CHAPTER XVII--THE MYSTERY
And where was Laura herself all this time?
She had returned to consciousness almost at once. Indeed, the pulling ofthe bonds upon her wrists and the veil tied so tightly across the lowerpart of her face would naturally have aroused her.
But for a moment she could neither rise nor move. It seemed as thoughshe was paralyzed. Her ankle began to pain, then, and at the first throbthe girl came fully to her senses.
"Oh! where am I?" she thought.
But she couldn't have spoken the words aloud. The muffler was too tightacross her lips.
The ghostly figure that had flitted out of the room had scarcely gonewhen Laura opened her eyes. The frightened girl looked all around forit. She remembered how awful it had looked. But nothing was insight--nothing but the wavering reflection of the ghost-light on thewall.
To her ears, however, came the screaming of the frightened girls on theplateau before the house. It was not alone her three comrades screaming;but the chorus of the whole party of M. O. R.'s who had given voice totheir terror. And the sounds were swiftly receding. The girls wereleaving her alone, bound and helpless, in this awful house!
Never for a moment did Laura Belding believe that the thing was a trick,or joke. It could not be part of the M. O. R. initiation. Mary O'Rourkeand Celia Prime and the other seniors governing the secret society werenot the girls to make up any such plan as this with which to frightennew members of the order. Nor would the school authorities allow suchaction by the M. O. R.'s.
Nevertheless, Laura knew that something strange had happened to her.There had been no person in this big room when she and her three friendshad entered to drive the nails. Yet, when the fright occurred and shehad attempted to run, she was hauled back by the skirt.
Something seemed to have grabbed her. Was it a hand--the same hand thathad lashed her wrists and gagged her with this veil?
Yet, any person beside the four girls would have betrayed hispresence--for the room had never been wholly dark--only in the farcorners. And no arm would be long enough to reach out of those shadowsand seize the bottom of Laura's skirt and pull her to the floor againwhen she started to run.
The girl was still frightened--desperately frightened, indeed. But thepossibility of anything supernatural having happened to her had longsince departed from her mind. Even the flickering reflection of theghost-light did not trouble her.
No ghost could have bound her hands and gagged her.
The voices of the girls had died away into the distance ere this. With agroan of pain because of her ankle, Laura rolled over and tried again torise. Something jerked her back!
She threw herself over and rolled away from the point of contact. Therewas a tearing sound--and she was free!
She scrambled to her feet. Then she saw what manner of "ghostly hand"had held her. In stooping to drive the first nail into the floor, shehad driven it through the hem of her skirt--that was what had jerked herto the floor when she tried to run with her comrades.
"Well! I am silly!" mumbled the girl.
Instantly she heard somebody cry out, but outside of the house.
"What's the matter mit you, Otto?" growled a deeper voice.
"I heard a voice, fader! Not nearer to dat house would I go--so hellupme! It iss de ha'nt!"
Laura's muffled voice was audible a few yards away, but she could nottell them who she was, and how situated. She ran to the window. One sashwas gone. Boys had used the windows as targets in times past.
"Ouch!" yelled the younger voice, in a long-drawn wail. "Dere iss oldtSarah!"
"Be still! you are a fool!" commanded the gruffer voice.
Laura saw that a man and a boy were outside the fence. The man carried alantern. It had been this light coming along the road that had soterrified the M. O. R.'s and the candidates for initiation.
The farmer raised his lantern so that the light fell full upon the faceof the girl in the house. He saw the veil-bandage, and her tied wrists.In a moment he hopped over the broken-down fence and hurried to thecasement.
"Come here, Otto!" he commanded. "See your ghost--fool! It is a harmlessgirl--and she is in trouble. What does this mean, eh?" he asked, in hisqueer English. "Somebody been fooling you, no?"
Then seeing that Laura could not answer him save by a murmur from behindthe muffler, the farmer said:
"Run in there undt untie her, Otto! Do you hear?"
"But the ghost, fader!" gasped the fat boy, who had followed his parentto the house, and seemed much the more cowardly of the two.
"Bah! Ghost indeed! There iss no ghost here----"
"But we know de house iss haunted. Are you sure dat iss not old Sarah?"demanded Otto, in much fear.
"It is a girl--a _madchen_--I tell you! A mere child--yes!" cried thefather. "Go in there and unloose her hands--dolt!" and he boxed his son'sear soundly.
"Oh! I can come out myself!" Laura tried to say.
She darted away from the window, found the open door, and so staggeredout of the house to meet the farmer and his half-grown boy, with thelantern, on the porch of the haunted dwelling.
"Ah-ha!" exclaimed the man. "We heardt de oder girls screeching--yah?Undt dey tie you undt leave you here?"
He was fumbling with the knotted veil as he spoke, having passed thelantern to Otto, and now unfastened it so that Laura could reply.
"No, no!" she said. "Something frightened us all. First your lanterncoming along the road. We thought it was the ghost light."
"Ouch!" wailed Otto again. He was very much afraid of the ghost.
"And then--I nailed my skirt to the floor and could not get away quickly.I--I am afraid I have been a dreadful fool," admitted Laura, with somechagrin.
"But you did not tie yourself--so," growled the farmer, working on herwrist bonds.
"No. I fell and something--_somebody_, I should say--came and tied mywrists and put that veil over my face--give me the veil, please."
"Some of your companions play a choke onto you--eh?" said the farmer.
"No. They would not be so cruel. And they were all as badly frightenedby your lantern as I was."
"Den you haf an enemy--eh?" queried the man.
"I do not know who. I don't know what it means. Oh!"
"You are hurt, Miss?"
"I can scarcely hobble on my foot. I turned my ankle," explained Laura.
"Then Otto and I will help you home--to our house yet," said the farmer."We were hunting a stray cow. My name iss Sitz. I lif' back up deroad--yonder. Two of your girls friendts bought milk at my houseto-night."
"Yes. I know who you are," admitted Laura. "Do you suppose you could getme to your house and then send word to the city so that my father orbrother will get it--without frightening mother?"
"Ach!" ejaculated the farmer. "We can carry you--Otto undt me; if he_iss_ a fool-boy, he iss strong. Undt we haf de telephone. Sure we cancarry you."
They made a "chair" with their four hands, in which Laura sat, leaningback against their arms, and so maintaining her balance. She carried thelantern to light the way, and very soon after her girl friends had leftthe plateau in their stampede, she was being carried across the brookand up the country road to the Sitz farmhouse.
Laura had recovered from her fright ere this; but the mystery of whathad happened to her continued to puzzle and amaze her.
Who had done this to her? What had been the object of the attack? Andwhy should anybody desire to so maltreat and frighten her? Thesequestions were repeated over and over in her mind, even while she wastalking with Mr. Sitz and Otto. And there seemed to be no sane andsensible answer to them!
It surely was not any of the M. O. R.'s who had done this. They had allbeen just as frightened as they could be by the light of Mr. Sitz'slantern. Of course, Mary's foolish story of the ghost had started thegirls off on the stampede when Jess and Nellie and Dora had run from thehaunted house.
Laura remembered very vividly what she had seen in the room after herfriends had left her.
The figure in white had tied her hands andadjusted that veil across her mouth.
Surely, she must have some enemy--some person who really hated her. Fornobody else, it seemed to Laura Belding, could have done so cruel athing. She had no idea who this enemy could be, however.
Nevertheless, she had stuffed the veil into the front of her blouse andintended to hold on to it. That veil might prove to be a clue to theidentity of the person who had bound and gagged her.