_What Miss Frayne Found Out_
We had planned to go to the haunted house at nine o'clock the next
morning, but owing to my dissipation of the night before, it was long
after the appointed hour when Silvia awoke me.
I hurried down stairs and ate my breakfast in solitude. I inquired for
Beth and Rob, but the waitress told me they had left the dining-room
at seven o'clock and gone for a walk in the woods. She said it with a
knowing smile that told me she, too, must be a "sister of the Golden
Circle."
"And Miss Frayne?" I asked.
"She went down the road over an hour ago."
Evidently her courage had come up with the sun. I was greatly
disturbed at the chance of her stumbling over one or more Polydores,
and Rob didn't want to let the cat out of the bag until her article
was written, as he believed that if the ghostly spell were broken, she
would lose her "punch."
I was unable to think of any plausible explanation to offer Silvia as
to why I should start in pursuit, and I wished all sorts of dire
calamities on Rob's blond head. Lovers were surely blind and selfish.
About ten o'clock they came strolling in.
"We didn't know it was so late," said Beth cheerfully, "but the boys
will keep in the woods all right."
"With her nose for news, there is no telling how far into the woods
Miss Frayne's investigation will take her."
"Say we go down by the lane and meet her," proposed Beth, "so that if
she has run across the boys we can explain to her why we desire
secrecy from Silvia."
"You and Rob go," I advised. "It would seem odd to Silvia if we didn't
ask her to go with us."
So the newly engaged couple started down the road, but in their
self-absorption they didn't notice the turn to the lane, and they got
half way to Windy Creek before they came back to earth and the hotel.
Miss Frayne still had not shown up, and I began to have misgivings
lest the Polydores had locked her up in the house, but finally just as
we were having a happy family gathering and discussing the new event
under the shade of the one resort tree, she came excitedly up to us.
"Such an interesting morning as I have had!" she exclaimed
enthusiastically. "I made some corking pictures of the place, and I've
found out about not only that ghost, but all ghosts--the whole race of
ghosts."
I hurriedly interrupted her and made elaborate and jumbled apologies
for not keeping our engagement, which evidently bored her and
mystified Silvia.
"I am glad I went alone," she finally replied. "Otherwise I might not
have got such an interesting interview."
Beth, Rob, and I made frantic and appealing gestures to her behind
Silvia's back, but she didn't seem to notice them.
"Whom did you interview, the ghost?" asked Silvia.
"No, indeed. Some very interesting and unusual people who are staying
there."
I threw her a wildly beseeching glance and Beth and Rob began at the
same time to ply her with distracting questions. I think she seemed to
divine that there was something in the situation that was not to be
explained, but Silvia interrupted them.
"Do let Miss Frayne tell us about her interview," she said. "We all
seem to be very talkative today."
I saw there was no way to dodge the dénouement, so I awaited the
finale in dread desperation. It proved to be more of a stunner than I
had expected.
"I went down the lane," she said, "and through the grove, up the
little hill, and laughed at myself for the hallucinations of the night
before. There were no ghosts visible and the door to the haunted
house was hospitably open. I stood on the hill long enough to make
some pictures and then went on. I walked up the steps fearlessly and
looked within. A woman, an untidy, disheveled-looking woman, sat at a
table writing furiously in just the same breathless way I write when I
have a scoop, and the presses are waiting open-mouthed for my copy.
"She looked up and scowled at my intrusion.
"'Don't bother me,' she said, and continued writing.
"I went through the house and came outside again where I met an
absent-minded, spectacled man. I told him who I was and of my object
in coming to the house. Then he showed signs of coming to.
"'Oh, the ghost!' he said. 'That is what brought me here. My wife is
interested in more tangible, more material things. We have just
returned from a long journey, and when we were nearly to our
destination, our place of residence, I happened to read in a paper
about this haunted house and its apparition, so we came right up here
this morning to remain overnight and see if the article were true.'
"I told him how successful I had been and he became quite alert and
enthusiastic. He showed me why I should not have been alarmed, because
ghosts, he said, were scientific facts. He then explained to me at
length how the gases from the dead arise and form a nebulous vapor or
a vaporous nebula. It sounded very simple and plausible when he told
me, but I can't seem to remember it. Fortunately I have it all down in
writing."
Silvia's eyes and mine had met in speechless horror since she had
mentioned the "writing woman."
"Lucien!" Silvia now said in a tragic, hoarse whisper--"the
Polydores!"
"Oh, do you know them?" asked Miss Frayne. "Dr. Felix Polydore, the
eminent LL.D. or something like that."
"The whole family are D's," I said.
"His wife is the highest of high-brows, and they are averse to
interviews. They moved to a small city sometime ago to be secluded.
Just think of my opportunity! I have them headlined! 'The Haunted
House of Hope Haven. Ghost that appears at midnight scientifically
explained by the distinguished Dr. Felix Polydore.'"
"I think we are in luck," I said to Silvia, on second thoughts. "We
will take them home by the nape of the neck and deliver their children
into their keeping to have and to hold."
"I can't turn Diogenes over to them," she said plaintively.
"Diogenes!" repeated Miss Frayne in astonishment.
I then narrated to her the history of our next-door neighbors, and how
they planted their five children upon us.
"We had better go down at once and see them," said Silvia, "before
they escape. No telling where they might take it in their heads to
go."
"We will," I said, "we'll go soon after luncheon."
"Thrice blessed haunted house," quoted Rob. "It gave me Beth, and it
has restored the parents of the wise Ptolemy and 'Them Three.'"
"And gave me a ripping story," said Miss Frayne.
Just then the gong sounded, and after luncheon while I was comfortably
tipped back in a chair, my feet on the veranda rail, seeing in the
smoke from my pipe dream visions of Polydoreless days, a faint cry
from Silvia brought me back to earth.
"Lucien, look!"
I looked.
My chair came down to all fours and my feet slipped from the rail.