the stage, occurred, a solitary pa.s.senger alighted, a slim, alert, city-cut young woman.

She looked us all over--not boldly, but with a business-like directness as if she were taking inventory of stock, or acting as judge at a compet.i.tion. When her blue eyes lighted on Rob, they darkened with pleasure.

"Oh, Mr. Rossiter!" she exclaimed, "this is better than I hoped for."

They shook hands with the air of being old acquaintances, and he introduced her to us as "Miss Frayne, from my home town."

She went into the office, registered, and sent her bag to her room.

Then she asked Rob if she might have a talk with him.

They walked away together down to the sh.o.r.e and she was talking to him quite excitedly. Rob suddenly stopped, threw back his head and laughed in the way that it is good to hear a man laugh.

"Miss Frayne must be a wit," observed Beth dryly.

I looked at her keenly. Something in her eyes as she gazed after the retreating couple told me that Silvia's surmise was right, and that Miss Frayne might be just the little punch needed to send Beth over the danger point.

"I rather incline to the belief that Ptolemy told the truth in the first place," she continued, and then looked disappointed because I did not contradict her.

I decided not to reveal, for the present anyway, what I knew of Miss Frayne, of whom I had often heard Rob speak.

"She can't be going to stay long," said Silvia hopefully. "She didn't bring a trunk."

"She doesn't need one," replied Beth. "She is probably one of those mannish girls who believe in a skirt and a few waists for a wardrobe."

When Rob and the newcomer returned, he seemed to be monopolizing the conversation in a very emphatic and earnest manner. As they came up the steps to the veranda, we heard her say:

"Very well, Mr. Rossiter, I will do just as you say. I have perfect confidence in your judgment."

They pa.s.sed on into the hotel and Beth jumped up and went down toward the lake.

"Did you ever hear Rob speak of this Miss Frayne?" asked Silvia.

"Often. She is engaged to his cousin, and is a reporter on a big newspaper."

"Why didn't you say so? Oh, Lucien," she continued before I could speak, "were you really shrewd enough to see which way the wind was blowing?"

"Sure. After you set my sails for me last night."

Just then Rob came out of the hotel.

"Say, Lucien, I want to see you a minute. Come on down the road."

"We've got some work ahead," he said when we were out of Silvia's hearing.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Miss Frayne is up--and doing. What do you suppose her paper sent her here for?"

"For a rest, or to write up the mosquitoes of H. H."

"H. H. is all right, only it happens they stand for Haunted House."

"Not really?"

"Yes, really. The rumors of the house and the ghost, greatly elaborated, of course, reached the Sunday editor of the paper Miss Frayne is on, and he sent her up here to revive the story of the murder, translate the ghost, and get snapshots of the house. She was quite keen to have me take her there at once, so she could commence her article, but I headed her off, so she wouldn't discover the summer boarders at the hotel annex. I a.s.sured her that daytime was not the time to gather material and the only way she could get a proper focus on the ghost and acquire the thrills necessary for an inspiration was to see the place first by night."

"If she would view Fair Melrose aright," I quoted, "she must visit it in the pale moonlight, but you were very clever to delay her visit long enough for us to get over there and warn the enemy. If she had gone down there and caught the Polydores unawares, she would have come back here and revealed our secret, and there would be the end of Silvia's vacation."

"To tell the truth, Lucien, I wasn't thinking so much of that as I was of Miss Frayne's interests. You see she has come a long ways for a story and if it collapsed from her ghostly expectations to a showdown of four healthy boys, the blow might mean a good deal to her in a business way. I think we had better let Ptolemy plant a ghost just once more for her. You know you made him take a reef in the flapping of ghostly garments. Can't we resurrect the specter and restore the wails just for tonight, and bring her over here at the witching hour?"

"Sure we will," I agreed heartily. "She shall have her ghost and all the trappings. It will give the Polydores the time of their lives."

"Let's go over there now and put Ptolemy next so he can get busy on his spirits." We went down to the sh.o.r.e and pulled off. Midway across the lake, Rob suddenly rested on his oars and asked:

"Where did Beth go?"

"Back to first principles," I replied. "She thinks, judging from your excited, earnest manner in addressing Miss Frayne and your rus.h.i.+ng frantically away for a walk with her before she had removed the travel dust, that Ptolemy was quite correct, after all, in declaring you to be a 'ladies' man.'"

"Didn't you explain to her who Miss Frayne was?" he asked.

"No," I replied. "I am on my vacation and I am not doing any explaining, professionally or otherwise."

He swung the boat around.

"Starboard!" I cried. "Don't you know a trump card when you see it?"

Again he rested on his oars and stared at me.

"What do you mean, Lucien? If you have a grain of hope for me, please let me in."

I repeated Silvia's theories.

"I am not going to win her that way," he said slowly, "not by playing a part."

"Well," I declared, "if you go back to the hotel now, you can't explain Miss Frayne to Beth, because she went for a walk with old Professor Treadtop."

He turned the boat again.

"Silvia won't come to the Haunted House, will she?" he asked.

"No, indeed. Nothing would induce her to."

"Then you bring Miss Frayne here tonight and I'll bring Beth. And I'll be sure that there are no double boats lying around loose. I'll have two at the dock, see?"

"I see your system," I replied, "but I am not sure how I can explain Miss Frayne to Silvia. Silvia is not in the least narrow-minded, but still to leave the hotel at midnight with a perfectly strange young woman--"

"You can tell her I want a clear field for Beth. She will see it is in a good cause."

The Polydores greeted us rapturously and roughly. When I had restored order, and they were once more right side up, I addressed the chief of the bandits.