DEPARTED SPIRITS
As the evenings grew colder, the camp chairs on the mesa were deserted,
and the chattering "chasers" gathered indoors, sometimes in one or
another of the airy tent cottages, sometimes before the cheerful blaze
of the logs in the fireplace of the parlors, but oftenest of all they
flocked into Number Six of McCormick Building, where David was confined
to his cot. Always there was laughter in Number Six, merry jesting,
ready repartee. So it became the mecca of those, who, even more
assiduously than they chased the cure, sought after laughter and joy.
In the parlors the guests played cards, but in Number Six, deferring
silently to David's calling, they pulled out checkers and parcheesi,
and fought desperate battles over the boards. But sometimes they
fingered the dice and the checkers idly, leaning back in their chairs,
and talked of temperatures, and hypodermics, and doctors, and war, and
ghosts.
"I know this happened," said the big Canadian one night. "It was in my
own home and I was there. So I can swear to every word of it. We came
out from Scotland, and took up a big homestead in Saskatchewan. We
threw up a log house and began living in it before it was half done.
Evenings, the men came in from the ranches around, and we sat by the
fire in the kitchen and smoked and told stories. Joined on to the
kitchen there was a shed, which was intended for a summer kitchen. But
just then we had half a dozen cots in it, and the hands slept there.
One night one of the boys said he had a headache, and to escape the
smoke in the kitchen which was too thick to breathe, he went into the
shed and lay down on a cot. It was still unfinished, the shed was, and
there were three or four wide boards laid across the rafters at the top
to keep them from warping in the damp. Baldy lay on his back and
stared up at the roof. Suddenly he leaped off the bed,--we all saw
him; there was no door between the rooms. He leaped off and dashed
through the kitchen.
"'What's the matter?' we asked him.
"'Let me alone, I want to get out of here,' he said, and shot through
the door.
"We caught just one glimpse of his face. It was ashen. We went on
smoking. 'He's a crazy Frenchman,' we said, and let it go. But my
brother was out in the barn and he corralled him going by.
"'I am going to die, Don,' he said. 'I was lying on the bed, looking
up at the rafters, and I saw the men come in and take the big white
board and make it into a coffin for me. I am going home, I want to be
with my folks.'
"Don came in scared stiff, and told us, and we said 'Pooh, pooh,' and
went on smoking. But about eleven o'clock a couple of fellows from
another ranch came over and said their boss had died that afternoon and
they could not find the right sized boards for the coffin. They wanted
a good straight one about six feet six by fourteen inches. We looked
in the barns and the sheds, and could not find what they wanted. Then
we went into the lean-to, where there were some loose boards in the
corner, but they wouldn't do.
"'Say,' said one of them, 'how about that white board up there in the
rafters? About right, huh?'
"We pulled it down, and it was just the size. They were tickled to get
it, for they hated to drive twelve miles to town through snowdrifts
over their heads.
"'That's the big white board that Baldy saw,' said Don suddenly. Yes,
by George! We sent for Baldy that night to make sure, and it was just
what he had seen, and the very men that came for the board. Baldy was
mighty glad he wasn't the corpse."
"Mercy," said Carol, twitching her shoulders. "Are you sure it is
true?"
"Gospel truth. I was right there. I took down the board."
"I know one that beats that," said the Scotchman promptly. "They have
a sayin' over in my country, that if you have a dream, or a vision, of
men comin' toward you carryin' a coffin, you will be in a coffin inside
of three days. One night a neighbor of mine, next farm, was comin'
home late, piped as usual, and as he came zigzaggin' down a dark lane,
he looked up suddenly and saw four men marchin' solemnly toward him,
carryin' a coffin. McDougall clutched his head. 'God help me,' he
cried. 'It is the vision.' Then he turned in his tracks and shot over
a hedge and up the bank, screamin' like mad. The spirits carryin' the
coffin yelled at him and, droppin' the coffin, started up the hill
after him. But McDougall only yelled louder and ran faster, and
finally they lost him in the hills. So they went back. They were not
spirits at all, and it was a real coffin. A woman had died, and they
were takin' her in to town ready for the funeral next day. But the
next day we found McDougall lyin' face down on the grass ten miles
away, stone dead."
The girls shivered, and Carol shuffled her chair closer to David's bed.
"Ran himself to death?" suggested David.
"Well, he died," said the Scotchman.
"Is it true?" asked Carol, glancing fearfully through the screen of the
porch into the black shadows on the mesa.
"Absolutely true," declared the Scotchman. "I was in the searchin'
party that found him."
"I--I don't believe in spirits,--I mean haunting spirits," said Carol,
stiffening her courage and her backbone by a strong effort.
"How about the ghosts that drove the men out into the graveyards in the
Bible and made them cut up all kinds of funny capers, and finally
haunted the pigs and drove 'em into the lake?" said Barrows slyly.
"They were not ghosts," protested Carol quickly. "Just evil spirits.
They got drowned, you know,--ghosts don't drown."
"It does not say they got drowned," contradicted Barrows. "My Bible
does not say it. The pigs got drowned. And that is what ghosts
are,--evil spirits, very evil. They were too slick to get drowned
themselves; they just chased the pigs in and then went off haunting
somebody else."
Carol turned to David for proof, and David smiled a little.
"Well," he said thoughtfully, "perhaps it does not particularly say the
ghosts were drowned. It says they went into the pigs, and the pigs
were drowned. It does not say anything about the spirits coming out in
advance, though."
Carol and Barrows mutually triumphed over each other, claiming personal
vindication.
"Do you believe in ghosts, Mr. Duke?" asked Miss Tucker in a soft
respectful voice, as if resolved not to antagonize any chance spirits
that might be prowling near.
"Call them psychic phenomena, and I may say that I do," said David.
"How do you explain it, then?" she persisted.
"I explain it by saying it is a phenomenon which can not be explained,"
he evaded cleverly.
"But that doesn't get us anywhere, does it?" she protested vaguely.
"Does it--does it explain anything?"
"It does not get us anywhere," he agreed; "but it gets me out of the
difficulty very nicely."
"I know a good ghost story myself," said Nevius. "It is a dandy. It
will make your blood run cold. Once there was a--"
"I do not believe in telling ghost stories," said Miss Landbury.
"There may not be any such thing, and I do not believe there is, but if
there should happen to be any, it must annoy them to be talked about."
"You shouldn't say you don't believe in them," said Miss Tucker. "At
least not on such a dark night. Some self-respecting ghost may resent
it and try to get even with you."
Miss Landbury swallowed convulsively, and put her arm around Carol's
waist. The sudden wail of a pack of coyotes wafted in to them, and the
girls crouched close together.
"Once there was a man--"
"It is your play, Mr. Barrows," said Miss Landbury. "Let's finish the
game. I am ahead, you remember."
"Wait till I finish my story," said Nevius, grinning wickedly. "It is
too good to miss, about curdling blood, and clammy hands, and--"
"Mr. Duke, do you think it is religious to talk about ghosts? Doesn't
it say something in the Bible about avoiding such things, and fighting
shy of spirits and soothsayers and things like that?"
"Yes, it does," agreed Nevius, before David could speak. "That's why I
want to tell this story. I think it is my Christian duty. You will
sure fight shy of ghosts after you hear this. You won't even have
nerve enough to dream about 'em. Once there was a man--"
Carol deliberately removed Miss Landbury's arm from her waist, and
climbed up on the bed beside David. Miss Landbury shuffled as close to
the bed as propriety would at all admit, and clutched the blanket with
desperate fingers. Miss Tucker got a firm grip on one of Carol's
hands, and after a hesitating pause, ensconced her elbow snugly against
David's Bible lying on the table. Gooding said he felt a draft, and
sat on the foot of the cot.
"Once there was a man, and he was in love with two women--oh, yes, Mrs.
Duke, it can be done all right. I have done it myself--yes, two at the
same time. Ask any man; they can all do it. Oh, women can't. They
aren't broad-minded enough. It takes a man,--his heart can hold them
all." The girls sniffed, but Nevius would not be side-tracked from his
story. "Well, this man loved them both, and they were both worth
loving--young, and fair, and wealthy. He loved them distractedly. He
loved one because she was soft and sweet and adorable, and he called
her Precious. He loved the other because she was talented and
brilliant, a queen among women, the center of every throng, and he
called her Glory. He loved to kiss the one, and he loved to be proud
of the other. They did not know about each other, they lived in
different towns. One night the queenly one was giving a toast at a
banquet, and the revelers were leaning toward her, drinking in every
word of her rich musical voice, marveling at her brilliancy, when
suddenly she saw a tiny figure perch on the table in front of her
fiancé,--yes, he was fiancéing them both. The little figure on the
table had a sweet, round, dimply face, and wooing lips, and loving
eyes. The fiancé took her in his arms, and stroked the round pink
cheek, and kissed the curls on her forehead. Glory faltered, and tried
to brush the mist from before her eyes. She was dreaming,--there was
no tiny figure on the table. There could not be. Lover--they both
called him Lover; he had a fancy for the name--Lover was gazing up at
her with eyes full of pride and admiration. She finished hurriedly and
sat down, wiping the moisture from her white brow. 'Such a strange
thing, Lover,' she whispered. 'I saw a tiny figure come tripping up to
you, and she caressed and kissed you, and ran her fingers over your
lips so childishly and--so adoringly, and--' Lover looked startled.
'What!' he ejaculated. For little Precious had tricks like that.
'Yes, and she had one tiny curl over her left ear, and you kissed it.'
'You saw that?' 'Yes, just now.' She looked at him; he was pale and
disturbed. 'Have you ever been married, Lover?' she asked. 'Never,'
he denied quickly. But he was strangely silent the rest of the
evening. The next morning Glory was ill. When he called, they took
him up to her room, and he sat beside her and held her hand. 'Another
strange thing happened,' she said. 'The little beauty who kissed you
at the banquet came up to my bed, and put her arms around me and
caressed and fondled me and said she loved me because I was so
beautiful, and her little white arms seemed to choke me, and I
struggled for breath and floundered out of bed, and she kissed me and
said I was a darling and tripped away, and--I fainted.'"
"Mr. Nevius, that isn't nice," protested Miss Landbury.
"Lover said urgent business called him out of town. He would go to
Precious. Glory was getting freakish, queer. Precious never had
visions. She was not notionate. She just loved him and was content.
So he went to her. She dimpled at him adoringly, and led him out to
her bower of roses, and sat on his knee and stroked his eyes with her
pink finger tips, and he kissed the little curl over her left ear and
thought she was worth a dozen tempestuous Glories. But suddenly she
caught her breath and leaned forward. He spoke to her, but she did not
hear. Her face was colorless and her white lips were parted fearfully.
For she saw a lovely, radiant, queenly woman, magnificently gowned, the
center of a throng of people, and Lover was beside her, his face
flushed with pride, his eyes shining with admiration. Her fine voice,
like music, held every one spellbound. Precious clasped her tiny hands
over her rose-bud ears and shivered. She shut her eyes hard and opened
them and--what nonsense! There was no queenly lady, there was no loud,
clear, ringing voice. But her ears were tingling. She turned to
Lover, trembling.
"'How--how--how funny,' she said. 'I saw a radiant woman talking, and
she fascinated all the world, and you were with her, adoring her. Her
voice was like music, but so loud, too loud; it crashed in my ears, it
deafened me.'
"Lover's brows puckered thoughtfully. 'How did she look?' he asked.
"'Tall and white, with crimson lips, and black hair massed high on her
head. And her voice was just like music.'
"The next morning Precious was ill. When Lover went to her she clung
to him and cried. 'The lovely lady,' she said,' 'she came when I was
alone, and she said I was a beautiful little doll and she would give me
music, music, a world full of music. And her voice was like a bell,
and it grew louder and louder, and I thought the world was crashing
into the stars, and I screamed and fell on the floor, and when I awoke
the music was gone, and--I was so weak and sick.'
"Lover decided to go back to Glory until Precious got over this silly
whim. But he had no peace. Glory was constantly tormented by the
loving Precious. And when he returned to Precious, the splendor of
Glory's voice was with her day and night. He lost his appetite. He
could not sleep. So he went off into the woods alone, to fish and hunt
a while. But one night as he sat in his tent, he heard a faint,
far-off whisper of music,--Glory's voice. It came nearer and nearer,
grew louder and louder, until it crashed in his ears like the clamor of
worlds banging into stars, as Precious had said. And then he felt a
tender caressing finger on his eyes, and soft warm arms encircled his
neck, and soft red lips pressed upon his. Closer drew the encircling
arms, more breathlessly the red lips pressed his. He struggled for
breath, and fought to tear away the dimpled arms. The music of Glory's
voice rose into unspeakable tumult, the warm pressure of Precious' arms
rendered him powerless. He fell insensible, and two days later they
found him,--dead."
There was a brief eloquent silence when Nevius finished his story. The
girls shivered.
"A true story?" queried David, smiling.
"A true story," said Nevius decidedly.
"Um-hum. Lover was alone in the woods, wasn't he? How did his friends
find out about those midnight spirits that came and killed him?"
The girls brightened. "Yes, of course," chirped Carol. "How did
folks find out?'
"Say, be reasonable," begged Nevius. "Spoiling another good story. I
say it is a true tale, and I ought to know. I," he shouted
triumphantly, "I was Lover."
Hooting laughter greeted him.
"But just the same," contended Barrows, "regardless of the feeble
fabrications of senile minds, there are ghosts none the less. The
night before we got word of my father's death, my sister woke up in the
night and saw a white shadow in her window,--and a voice,--father's
voice,--said, 'Stay with me, Flossie; I don't want to be alone.' She
told about it at breakfast, and said it was just five minutes to two
o'clock. And an hour later we got a message that father had died at
two that night, a thousand miles away."
"Honestly?"
"Yes, honestly."
"I knew a woman in Chicago," said Miss Landbury, "and she said the
night before her mother died she lay down on the cot to rest, and a
white shadow came and hovered over the bed, and she saw in it, like a
dream, all the details of her mother's death just as it happened the
very next day. She swore it was true."
"Don't talk any more about white shadows," said Carol. "They make me
nervous."
"Wouldn't it be ghastly to wake up alone in a little wind-blown canvas
tent in the dead of night, and find it shut off from the world by a
white shadow, and hear a low voice whisper, 'Come,' and feel yourself
drawn slowly into the shadow by invisible clammy fingers--"
"Don't," cried Miss Landbury.
"That's not nice," said Carol.
"Don't scare the girls, Barrows. Carol will sleep under the bed
to-night."
"I am with the girls myself," said Gooding. "There isn't any sense
getting yourself all worked up talking about spirits and ghosts and
things that never happened in the world."
"Oh, they didn't, didn't they? Just the same, when you reach out for a
cough-drop and get hold of a bunch of clinging fingers that aren't
yours, and are not connected with anybody that belongs there,--well, I
for one don't take any chances with ghosts."
A sudden brisk tap on the door drew a startled movement from the men
and a frightened cry from the girls. The door opened and the head
nurse stood before them.
"Ten-fifteen," she said curtly. "Please go to your cottages at once.
Mr. Duke, why don't you send your company home at ten o'clock?"
"Bad manners. Ministers need hospitality more than religion nowadays,
they tell us."
"Oh, Miss David," cried Miss Tucker, "won't you go out to my tent with
me? I feel so nervous to-night."
"What is the matter?" asked the nurse suspiciously, looking from one to
another of the flushed faces and noting the restless hands and the
fearful eyes.
"Nothing, nothing at all, but my head aches and I feel lonesome."
The nurse contracted her lips curiously. "Of course I will go," she
said.
"Let me come too," said Miss Landbury, rising with alacrity. "I have a
headache myself."
Huddled together in an anxious group they set forth, and the nurse,
like a good shepherd, led her little flock to shelter. But as she
walked back to her room, her brows were knitted curiously.
"What in the world were the silly things talking about?" she wondered.
"David Duke," Carol was informing her husband, as she stood over him,
in negligee ready to "hop in," "I shall let the light burn all night,
or I shall sleep in the cot with you. I won't run any risk of white
shadows sitting on me in the dark."
"Why, Carol--"
"Take your pick, my boy," she interrupted briskly. "The light burns,
or I sleep with you."
"This cot is hardly big enough for one," he argued. "And neither of us
can sleep with that bright light burning."
"David," she wailed, "I have looked under the bed three times already,
but I know something will get me between the electric switch and the
bed."
David laughed at her, but said obligingly, "Well, jump in and cover up
your head with a pillow, and get yourself settled, and I will turn off
the lights myself."
"It is a sin and a shame and I am a selfish little coward," Carol
condemned herself, but just the same she was glad to avail herself of
the privilege.
A little later the white colony on the mesa was in darkness. But Carol
could not sleep. The blankets over her head lent a semblance of
protection, but most distracting visions came to her wide and burning
eyes.
"Are you asleep, David?" she would call at frequent intervals, and
David's "Yes, sound asleep," gave her momentary comfort.
But finally he was awakened from a light sleep by a soft pressure
against his foot. Even David started nervously, and "Ghosts" flashed
into his logical and well-ordered brain. But no, it was only the soft
and shivering form of his wife, curling herself noiselessly into a ball
on the foot of his cot. David watched her, shaking with silent
laughter. Surreptitiously she slipped an arm beneath his feet, and
circled them in a deadly grip. If the ghosts got her, they would get
David's feet, and in her girlish mind ran a half acknowledged belief
that the Lord wouldn't let the ghosts get as good a man as David.
Wretchedly uncomfortable as to position, but blissfully assured in her
mind, she fell into a doze, from which she was brought violently by a
low whisper in the room:
"Mrs. Duke."
"Oooooooo," moaned Carol, diving deep beneath the covers.
David sat up quickly.
"Who is there?"
"It is I, Miss Landbury," came a frightened whisper. "Can't I stay
with you a while? I can't go to sleep to save me,--and honestly, I am
scared to death."
This brought Carol forth, and with warm and sympathetic hospitality she
turned back the covers at the foot of the bed and said:
"Yes, come right in."
David nudged her remindingly with his foot. "Since there are two of
you to protect each other," he said, laughing, "suppose you go in to
Carol's bed, and leave me my cot in peace."
This Carol flatly refused to do. If Miss Landbury was willing to share
the foot of David's cot, she was more than welcome. But if she meant
to stand on ceremony and go into that awful big black room without a
minister, she could go by herself, that was all. Carol lay down
decidedly, and considered the subject closed.
"I don't want to sleep," said Miss Landbury unhappily. "I am not
sleepy. I just want a place to sit, where I--I won't keep seeing
things."
"Turn on the light, Carol," said David. "You ought to be ashamed of
yourselves, both of you."
"That's all right," defended Carol. "You are a preacher, and ghosts
don't bother--"
"Don't say ghosts," chattered Miss Landbury.
"Well, what is the plan of procedure?" inquired David patiently. "Are
you going to turn my cot into a boarding-house? You girls stay here,
and I will go in to Carol's bed. Give me my bath robe, honey, and--"
"Oh, please," gasped Miss Landbury.
"And leave us on this porch with nothing but screen around us?"
exclaimed Carol. "I am surprised at you, David."
David turned his face to the wall. "Well, make yourselves comfortable.
Good night, girls."
The girls stared at each other in the darkness, helplessly, resignedly.
Wasn't that just like a man?
"I tell you what," said Carol hopefully, "let's bring the mattress and
the blankets from my bed and put them on the floor here beside David,
and we can all sleep nicely right together."
"Oh, that's lovely," cried Miss Landbury. "You are the dearest thing,
Mrs. Duke."
Hurriedly, and with bated breath, they raided Carol's bed, tugging the
heavy mattress between them, quietly ignoring the shaking of David's
cot which spoke so loudly of amusement.
"I'll crawl right in then," said Miss Landbury comfortably.
"I sleep next to David, if you please," said Carol with quiet dignity.
Miss Landbury obediently rolled over, and Carol scrambled in beside her.
"Turn off the light," suggested David.
"Oh, yes, Miss Landbury, turn it off, will you?" said Carol pleasantly.
"Who, me?" came the startled voice. "Indeed I won't."
"David, dearest," pleaded Carol weakly.
"Go on parade in my pajamas, dear?" he questioned promptly.
"Let's both go then," compromised Carol, and she and Miss Landbury,
hand in hand, marched like Trojans to the switch in the other room,
Carol clicked the button, and then came a wild and inglorious rush back
to the mattress on the floor.
"Good night, girls."
"Good night, David."
"Good night, Mr. Duke."
"Good night, Miss Landbury."
"Good night, Mrs. Duke."
Then sweet and blessed silence, which lasted for at least five minutes
before there sounded a distinct, persistent rapping on their door.
Carol and Miss Landbury rushed to the protection of each other's arms,
and before David had time to call, the door opened, the switch clicked
once more, and Gooding, his hair sticking out in every possible
direction, his bath robe flapping ungracefully about his knees,
confronted them.
"This is a shame," he began ingratiatingly. "I know it. But I've got
to have some one to talk to. I can't go to sleep and-- Heavens,
what's that on the floor?"
"It is I and my friend, Miss Landbury," said Carol quietly. "We are
having a slumber party."
"Yes, all party and no slumber," muttered David.
"Well, I am glad I happened in. I was lonesome off there by myself.
You know you do get sick of being alone all the time. Shove over, old
man, and I'll join the party."
David looked at him in astonishment.
"Nothing doing," he said. "This cot isn't big enough for two. Go in
and use Carol's bed if you like."
"It's too far off," objected Gooding. "Be sociable, Duke."
"There isn't any mattress there anyhow," said Carol.
They looked at one another in a quandary.
"Go on back to bed, Gooding," said David, at last. "This is no time
for conversation."
Gooding would not hear of it. "Here I am and here I stay," he said
with finality. "I've been seeing white shadows and feeling clammy
fingers all night."
"Well, what are you going to do? We've got a full house, you can see
that."
"Go and get your own mattress and blankets and use them on my bed,"
urged Carol.
Miss Landbury turned on her side and closed her eyes. She was taken
care of, she should worry over Mr. Gooding!
"I don't want to stay in there by myself," said Gooding again. "Isn't
there room out here?"
"Do you see any?"
"Well, I'll move in the room with you," volunteered David.
Miss Landbury sat up abruptly.
"We won't stay here without you, David," said Carol.
"I tell you what," said Gooding brightly, "we'll get my mattress and
put it in the room for me, and we'll move David's mattress on Carol's
bed for David, and then we'll move the girls' mattress in on the floor
for them."
No one offered objections to this arrangement. "Hurry up, then, and
get your mattress," begged Carol. "I am so sleepy."
"I can't carry them alone through those long dark halls," Gooding
insisted. Miss Landbury would not accompany him without a third party,
Carol flatly refused to leave dear sick David alone in that porch, and
at last in despair David donned his bath robe and the four of them
crossed the wide parlor, traversed the dark hall to Gooding's room and
returned with mattress, pillows and blankets. After a great deal of
panting and pulling, the little party was settled for sleep.
It must have been an hour later when they were startled into sitting
posture, their hearts in their throats, by piercing screams which rang
out over the mesa, one after another in quick succession.
"David, David, David," gasped Carol.
"I'm right here, Carol; we're all right," he assured her quickly.
Miss Landbury swayed dizzily and fell back, half-conscious, upon the
pillows. Gooding, with one bound, landed on David's bed, nearly
crushing the breath out of that feeble hero of the darkness.
Lights flashed quickly from tent to tent on the mesa, frightened voices
called for nurses, doors slammed, bells rang, and nurses and porters
rushed to the rescue.
"Who was it?" "Where was it?" "What is it?"
"Over here, I think," shouted a man. "Miss Tucker. I called to her
and she did not answer."
A low indistinct sound, half groan, half sobbing, came from the open
windows of the little tent. And as they drew near, their feet rattling
the dry sand, there came a warning call.
"A light, a light, a light," begged Miss Tucker. The nurses hesitated,
half frightened, and as they paused they heard a low drip, drip, inside
the tent, each drop emphasized by Miss Tucker's sobs.
The porter flashed a pocket-light, and they opened the door. Miss
Tucker lay in a huddled heap on her bed, her hands over her face, her
shoulders rising and falling. The nurses shook her sternly.
"What is the matter with you?" they demanded.
Finally, she was persuaded to lift her face and mumble an explanation.
"I was asleep, and I heard my name called, and I looked up. There was
a white shadow on the door. I seized my pillow and threw it with all
my might, and there was a loud crash and a roar, and then began that
drip, drip, drip,--oh-h-h!"
"You silly thing," said Miss Alien. "Of course there was a crash. You
knocked the chimney off your lamp,--that made a crash all right. And
the lamp upset, and it is the kerosene drip, dripping from the table to
the floor. Girls who must have kerosene lamps to heat their curlers
must look for trouble."
"The white shadow--" protested the girl.
"Moonshine, of course. Look." Miss Alien pulled the girl to her feet.
"The whole mesa is in white shadow. Run around to the tents, girls,"
she said to her assistants, "and tell them Miss Tucker had a bad
dream,--nothing wrong. We will have a dozen bed patients from this
night's foolishness."
Miss Tucker refused to be left alone and a nurse was detailed to spend
the night with her.
When the nurses on their rounds reached Miss Landbury's room in the
McCormick Building, they had another fright. The room was empty. The
bed was cold,--had not been occupied for hours, likely. They rushed to
the head nurse, and a wild search was instituted.
The Dukes' room, Number Six, McCormick, was wrapped in darkness.
"Don't go near them," Miss Alien said. "Perhaps they did not hear the
noise, and Mr. Duke should not be disturbed."
So the wild search went on.
But after a time, a Mexican porter, with a lantern, seeking every nook
and corner, plodded stealthily around a corner of the McCormick.
He heard a gasp beside him, and turning his lantern he looked directly
into the window, where four white, tense faces peered at him with
staring eyes. He returned their stare, speechlessly. Then he saw Miss
Landbury.
"Ain't you lost?" he ejaculated.
Miss Landbury, frightened out of her senses, and not recognizing the
porter in the darkness, shot into her bed on the floor, and David
answered the man's questions. A moment later an outraged matron,
flanked by two nurses, marched in upon them.
"What is the meaning of this?" they demanded.
"Search me," said David pleasantly. "Our friends and neighbors got
lonesome in the night and refused to sleep alone and let us rest in
contentment. So they moved in, and here we are."
Both Gooding and Miss Landbury positively declined to go home alone,
and other nurses were appointed to guard them during the brief
remaining hours of the night. At four o'clock came sleep and silence
and serenity, with Carol on the floor, clutching David's hand, which
even in sleep she did not resign.
The next morning a huge notice was posted on the bulletin board.
"Any one who tells a ghost story, or discusses departed spirits, in
this institution or on the grounds thereof, shall have all privileges
suspended for a period of six weeks.
"By order of the Superintendent."