"Look here, Polly O"Neill," she protested, giving her arm an affectionate squeeze, "please don"t be wishing a ghost upon us. I know you have always believed in Irish fairies and elves and hobgoblins and the like, and used to fuss with poor Mollie and me outrageously because we couldn"t or wouldn"t see them. But tonight--Oh, well, even Irish ghosts don"t come strolling into one"s bedroom. They at least have the courtesy to stay in churchyards and in haunted ruins."
"Yes, but isn"t this the haunted room of this house, Betty?" Polly inquired in a faintly teasing voice, which yet held a note of serious questioning in it.
And immediately Betty"s face grew white and frightened, far more so than at any moment before during their adventure, so that the other girl was instantly regretful of her speech.
"Polly O"Neill," two firm hands next took hold on Polly"s thin shoulders, turning her deliberately over in bed so that she was forced to face her questioner, "ever since I can remember there has been some mystery or other connected with this old room. Of course it is not haunted. I suppose sensible people don"t believe in ghosts, though I don"t see why not believing makes them fail to exist. But the room may have had a tragedy of some kind take place in it, something that both mother and d.i.c.k find it painful to mention or recall. I told you that mother would not explain her feeling to me when I insisted upon knowing. However, I don"t think my family has the right to keep a secret from me. I am nearly grown now and no longer the kind of girl I used to be. So see here, Polly. Look me directly in the eyes.
Oftentimes outsiders hear things first. Have you ever heard of a sorrow or accident, or even something worse, that may have occurred in this house or even in this room when I was too little a girl to understand or remember it? You must tell me the truth."
Polly shook her head, devoutly thankful at the moment for her own lack of information. With Betty"s beautiful, honest gray eyes searching her own, with her lips trembling and her cheeks flushed with the fervor of her desire, her friend would have found deceiving her extremely difficult. Yet it was more agreeable to change the subject of their talk, even though it continued upon dangerous grounds.
"No, Betty, I was not thinking of ghosts nor of the fact that you have always been absurdly curious about the mystery of this room. I was thinking of something altogether different--of a thief, in fact--and I was wondering whether you would be angry or hurt or both if I mention something to you?" Polly returned.
Betty kissed her friend"s thin cheek, wishing at the same instant that it would grow more rounded, now that Polly was presumably well. "You don"t usually mind making me angry, dear," she smiled. "And I don"t see why if you have a possible theory of a burglar that I should be hurt. Do you think the figure we saw was a man"s or a woman"s?"
"I don"t know," the other girl replied. "What I have been wondering is just this: Has any one in this house ever come into this room with your mother when she was rummaging in that old closet, to help her move the furniture or lift things about?"
For a moment Betty frowned and then her face flamed crimson.
"You are not fair, Polly. You never have approved of his living here or my being kind to him. And you have said half a dozen times that there was no special point in my being particularly grateful to him, since any one of our friends would have done just what he did, had they been equally near me. But then of course that does not alter the fact.
Now just because _he_ has been in here to a.s.sist mother does not prove anything, does not even make it fair to be suspicious."
Polly shrugged her shoulders. "I knew you would be angry, so I am sorry I spoke. But you see our first meeting in the woods with the young man when your safety box was almost stolen from you was a little unfortunate. But I don"t say that I suspect any one, either, and I have no intention of not being fair. However, I do intend to keep on the lookout. Now kiss me good morning, for I am going to turn out the light. The gray dawn seems at last to be breaking and perhaps we may both get a little sleep before breakfast time."
CHAPTER XVIII
UNCERTAINTY
In spite of their own entire conviction the story told the next day by Polly and Betty to the various members of the Ashton household was received with little credulity. Even Mrs. Ashton was inclined to be skeptical after finding that nothing in the big house had been stolen or even disarranged. There was no window that had been pried open and no door left unlocked. Then why, even if the robber had entered the house by some mysterious process of his own, had he gone away again empty-handed? There were many pieces of valuable silver in the lower part of the establishment, pictures, even single ornaments that could be sold for fair sums of money. Therefore why climb to the second story and enter the girls" room first?
Although Betty and Polly were too deeply offended by the suggestion to allow it to be freely discussed, Miss McMurtry"s idea that they had had a kind of sympathetic nightmare, or at least a mutual hallucination, was the most commonly accepted theory. It was an extremely annoying point of view to both the girls, of course, but as they had nothing to disprove it, they were obliged after several futile arguments to let the matter rest. Naturally their Camp Fire friends were delightfully thrilled by the anecdote, but as it was always received either with open or carefully concealed disbelief, after a few days neither Polly nor Betty cared to speak of it except to each other.
There was one person, however, who, whether or not he believed the truth of their story, at least accepted it with extreme seriousness.
And it was to him that Polly O"Neill made a determined effort to be the first narrator of their experience.
Anthony Graham was in the habit of getting up earlier than any one else in the Ashton house and had of course disappeared hours before either of the girls awakened the morning after their nearly sleepless night.
However, he was accustomed to returning to his small room in the third story at about half-past five o"clock every afternoon, when his work for the day was over, in order to change his clothes for the evening.
So at about this time Polly found it convenient to be in the hallway leading to his room and to be there alone.
As he walked toward her unconscious of her presence, in spite of her prejudice against him she could not fail to see how much the young man had improved. He was hardly recognizable as the boy with whom they had had the encounter in the woods a little more than a year before. He was shabby enough and as lean as a young animal that has had too much exercise and too little food. His face was serious, almost sad; nevertheless Polly had no intention of not pursuing her investigation.
She had seated herself on a narrow window ledge and was presumably peering out at the trees in the garden.
As he caught sight of her the young man started with a perfectly natural surprise. For although Polly had been in the same house with him now for a number of weeks, they had not seen each other more than half a dozen times and had only talked together once when Betty had made a point of introducing them as though they had never met before.
Perhaps some recollection of their original coming together was in Anthony"s memory, for he blushed a kind of dull brick red, when Polly, turning deliberately from her window seat, said: "Mr. Graham, I wonder if you would mind giving me a minute of your time. There is something I wish to tell you."
"Certainly," he answered and then stood fingering his hat in the same awkward fashion that he had employed in his Thanksgiving visit to Betty, yet regarding the girl herself with a totally different sensation.
For instinctively Anthony Graham recognized that Polly O"Neill was or might become his enemy. Not that she would do him any wrong, but that if ever he was able to set out to accomplish the desire of his heart, the weight of her influence and feeling would be against him. And he did not underestimate the compelling power of a nature like Polly"s.
She was wayward, high tempered, sometimes appearing unreliable and almost unloving. Yet this last fact was never true of her. It was only that her personality was of the kind that can want but one thing at a time with all the pa.s.sion and force of which it is capable. And pursuing this desire, she might seem to forget her other impulses.
Polly, however, never did put aside her few really vital affections.
She and Betty Ashton might quarrel, might continue to disagree as they had so often done in the past; yet Betty"s welfare and happiness would always be of intense concern to her friend. More because of the quality of her imagination than from any single witnessed fact, Polly had lately suspected that Anthony might learn to care more for her friend than would be comfortable for anybody concerned in the affair.
And undoubtedly the young man had once been a thief if intention counted. Therefore he might be a thief again, and in any case probably needed to be forewarned of a number of things.
"There was a burglar in our room last night," Polly began, wasting no time in preliminaries, but keeping her blue eyes fixed so directly upon Anthony"s that they were like blue flames.
Even before he could reply the young man wondered how there could be people who thought this girl beautiful or even pretty. It was true that at times her eyes were strangely magnetic, that her hair was always black with that peculiar almost dead l.u.s.ter, and her lips like two fine scarlet lines. Yet she was always too thin, her chin too pointed and her cheekbones too high to touch any of his ideals of beauty.
"I--I am sorry. That is--what _do you mean_?" the young fellow stammered stupidly. And all at once the scowl gathered upon his face that Betty Ashton had once misunderstood. It was a black, ugly look, and in this case certainly was inspired by the impression that because of his former misdeed, Polly might now be suspecting him of another.
And she left him no room for doubt.
"Oh, I am not exactly accusing you," she remarked coolly, "for I presume that would hardly be fair. But I am not going to pretend that I feel as much confidence in you as I do in the people against whom I know nothing. I can"t. Perhaps I may some day when you have made good, but it is a little too soon to expect it of me, as I am not an idealist like some girls. So last night, though we did not have any reason to suspect that the person who entered our room and then stole out again without our ever really seeing him or her had anything to do with you, I must confess I did think of you. Because, though it is just as well not to talk about it, there is no question but that the intruder was already living in this house. No one came in from the outside. So you see it is like this: I don"t begin to say that it was you, but I am going to be on the watch and it is just as fair to warn you openly as to suspect you in secret. Then there is another thing.
Personally I don"t believe we had a ghostly visitant, as Betty is inclined to think because of the mystery of that particular room. So suppose we take it for granted that you had nothing to do with our experience, then will you help Betty and me to find out who or what it was? We do not want to create too much disturbance over it."
Just how many varying emotions had pa.s.sed through Anthony Graham"s mind during Polly"s amazing speech, it would be difficult to express. He was bitterly angry of course, deeply wounded and resentful, and yet he could not but have a certain respect for the girl"s outspokenness, for her kind of brutal courage. Certainly he was given notice not to repeat his offense, if offense he had committed. And as proof of his own innocence it might be as wise for him to discover the real offender.
Anthony kept a hold on himself by a fine effort of self-control. The truth was that he and Polly O"Neill were not altogether unlike in disposition, and he had a temper and a will to match with hers.
Notwithstanding, he appreciated that this was not the occasion for revealing weakness.
Therefore he merely bowed with such quiet courtesy that Polly was secretly astonished.
"You are unfair in suspecting me of having violated Mrs. Ashton"s confidence simply because I once tried to commit a theft. Though of course I know that most people would feel just as you do. Does Betty--does Miss Ashton----" he inquired.
Polly frowned. "No," she responded curtly.
"Then will you tell her, please, that you have confided what has happened to me and that I will do my best to ferret out the mystery."
And Anthony walked past and into his own room, closing the door noiselessly behind him.
With a shrug of her thin shoulders Polly stood for another moment regarding the shut door. "I am sorry to say it, but he has behaved a great deal better than I expected," she thought to herself with a smile at her own expense.
CHAPTER XIX
AN UNSPOKEN POSSIBILITY
The two friends were walking home from school together about ten days later. They had both stayed until almost dusk engaged in different pursuits.
Betty was doing some extra studying with Miss McMurtry, as she had missed so much time and science was always her weakest point; while Polly had been having an hour"s quiet talk with her former elocution teacher, Miss Adams. Probably she was the one person in Woodford, excepting Betty, who sympathized in the least with Polly in her escapade. Or if she did not exactly sympathize with her, she was sorry for the retribution that she had brought upon herself. For Mrs.
Wharton had decreed that her daughter was not to leave Woodford again and was not even to be permitted to study anything in the village with the view of its being useful to her later in a stage career. The subject was to be entirely tabooed until Polly reached twenty-one, when if she were of the same mind, she might choose her own future. Of course to an impatient nature three years and a few months over seemed like an eternity, and except for Betty"s sympathy and her frequent talks with Miss Adams and the latter"s accounts of her great cousin, Margaret Adams, Polly believed existence would have been unendurable.
She was in such a state of excitement now over something which Miss Adams had been recently telling her, that at first she hardly heard what Betty was trying to say.