Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance - Janet D. Wheeler
At last she could stand it no longer and, leaning over, touched Laura
gently on the arm.
"What's the matter?" cried the latter, starting up fearfully. At the same
moment Billie opened her eyes.
"That noise!" whispered Violet. "Listen!"
CHAPTER XVII
ONLY A BAT
The three girls sat quiet, every nerve tense, that same chilly sensation
creeping up their spines, and their hair beginning to stand on end.
Out there in that wilderness, at three o'clock in the morning, a noise
that sounded something like a motor car and yet was unlike anything they
had ever heard before, might have frightened more experienced people than
three fourteen-year-old girls.
"H-here it comes!" whispered Violet, clutching at Laura's arm, while
Laura in her turn clutched at Billie's. "It's coming closer! Oh,
girls--is it in the house?"
"Sh!" cried Billie. "It's a machine--it must be a machine--out on
the road."
"But in this forsaken place, in the middle of the night?" cried Laura,
beginning to shiver as though she were cold. "It--it can't be, Billie!"
"Sh-h," said Billie again. "Listen!"
The purring sound was coming closer, seemed almost in the house, it was
so near--Then came an awful thought to Billie. Could it really be in the
house? Was it possible that those awful stories about ghosts were true?
But no, the noise was passing on, getting softer, softer, dying off in
the distance.
"It--it must have been a machine," said Laura, beginning to laugh
hysterically. "Vi, what did you go and wake me up in the middle of the
night for just to hear an automobile? I was having such a lovely sleep."
"But I'm not so sure it was a motor car," insisted Violet stubbornly, the
spell of the dream still upon her. "It didn't sound like it."
"But it couldn't have been anything else," said Billie, trembling a
little with the reaction. "We heard it coming down the road, heard it
pass the house, and go on. It simply must have been a machine."
"Oh, all right," said Violet, adding with a little sigh: "Well, I guess
none of us will sleep any more to-night. I'm not even going to try."
"Well, I am," said Billie, leaning back and closing her eyes, yet knowing
that she was as wide awake as she had ever been in her life. "I don't see
any use in lying here and listening for things. Good night once more,
girls--I'm off."
"Meaning you're crazy?" asked Laura, to which Billie made no reply.
As a matter of fact, even while they were saying they could sleep no more
that night, the girls did go to sleep, and, what is more, slept soundly
until they were awakened by Mrs. Gilligan's voice calling to them from
the connecting doorway.
"Do you expect to sleep all day?" she was asking them, her face rosy and
herself very nice and trim in a light blue house dress. "This is the
third time I've spoken to you, and I was beginning to get worried."
"Wh-what time is it?" demanded Laura sleepily.
"About eleven," Mrs. Gilligan answered calmly, and they gasped.
"Eleven!" repeated Billie, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes hard.
"For goodness' sake, how did it get that way? I feel as if I hadn't had
any sleep at all."
"Well, I've had the most awful dreams," complained Violet, turning over
as if she intended to go to sleep again. "I've done nothing but dream of
ghosts and motor cars all night."
At the mention of ghosts Mrs. Gilligan broke into hearty laughter.
"Ghosts?" she said, her eyes sparkling. "I shouldn't think you'd be
talking of ghosts any more. Here you've spent a whole night in the house
and no spirits have bothered you yet. I should think you'd be satisfied."
"Oh, but didn't you hear that noise in the night?" Violet asked her,
turning over and forgetting the nap she had been about to take. "We
girls were just about scared to death."
"Speak for yourself," said Laura, who, whether she had really been
frightened or not, never liked to have anybody tell her about it.
"You were scared too, what's the use of denying it?" Violet demanded
hotly, but Mrs. Gilligan interrupted them.
"Never mind about that," she said, with a smile. "Just tell me about this
noise you thought you heard."
So the girls told her about their weird experience of the night before,
all talking at once and making it as hard as possible for Mrs. Gilligan
to understand what it was all about.
"A noise that sounded like a motor car," she said, when they had finished
and had paused for lack of breath. "Well, I don't see what's so very
queer about that. May have been some joy-riders or something."
"But who would be joy-riding in this part of the country?" Laura
objected. "The country people hereabouts probably don't know what the
word means."
"That particular sport does seem to belong to the idle rich," Mrs.
Gilligan agreed, with a chuckle. "Well," she added, getting up and
starting for the door, "whatever it is, or was, we needn't go without
our breakfast because of it. How would you like some bacon and eggs and
biscuits?"
The suggestion worked like a charm, and before Mrs. Gilligan had finished
the girls were out of bed and feeling about for their clothes.
"You know the room doesn't look half bad by daylight," remarked Violet,
as she was arranging her hair before an elaborately framed old mirror.
"And it surely is quite clean."
"But it's horribly gloomy, just as mother said." Billie was regarding the
dingy woodwork, now almost black with age, and the huge four-poster with
its funereal canopied top, and the large pictures of dead and gone
ancestors that adorned the walls. "The only really good things in the
whole room are the tables and chairs. They look," she added hopefully,
"as if they might bring in a little money. Perhaps I'll be able to pay
for the statue after all."
"Oh, and I'm just crazy to see the rest of the house by daylight," said
Laura, clapping her hands. "Come on, you slow pokes, aren't you ever
going to be ready?"
"We're ready now," said Billie, putting an arm about Violet and hurrying
her to the door. "Oh, is that bacon I smell--and coffee?" she asked as
through the open door came a whiff of the good things below.
"You said it!" cried Laura, making a rush for lower floor with Billie and
Violet not very far behind her. "And it isn't going to be more than
about two minutes before I taste that same bacon and eggs."
When they reached the lower hall they were surprised to see that it
looked almost as gloomy and forbidding as it had the night before, in
spite of the fact that the front door was open and sunlight was
streaming through.
"Ugh!" said Laura, with a shudder, "I don't wonder that they had gloomy
dispositions in the old days if they had to live in houses like these.
It's enough to give one the creeps."
"I'm glad you like my property so much," said Billie, with a demure
little smile. "I haven't heard you say one nice thing about it yet."
"We have treated our hostess rather rudely, haven't we?" laughed
Violet, putting an arm about Billie and drawing her out into the
sunshine. "But really, Billie, we're quite sure that you don't like it
any better than we do."
"And you are quite right," Billie assured her, then added, breaking away
and running a little in front of them: "Girls, let's see if we can find
any signs of that car we heard last night."
Eagerly they scanned the rocky road, but could see no traces of any
vehicle that would be big enough to make the noise they had heard the
night before.
"The plot thickens," said Laura, as they started back to the house
to eat the bacon and eggs and biscuits. "We hear a car, but see no
traces of it."
"It must have been a spirit car," said Violet, adding, with a plaintive
little sigh that made the girls laugh: "In spite of all my perfectly good
training, I'm beginning to believe in ghosts."
After breakfast the girls roamed around the big house, nosing into
corners, calling each other's attention to this and that queer ornament
or article of furniture--and there were plenty of them,--and otherwise
thoroughly enjoying themselves. But as yet they did not venture into the
gloomy cellar with its mysterious tunnels.
In the drawing-room they found a queer old piano which Violet declared
must date back farther than Revolutionary days and which Billie, amid
gibes and laughter from her chums, tried to play.
After she had tried and failed on half a dozen different compositions,
she gave up the attempt, and they roamed upstairs, looking through one
room after another until Billie accidentally opened the door that led to
the attic.
"Here's where we want to go, girls," she cried. "Mother said this was the
spookiest place in the whole house--except the cellar."
"Hadn't we better get Mrs. Gilligan to go with us?" asked Violet,
holding back. "After last night I've had enough spooky experiences to
last me a week."
"Oh, come on," cried Laura, running ahead of them up the stairs. "I'll
show you two 'fraid cats--"
"Who's a 'fraid cat?" cried Billie, starting in hot pursuit. "I'll have
you know that nobody dares call me such names and get away with it. Come
on, Vi, let's murder her."
"Just try it," Laura hissed at them dramatically from the head of the
stairs. "I'd turn into another ghost and haunt you!"
"Oh, for goodness' sake, leave her alone, Billie," Violet entreated.
"We've got enough ghosts around here without Laura. What's that?"
"If you're going to scare me again," began Laura, but it was Billie this
time who commanded silence.
"Hush, I did hear something queer," she said, and all three
listened intently.
It came again, a weird little noise like the brushing of wings against
some hard object, and the girls scarcely dared to breathe. Then out into
the hot open attic fluttered a tiny little object with webbed wings and
the body of a mouse.
"A bat!" cried Laura, sinking down weakly and shaking with hysterical
laughter. "Oh, girls, if I have to stay here another week I'll just die
of heart failure--I know I will!"
CHAPTER XVIII
A FISH STORY
The days passed without further scares until the time finally came when
the boys were to arrive.
During those days the girls roamed around the farm attached to Cherry
Corners. They found it for the most part a rocky place, with here and
there dense patches of woods. There was a brook and in this they saw some
small fish darting about.
"Maybe the boys will want to go fishing when they come," suggested
Billie.
The cherry trees also interested the chums--there were so many of them.
The late cherries were ripe, and they spent a day in picking them,
donning overalls for that purpose. Mrs. Gilligan took the fruit and made
several delicious pies and also a number of tarts.
The place was certainly a lonesome one. Only once did they see two
men tramp by. The men eyed the girls curiously, but tramped on
without speaking.
"Certainly not very sociable," was Violet's comment.
At last came the time when the boys were to arrive.
The girls were in a fever of excitement and anticipation, for they knew
that they would have just about twice as much fun with the boys as
without them.
"We can go on picnics," said Laura, putting on her hat over one eye as
she had a habit of doing when unusually excited, "and long tramps in the
woods, and--oh, all sorts of things."
"I wonder if that old wagon will ever come," said Violet, looking
anxiously down the road. "If it doesn't hurry we'll be too late to meet
the train."
The boy who daily brought them provisions from the village had been
commissioned to send the antiquated carriage after the girls so that they
could get down to the village in time to meet the early train. But the
girls, with no confidence in the country lad's memory, had been sure he
would forget all about it.
"If he doesn't come pretty soon, the boys will get off the train
with no one to meet them," Violet went on worrying. "They won't know
where to go."
"Goodness, they'll know where to go just as well as we did," said Billie,
regarding herself sideways in the mirror to be sure she had not forgotten
anything. "They aren't infants, you know."
"Here it comes! Here it comes!" sang out Laura from her place at the
window. "Are you ready, girls?"
The answer was a concerted rush for the stairs and in another minute the
girls were out in the bright sunlight, running to meet the stage.
The driver, who had been nodding in his seat, looked up as if surprised
at so much energy so early in the morning.
"Oh, please hurry," cried Billie, exasperated at the stupid look on the
boy's face. "Don't you know that we're late already?"
"No'm, you're not late," he assured her in a voice that matched his
manner. "The ten-thirty train's always 'bout half an hour late, anyways."
"Well, that's just the reason it will probably be on time this morning,"
remarked Billie, scrambling in after the girls. "When I'm late the trains
are always early. Please hurry," she added, and the driver clucked
half-heartedly to his team.
All the way down they worried for fear they would be late, but when they
reached Roland at last they found that their rural driver knew the habits
of trains in that part of the country better than they did, for they had
a full thirty-five minutes to wait.
However, they roused from their despondent attitudes when they heard a
familiar whistle in the distance, and began automatically to straighten
their hats.
"Suppose they made up their minds not to come on this train?" Violet
suggested, but Laura cut in hastily.
"If you're going to start worrying all over again about something
different," she said, "I'll put you on the track and let the train run
over you."
At this dire threat Violet stopped worrying, vocally at least, and they
stood first on one foot, then on the other, eagerly watching the train as
it rounded a curve and came pounding down toward them.
It had hardly drawn up to the station with a screeching of brakes and
come to a standstill before a cyclonic trio of boys leaped from one of
the rear cars and came dashing toward the girls, waving hats and bags and
various other personal articles high in the air as they came.
"I say, but it was bully of you girls to come to meet us!" shouted Ferd
Stowing, as they came within hailing distance. "It was more than we
expected, eh, fellows?"
"Sure! Didn't think you'd be up yet," answered Teddy, looking exceedingly
handsome--at least to Billie.
"Up yet!" cried Billie, trying to look angry, which she could not do
because she was altogether too happy and excited. "I don't know where you
boys get your ideas, anyway."
"Out of our brilliant craniums," said Ferd modestly. "I say, girls, where
do we go from here?"
"There's an old carriage that looks as if it were on its last legs,"
laughed Violet, leading the way back to where the antiquated vehicle and
its sleepy driver awaited them. "We came up in it, but I don't know how
we're all going to squeeze into it going back."
"Say, fellows, we forgot to get our trunks," said Chet, interrupting
himself in the midst of an earnest conversation with his sister. "Give me
your checks and I'll go back and see about them."
"But if there isn't room for us, how are we ever going to get our baggage
to the house?" Teddy asked.
"We'll get the wagon that took ours up," Laura answered. "We've got to
get some provisions, anyway."
So with a great deal of fun and laughter they looked up the ancient wagon
and went to the general store to get a formidable supply of provisions.
"Looks as if you were buying the store out," Teddy remarked, as Billie
pulled out a long list of items. "What's the big idea?"
"You boys," said Billie, dimpling at him. "We knew what kind of appetites
you would bring along with you, so we decided on safety first."
"Now we know you girls are bright," said Ferd admiringly, and Billie made
a face at him.
The ride to the house was one big lark. The boys sat on the trunks among
the provisions, and the girls went off into gales of merriment at their
comical efforts not to step on the eggs or fall among the fruit. They
were having such an awfully good time that even the solemn old driver had
to join in the fun.
At last they reached Billie's house, and with much ceremony the boys
jumped down from the wagon and ran to the carriage to help the girls out.
And all they got for their pains was scorn and derision on the part of
the girls.
"Get out of the way before I step on you, little speck of dust," Laura
cried haughtily to Ferd, who turned up his collar and slunk along toward
the house as though his humiliation were more than he could bear, amid
shouts of laughter from the merry crowd that followed him.
"That's the way to treat 'em, Laura," Chet cried, but at that Ferd
turned upon him.
"Say, you'd better look out," he said belligerently. "I can't hit a
lady--"
"A which?" murmured Billie, with a wicked glance in Laura's direction.
"For calling me names," continued Ferd, glaring at Chet, who began to
tremble in mock fright; "but there's nothing to keep me from wiping the
ground up--"
"Yes there is! It's my ground, and I won't have it wiped up," said Billie
decidedly, at which Ferd had to laugh and the mock war came to a close.
"Say, this is some classy place, what?" said Chet, stopping in front of
the rambling old house and regarding it admiringly. "Have you met with
any ghosts yet, girls?"
"Oh, half a dozen," said Laura indifferently, and he was just about to
ask some more questions when Mrs. Gilligan met them at the door and began
giving instructions.
After that there was nothing to do but obey, and the boys and girls did
not meet again until lunch time. Then they regarded each other across the
table joyfully.
"I say, let's go for a tramp in the woods this afternoon," Ferd
suggested, after he and the other lads had taken a look around the house.
"This is the prettiest, wildest country I've ever seen, and I'd like to
nose about a little."
"But we thought you'd like to see what the attic and cellar look like,"
said Billie. "We had the afternoon all planned."
"Let's do that to-morrow," Ferd begged boyishly. "This is too nice a day
to spend indoors."
So it was decided to go outside and as soon as the dinner dishes were
cleared away--at which the boys assisted without so much as a
grumble--the young folks started out on their tour of discovery.
The girls had spent much of their time in the old house since their
arrival, for they had found an almost inexhaustible supply of strange
corners and unexpected rooms and peculiar ornaments that had
fascinated them.
But to-day, as they felt the warm sunshine on their heads, as the wind
caressed their faces and the scents of the woodland bathed them in
perfume, they were glad they had let the boys have their way and had
decided to spend the glorious afternoon in the open.
"Did you win the tennis singles?" Billie asked of Teddy, as she stopped
to smell a bunch of strange flowers. "I was rooting for you."
"Were you?" asked Teddy eagerly.
"For you--and Chet," she added demurely, and laughed to see his
face fall.
"But did you?" she asked.
"What?"
"Win the tennis singles, silly? Can't you remember a thing two seconds?"
"Why, yes, we did," he answered absently, his gray eyes on
Billie's lovely mischievous face. "In fact, we just ran rings
around them. I guess--"
He stopped short as they came upon the other young people. A couple of
bearded men had come out of the woods and confronted the crowd. Each man
carried a heavy club. They were the fellows who had once passed the girls
without speaking.
"You can't go any further this way," one of them said in a rather gruff
tone. "We're growing a new variety of corn and want to keep the seed to
ourselves."
"What's that?" demanded Chet in astonishment
"You heard what I said. You can't stay here, and you can't go that way."
"You want to get out of here," growled the second man. "Come, move on."
"You can't steal any of our corn-growing secrets. Move on," and the first
man shook his club suggestively.
The strange men looked ugly, and the boys and girls, after a pause,
turned off in another direction.
"Humph!" grunted Ted, with a curious glance at the place where the men
had been. "They made a mistake. That wasn't a corn story. It was a
fish story!"
"Maybe," returned Billie. "But what does it mean?"
CHAPTER XIX
IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT
There was so much of interest about the house, and outside of it, that a
week passed almost before the young folks knew it.
The boys were for exploring the cellar, and did so one fine day, taking
the girls along.
They had a flashlight, a lantern, and some candles, and all these
combined gave them quite an illumination. But the girls kept close to the
boys, for the cellar was certainly a creepy place, with its many nooks
and corners and dark closets.
They managed to find two tunnels, one about fifty feet long and the other
close to a hundred.
"Caved in!" cried Chet in disgust.
He was right; dirt and rocks filled the openings, both of which were
quite wet.
"I'll bet they led to the brook," remarked Teddy. "When the Indians made
a raid the settlers could crawl through one tunnel or the other and so
hide in the brook."
"I think Ted must be right," said Ferd.
There was but little of value in the cellar. Old tools, rusted with age,
and some empty bottles and jugs, and that was about all.
"It's awfully musty," said Billie presently. "I'm going upstairs and out
into the sunshine." And she went, and the others soon followed.
Billie had received the address of Miss Beggs, the school-teacher. It had
been sent to her address at home and forwarded by Mrs. Bradley.
"Now, I guess I'll have to write that letter to the teacher and explain
all about the broken statue," said Billie dismally. "Oh, dear, I wish I
didn't have to do it."
"It's too bad we haven't the money to pay for the old thing," came from
Chet. "Can't we sell some of this stuff? It must be worth something."
"But who will buy it?"
"I don't know."
There was a long consultation among the girls, and at last Billie managed
to write the letter.
"There," she said, when she had given it to the store boy to post, "now I
feel better. The confession part of it is off my mind, anyway. If I can
only pay for the old statue--or buy another one like it--I'll be
happy--or nearly happy."
She added the "nearly happy" as the thought came to her that even with
the broken statue paid for and off her mind she had still another ordeal
before her. In a couple of weeks their vacation would be up at Cherry
Corners, and soon after that she would have to see Violet and Laura and
the boys, except poor Chet, go off to boarding school, while she and her
brother would be left behind.
Oh, well, she would not think of that just yet. They could at least enjoy
the time they were to spend at Cherry Corners.
And they did enjoy it! There was never a minute of the day for which
something interesting was not planned.
Then one night, when they had almost forgotten that the house was
supposed to be haunted, they had an experience that brought back all
their old fears of the place--"and then some," as Teddy said.
Billie sat up in bed suddenly with the familiar chilly feeling up and
down her spine and her hair showing a tendency to pull away from her
prickly scalp.
The piano was sounding--all the way from treble to bass! And it was the
middle of the night with everybody in bed!
She put out a hand and shook Laura and Violet to consciousness.
"Oh, girls, it _is_ the ghost this time!" she said in a scared whisper
that made them wide awake in an instant. "It--it's playing the piano!"
"A--a musical ghost?" giggled Laura hysterically, but Billie pinched her
into silence.
"Keep still," she cried. "There it is again!"
The girls listened to the eeriest, weirdest music they had ever
heard, and Violet slipped shivering under the covers and hid her face
with the sheet.
"C-come out of that," cried Billie, pulling at the sheet. "What g-good do
you suppose it's going to do to put the sheet over your head? Come on,
I'm going to investigate."
With sudden determination she slipped out of bed and stood up.
"Billie," gasped Laura, "you're never going to go down there?"
"I'm going to call the boys," said Billie, who, despite all her
determination, could hardly stand up her knees trembled so. "We'll all go
and rout that old ghost. He's got to," she added with a hysterical giggle
that matched Laura's, "get off my piano!"
Fearfully the girls watched her start into Mrs. Gilligan's room. Then
Laura pushed down the covers and got to her feet.
"If Billie isn't afraid," she said stoutly, "I don't see why I should be.
Are you coming, Vi?"
"I s-suppose so," said poor Violet, more afraid of being left alone than
of facing the ghost in company with the others. "If you're going
I--I've got to."
So it was that Mrs. Gilligan was startled to find three ghostly, scared
figures standing by her bed calling nervously to her to "please wake up."
"For goodness' sake, what's the matter?" she said, rubbing her eyes and
staring at them sleepily. "Have you heard your ghostly motor again?"