Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance - Janet D. Wheeler
The girls followed, and ran back to the wagon that contained their
luggage and some provisions. The boy who had been driving this wagon was
already unloading it, and the old fellow who had told them such gloomy
tales came hobbling back to lend a hand.
Billie fished in her pocketbook for the key to the house which was
supposed to be haunted, and, finding it, held it up with a hand that was
not quite steady.
"Come on," she said. "We've got to do it, I suppose."
"Wh-who's going first?" asked Violet, regarding the gloomy bulk of the
rambling old house, now half hidden in the dusk, with troubled eyes.
"I am, of course," said Billie stoutly, adding with a gay little laugh:
"I guess it's my right, isn't it? Why, this is my house--the first I've
ever owned!"
"And welcome you be to it," murmured the old man, to be promptly cowed
by a withering look from Mrs. Gilligan.
"Come on," cried Billie again. "I'll go first, but you'll have to promise
to follow me in."
"Why, of course we'll follow you in," said Violet, loyal through all
her fear. "You don't suppose we'd let you go into that awful place
alone, do you?"
"Well, I like that!" cried Billie, leading the way up the stone-paved
walk. "Calling my beautiful old homestead an awful place."
"Yes, I'm surprised at you, Vi," added Laura, as she followed close at
Billie's heels. "Don't you know you should have some tact? Even if it is
awful, you shouldn't talk about it--"
Billie stopped and stared indignantly.
"If you say another word," she threatened, "I'll make you go first."
The threat had the desired effect, and both Violet and Laura protested
that it was the most beautiful place on the face of the earth, or words
to that effect.
"You'd better be giving the key to me," said Mrs. Gilligan. "We
can't stand out here talkin' all night. Besides, the door probably
has an old-fashioned lock on it, and they ain't a lock anywhere that
can fool me."
Billie meekly handed over the key, and Mrs. Gilligan marched majestically
before them up to the front door. She bent down to examine the lock,
then fitted the key into it.
With a groaning and squeaking of rusty hinges, the heavy door swung
inward, and the girls found themselves staring into a black well of
hallway that seemed to have no windows anywhere.
"Gracious! did anybody think to bring matches?" asked Laura in an
awed whisper.
"Sure and I did," Mrs. Gilligan's matter-of-fact voice reassured her.
"Five whole boxes I brought. But I've got something even better than that
for the present occasion."
She drew from the pocket of her coat a small electric torch and flashed
it into the interior of the house. The bright light showed them glimpses
of queer chairs standing about in odd corners and finally lighted up a
broad stairway.
"It's the hall," announced Mrs. Gilligan. "Now forward march, and we'll
soon find out where the lights are."
"There must be a push button somewhere," suggested Violet, and even in
their present nervous state the other girls laughed at her.
"A push button!" cried Laura. "Do you expect to find electric lights out
in this wilderness?"
"We're lucky if we find a chandelier somewhere," added Billie. "I hope we
don't have to burn candles or lamps. They aren't just exactly what you
might call cheerful."
"And something cheerful is what we need," added Laura ruefully.
"Well, if you're after acetylene gas I guess you'll be disappointed,"
said Mrs. Gilligan as her torch lighted up a wonderful old-fashioned
richly carved candelabrum containing a dozen candles, half burned and
looking rather wilted. "It's candles we'll be burning while we're here."
The girls groaned.
"But they give such a ghostly, flickering light," protested Violet, as if
it were in some way Mrs. Gilligan's fault. "I know I'll never be able to
stand it," and she glanced nervously over her shoulder.
"Well, could you stand the dark any better?" asked Mrs. Gilligan
practically, as she began to light the candles one after another. "There
will probably be other candelabra in the house, and if you get enough of
them burning there's nothing in this world that is prettier. For myself I
just love candle light."
"Yes, when you're in civilization," put in Laura. "But not out here."
"I've found another one!" cried Billie, who had been prospecting on her
own account. "And here's another! Why we'll have a big illumination
before we're through."
"That's the way to talk," said Mrs. Gilligan approvingly, as she crossed
over to Billie's side of the large hall and began to light the other
candles. "If we just make the best of everything and make up our minds
to have a good time, we'll have a good time. And if we don't we might
just as well take the driver's advice and go home again."
"Go home? Well I should just say not!" cried Laura. "The very idea of
such a thing! The boys would tease the life out of us. We'd never hear
the end of it."
"Well then, we're going to have a good time," Mrs. Gilligan decided,
adding, as she turned toward the door: "Where have those men gone? I told
them to bring in the things."
She went out to see about it with the girls at her heels and found the
old man and the boy in a heated argument over something.
"Well, if you want to go into that there haunted house, it's your
concern," the old man was saying in a querulous voice. "As for me,
I wouldn't step a foot inside of it, no sir, not if you was to give
me a farm!"
CHAPTER XV
A NOISE IN THE DARK
"Maybe you wouldn't do it for a farm," said Mrs. Gilligan, striding
resolutely toward the man and the boy, while the two drew apart and
stared at her in surprise, "but you're goin' to do it for me. If you
think I'm going to lug those trunks and provisions and things into the
house all by myself, you never was so much mistaken in your life. What do
you suppose I'm paying you my good money for? Now, get a move on and
hurry those things inside, or I'll have to take a hand in the matter
myself. Trunks first!"
And too much surprised by this deluge of words to refuse, the old
man turned to the trunks, and, assisted by the boy, carried them
into the hall.
"This is far enough," he said, but Mrs. Maria Gilligan, accustomed to
having her own way, would have none of it.
"Upstairs," she ordered. "You don't suppose we are going to sleep on
the ground floor, do you? And we're not going to carry them
ourselves, either."
And once more the old man obeyed her, while the boy, wicked youngster,
laughed at him behind his back.
"If you meet a ghost coming downstairs, Gramper," he taunted, "just tell
him to be careful and not stumble over you. There now, be careful, will
you? You almost dropped the thing on my foot."
The girls watched the two go upstairs with Mrs. Gilligan bringing up the
rear to make sure they did not stop half way, and then turned to each
other with a queer expression, half of amusement, half of uneasiness, on
their faces.
"Well, we always wanted an adventure," said Laura, as they turned back to
the open door, feeling an instinctive need of getting out of the house,
"and now we're having one."
"A regular one," agreed Billie, adding decidedly: "And I'm going to enjoy
myself. Why, Laura," with a touch of excitement, "did you notice those
funny old chairs and things? They're really very pretty, and they are
surely very old. I shouldn't wonder--"
"Oh, Billie," cried Violet rapturously, "do you suppose you could get
real money for them? If you could," she added with the air of a
martyr that made the girls laugh, "it would be worth even braving the
ghosts for."
"You don't really believe that silly thing, do you?" asked Billie,
turning back into the hall. "It's all in a foolish old man's
imagination."
"All right. And now you can bring in the provisions," they heard Mrs.
Gilligan directing. "I don't know where the kitchen is, but I suppose
there is one somewhere. I'll find it while you start to bring the
things in."
"We'll each take a candle," cried Billie, her eyes shining in the
flickering candle light, "and look for the kitchen. Come on, girls,
follow the leader."
So, with Mrs. Gilligan at the head, they marched through what seemed to
be a library, seen dimly by the light thrown by their four candles, into
a room whose table and chairs showed it to be the dining-room.
"The kitchen must be just beyond, then," said Laura, beginning to enjoy
herself immensely. "There's a door, Mrs. Gilligan. Look out--don't bump
your head."
But Mrs. Gilligan had no intention of bumping her head. She swung open
the door in question, and they found themselves in a butler's pantry that
seemed almost as large as Billie's bedroom at home.
"Goodness! the Powerson that first built the house must have expected
to entertain lots of company," exclaimed Violet, looking with wonder
at the rows of curtained cupboards. "I wonder if there are dishes in
all of them?"
"We haven't time to look now," said Mrs. Gilligan, stopping her as she
was about to peep inside a closet. "We can do all that to-morrow when we
have daylight. Ah, here's the kitchen," she added, as she stepped into a
huge room--the regular type of a very old kitchen that could be used as
sitting-room as well.
"Gracious, it's a house!" cried Billie, moving her candle about in an
effort to light up the corners of the place. "There isn't any end to it."
"I'm glad I don't have to keep it clean as a steady job," said Mrs.
Gilligan grimly. "Now, girls, let's go back and find our two friends with
the provisions. I don't know how you feel about it, but as for me, a
little something to eat wouldn't go at all bad."
"We're just starved," they cried, and began a concerted rush back to the
front of the house where their "friends with the provisions" were.
However, when they arrived there, they found the provisions spread upon
the driveway but the man and boy had disappeared.
"Humph!" grunted Mrs. Gilligan, her mouth straightening to a grim line,
"I had more than a notion that that old fellow would clear out, and of
course the young one wouldn't stay alone. I shouldn't have trusted them
out of my sight!"
She began picking up bags and packages, and the girls followed suit.
Before very long they had gathered up all the provisions and were
staggering back, arms laden, toward the house.
They found their way back to the kitchen again and dropped the things
thankfully on the table.
"Now for something to eat!" cried Laura. "What shall we have, Mrs.
Gilligan? I suppose it will have to be a cold supper," she added,
looking about for some means of cooking and discovering only an immense
coal stove.
"I suppose it would take forever to make a fire in that," said Billie,
indicating the stove and thinking longingly of hot steak and potatoes,
"even if they have any coal."
"Here's plenty of coal," said Mrs. Gilligan, who had been finding things
out in her own practical and efficient way, "and here is plenty of wood
and old newspapers to start it going. Indeed and we're not going to have
any cold supper," she added, while in imagination the girls already were
sniffing the aroma of broiling steak. "Not after that long ride an'
cheerful conversation!"
With the prospect of supper, and a hot supper, so close at hand, the
girls could laugh at the gloomy stories of the old driver.
"We'll help," cried Laura. "Come on, girls, let's see if we can find
enough dishes to set the table."
So they went gayly to work, setting the table and peeling potatoes, which
Mrs. Gilligan proceeded to fry, and enjoyed themselves immensely.
"Shall we eat in the kitchen?" asked Violet, pausing with a pile of
plates in her hand. "Or shall we be very proper and eat in the
dining-room?"
"Oh, the kitchen's a lot more cheerful," said Billie, shivering a little
in spite of herself as she thought of the dark, rather dreary room just
the other side of the door.
"Besides, what we want we want in a hurry," said Laura, taking the dishes
from Violet and setting them decidedly on the table. "To-morrow will be
time enough to put on airs. Just now all I want to do is to eat!"
While they were waiting for the supper to cook and after they had done as
much as they could toward its preparation, the girls looked about the
kitchen and the gloomy dining room a bit. The latter room was dark and
cheerless, and they wondered that any one should have selected it for a
dining room. The woodwork was all of black walnut, and there was much of
it, the window frames and door frames being heavy and ornate and the room
being wainscoted with the same dark wood. The room was large, too, and
there were windows at one end only, and that toward the north.
"Oh, come! let us get out of here," finally cried Laura, grabbing each of
the other girls by an arm and running with them out into the more
cheerful kitchen.
"Oh, that steak!" cried Billie longingly, as she drifted over to the
stove. "Isn't it nearly done, Mrs. Gilligan? This is cruelty to animals."
Mrs. Gilligan chuckled and turned the steak on the other side.
"Almost ready now," she said, adding another piece of butter to the
golden browned potatoes. "Have you girls cut the cake? It's in one of the
packages I brought in--on the end of the table. Don't cut it all now,"
she warned, as there was a joyful rush for the cake. "We want some of it
left for to-morrow."
The girls did not cut it all--quite. But they did cut a good two-thirds
of it--and ate it all, too!
It was a strange sort of meal--the candle-lit kitchen, the hastily set
table, the faces of the girls and Mrs. Gilligan brought out in bold
relief by the flickering candle light.
The meal was delicious, and the girls ate ravenously, but from time to
time one of them would shift uneasily in her seat and look nervously over
her shoulder into the dark corners of the room.
Instead of the dinner making them more courageous, it seemed to be having
the opposite effect, for when they had finished their cake and the
steaming hot coffee, they found themselves talking in whispers as if they
were afraid of the sound of their own voices.
Billie, suddenly realizing this, spoke aloud, and Laura and Violet jumped
nervously.
"What's the matter with us?" Billie asked, her voice sounding strangely
loud and unnatural even to herself in the hushed stillness all about.
"We never used to be so awfully quiet. And I'm sure we don't have to
whisper about it."
"I--I suppose," shivered Violet, "that it's because everything else is
so quiet. It sort of has its effect on us. I wish," she added, with a
sudden little outburst unusual in Violet, "that that horrid old driver
hadn't told us that horrid story. I catch myself listening for noises
all the time."
"But that's foolish," said Mrs. Gilligan, in that every-day,
matter-of-fact tone that never failed to give the girls courage. "There
isn't one of us who believes anything he said, so why let it worry us?
Come on," she said, rising and beginning to gather together the dishes,
"we'll get these things put away in a hurry, and then go up to bed. I
think a good night's rest is what you need."
"Oh, but I don't want to go up in the spooky upstairs part," whispered
Violet to Billie, as she scraped some odds and ends off on a plate.
"Oh, why didn't we travel by night, so that we could have reached here
in the morning?"
"Well, we didn't, so there's no use worrying about it," said Billie
sharply, for the situation was beginning to get on her own nerves. She
had caught herself dreading the moment when they must leave the more or
less cheerful kitchen for the upper floor of the house.
And then the minute came.
"Take a couple of candles apiece and follow me," Mrs. Gilligan said. "I
had your grips all put in the upper hall. Now then, let's find out what
kind of beds we have to sleep in--if any!"
So, with little creepy chills chasing themselves up and down their
spines, the girls obeyed, keeping close together and looking fearfully
into the dark shadows.
They had just started up the stairs when Violet cried out, her voice
sounding sharp in the stillness:
"What's that?"
Right over their heads there came a creepy, slithery sound, followed by a
loud thump.
The girls groaned and clutched each other.
"The ghost!" said Violet, in a terrified whisper.
CHAPTER XVI
SHADOWS AND MYSTERY
"Well, if it's a ghost," announced Mrs. Maria Gilligan in a loud
voice, "I never did hear one that sounded so much like a suitcase
sliding off a trunk."
The girls giggled and followed Mrs. Gilligan as she strode up the stairs.
The flickering candles made grotesque shadows on the walls; the house,
after that noise, was as still as a tomb, and despite the comforting
presence of their valiant chaperone, the girls kept close together for
protection.
"D-do you suppose it was only a s-suitcase?" stammered Violet.
"Don't whisper in my ear--you tickle," hissed Billie, and again they
laughed hysterically.
"Look out, now, go slow," Mrs. Gilligan was cautioning them. "We don't
want to stumble over this luggage and get a broken leg or two. Ouch!" she
exclaimed, as she stubbed her toe against something hard. "I guess I'm
the first casualty!"
She bent down to find what she had stumbled against, while the girls
glanced nervously into the corners of the hall which the flickering
candle light only seemed to make more dark.
"Goodness, if we feel like this now, I don't see how we're ever going to
spend the night here," cried Laura, shivering a little. "I don't believe
I'll be able to sleep a wink."
"Oh, yes, you will," said Billie, trying hard to make her voice sound
natural and unconcerned. "We're all so tired we couldn't help sleeping
anywhere."
"Just as I thought," said Mrs. Gilligan, referring to the object she had
stubbed her toe against. "Your suitcase, Billie, and the creepy noise we
heard was when it slid off the trunk. Come on now," she added, holding
her candle high over her head again, "let's see what we can find in the
way of bedrooms."
"Let's go in the first door we reach," suggested Billie, and at the
moment Mrs. Gilligan's candle showed a wide, high doorway leading into a
black cavern of a room.
"Well, here's the first one," she said. "If we have luck and find some
bedding--"
She was already feeling her way cautiously between several chairs and
tables, with the girls following close behind.
"There's the bed!" cried Laura. "Oh, isn't it funny? A regular old
four-poster."
"With a canopy over it!" marveled Violet.
"And it's made up with clean things," added Billie, making another
discovery. "Goodness, it makes you feel like the 'Little Princess' when
she found all the good things in her room."
"Sure enough, it has been made fresh," said Mrs. Gilligan, as she
wonderingly turned down a somewhat dusty spread and disclosed snowy
sheets beneath.
"Somebody's been keeping house anyway," said Laura.
"Here's room for two of you girls," said Mrs. Gilligan.
"Oh, we all three want to sleep together," cried Violet, fearful that she
might be picked to sleep alone. "There's safety in numbers."
"All right, but I have to sleep somewhere," Mrs. Gilligan reminded her
with a wry little smile. "Aren't you going to help me find some place?
This may be the only bed that's in sleeping condition in the house."
"Then we'd have to sleep four in a bed," said Billie, with a chuckle.
"But come on, let's see if some kind fairy hasn't prepared for you too,
Mrs. Gilligan."
Laughing, the girls pushed out into the hall and looked for the next
doorway. They no longer glanced fearfully in the corners for something
they were afraid to see. The thought of the nice clean bed pushed all
their weird fancies into the background. Ghosts and clean beds did not
seem to go together!
They found another room just as clean as the other one, and also with a
canopied four-poster in one corner. With cries of delight the girls
discovered that it also was ready for occupancy.
"Goodness, I wonder who could have done it?" mused Violet, as she dropped
down on the edge of the bed and regarded the girls wonderingly.
"Maybe it was a ghost," said Laura, with a chuckle, and Violet glanced
around uneasily.
"Can't you forget about ghosts for five minutes?" she asked rather
irritably, for she was tired after the long day's trip. "Just when I'm
beginning to be happy--"
"There, there," cried Billie soothingly. "Don't go and get mad, Vi,
darling, or our last hope will be gone. I guess Aunt Beatrice left it
this way. Gracious! what's that?"
"Only me opening a door," said Mrs. Gilligan from the farther end of the
room. "My, but you girls are jumpy! Better get to bed," she added,
crossing over to them with a decided step. "You're tired, and everything
will seem better in the morning. Off with you now. No, not that way," as
they started toward the hall, the way they had come in. "I've found a
door between our two rooms--it was opening that that made you jump. See?"
"A connecting door!" cried Billy delightedly. "Oh, that's fine!"
"Yes, you can lock your door, Mrs. Gilligan, and we'll lock ours, and
we'll all be as snug--"
"As bugs in a rug," finished Laura, putting an arm about Violet and
pushing her into the other room.
"Aren't you going to take your candles?" Mrs. Gilligan called after them.
"I fancy you'll need them to undress by."
"I fancy I'll need mine all night," said Laura in an undertone with a wry
little grimace, as Violet went back for the candles. "I'm just scared to
death to stay here in the dark."
"But we won't be able to keep these burning all night," said Billie,
pausing in the act of unlacing her shoe to gaze at her half-burned
candle. "They will probably burn out in a couple of hours."
Laura looked panicky.
"Well, some one will have to go down and get some more," she said, and
gazed at Billie thoughtfully.
"Goodness, you needn't look at me when you say that," said the latter,
going energetically to work on the other shoe. "I wouldn't go down into
that gloomy place again for all the money there is in the world."
"But we'll be left in the dark," said Laura, staring at Billie as if it
were all her fault.
"Who said anything about being left in the dark?" asked Violet,
returning with a candle in each hand, the flickering light illumining her
face and making her look like some saint.
"I did, and we will if you don't go down and get more candles," said
Laura, turning her fire against the newcomer.
"Go down and get candles all by myself?" asked Violet. Then she walked
over to the table and set the two candles down with a decided thump.
"You're crazy," she said.
"Well, the best thing I can see to do," said Billie, letting down her
long hair and brushing it vigorously, "is to get to bed, go to sleep, and
forget all about it."
"Yes, if we _can_ sleep," said Laura doubtfully, as she took her
nightgown out of the grip.
The girls undressed as quickly as they could, said their prayers, and
crawled under the sheets, pulling them up tight beneath their chins.
"You know," whispered Billie, after they had been quiet for some time
staring up at the ceiling, "I have an idea that I've got the worst of
this bargain."
"Now what are you raving about?" asked Laura, turning a pair of
unnaturally bright eyes upon her.
"Why, you chose the middle of the bed and Vi took the end nearest
the wall. That leaves me on the outside to ward off the ghosts. It
isn't fair."
"Oh, but, Billie dear, you're ever so much braver than we are," said
Violet cajolingly. "Don't you remember how you've said right along that
you weren't afraid of ghosts?"
"Well, I'm not," said Billie stoutly, while her eyes searched the far
corners of the room which were beginning to get very indistinct and
creepy in the flickering uncertain light of the fast shortening candles.
"And, anyway," she added, the thought seeming to comfort her, "I locked
the door."
"Well, don't you know a ghost can walk right through a door?" asked
Laura, and Violet bounced in the bed and came down with a thud.
"Stop it," she commanded. "I'm trying my hardest to get to sleep before
those candles burn out. When it gets pitch dark in here I never can."
"And all this comes under the head of pleasure," murmured Laura with a
little chuckle.
"All right--we'll keep still," agreed Billie. "I think myself that the
best thing we can do is get to sleep. Night, girls. We'll all feel better
in the morning."
"If we're here to feel anything," added Violet gloomily.
For a long time the girls lay wide-eyed and quiet, but gradually the law
of nature asserted itself. Their eyelids drooped, and the deep regular
breathing showed that they were asleep.
It was about three o'clock in the morning that it happened. Tortured by
dreams in which she was being chased by a ghost in goggles and a green
motor car, Violet finally awoke and lay staring out at the dark.
Then suddenly she sat up. Her dream had followed her into the world of
reality. There was the same strange, weird purring noise that sounded
like, yet was strangely unlike, the chugging of a motor car.
She sat absolutely still with every nerve tense, feeling chilly
and scared.