made her seem much older than her visitors.
A suggestion of a smile crossed her face at the sight of the girls’ pleasant faces, and for a second she looked almost pretty.
“Is this your kitten?” asked Mary Louise. “We rescued it from a tree down the road.”
The girl nodded.
“Yes. It belongs to my aunt Mattie. Come in, and I’ll call her.”
The girls stepped into the dark square hall and looked about them. The inside of the house was even more forbidding than the outside. The ceilings were high and the wall paper dark. All the shutters were drawn, as if there were poison in the June sunlight. For no reason at all that they could see, the old stairs suddenly creaked.
Jane shuddered visibly, and the girl in the purple dress smiled.
“Don’t mind the queer noises,” she said. “Nothing ever happens in daytime.”
“Then something does happen after dark?” questioned Mary Louise eagerly.
“Oh, yes. Why, only two nights ago – ”
“What’s this? What’s this?” demanded the sharp, high voice of an old woman. “What are you standing there talking about, Elsie? With all those peaches waiting to be pared!”
All eyes turned naturally towards the old staircase, from which the sound of the voice was coming. Miss Grant slowly descended, holding her hand on her right side and grunting to herself as if the act of walking were painful to her. She was a woman of at least sixty-five, thin and wrinkled, but with little sharp black beady eyes that seemed to peer into everything suspiciously, as if she believed the whole world evil. She was wearing an old-fashioned black dress, and a dark shawl about her shoulders.
“These girls have found your kitten, Aunt Mattie,” Elsie informed her. “They rescued her from a tree.”
The black eyes softened, and the old woman came towards the girls.
“My precious little Puffy!” she exclaimed, as one might talk to a baby. Then her tone abruptly became harsh again as she turned to her niece.
“Go back to your work, Elsie!” she ordered gruffly. “I’ll attend to this!”
Without any reply the girl slunk away to the kitchen, and Miss Grant took the kitten from Jane.
“Tell me what happened to my poor little pet,” she said.
Briefly Jane repeated the story, with an emphasis upon Mary Louise’s prowess in climbing trees.
Apparently the old lady was touched.
“I must say that was good of you,” she remarked. “Not a bit like what most young people nowadays would do! All they seem to enjoy is torturing poor helpless creatures!”
She put the kitten down on the floor and turned towards the stairs.
“You wait!” she commanded the girls, “I’m going to get you a reward for this!”
“Oh, no, Miss Grant!” they both protested instantly, and Mary Louise went on to explain that they were Girl Scouts and never accepted money for good turns. (Even Silky knows better than that, she added to herself. He won’t expect a bone for rescuing Pussy – only a pat on the head!)
“You really mean that?” demanded Miss Grant, in obvious relief. She would save two cents! She had meant to give each girl a whole penny!
“Tell me your names, then,” she continued, “and where you live. I might want to call on you for help sometime. I can’t trust my niece as far as my nose, and my servants are both old.” Mary Louise chuckled. So there was a mystery in this house! A lurking danger that Miss Grant and her niece both feared! And she and Jane were being drawn into it.
“Jane Patterson and Mary Louise Gay,” she replied. “We live over in Riverside, next to the high school. You can get us on the phone.”
“I haven’t a telephone. Too expensive. Besides, if I had one, I couldn’t tell what deviltry Elsie might be up to… No, I don’t hold with these modern inventions.”
“Well, you could send Elsie for us if you need any help,” suggested Jane. “It’s only a little over a mile. You see, Mary Louise’s father is a detective on the police force, and we’re both interested in mysteries.”
“I’m not thinking of any mystery,” snapped Miss Grant. “What I’m thinking of is facts. One fact is that I’ve got a pack of scheming relations who are trying to send me off to the hospital for an operation while they loot my house.”
Mary Louise’s forehead wrinkled in surprise.
“I didn’t know you had any relations besides your niece,” she said.
“Certainly I have. Haven’t you ever heard of the Grants in Riverside? Mrs. Grace Grant – a woman about my age? She has two grown sons and a married daughter. Well, they spent all their money, and now they want mine. But they’re not going to get it!”
Her hand went to her side again, as if she were in pain, and Mary Louise decided it was time for them to go.
“Well, good-bye, Miss Grant,” she said. “And don’t forget to call on us if you want help.”
It was a relief to be out in the bright sunlight again, away from the gloom and the decay of that ugly house. Mary Louise took a deep breath and whistled for Silky. He was waiting at the foot of the porch steps.
As they walked down the path they were startled by a rustle in one of the cedar trees. Silky perked up his ears and went to investigate the disturbance. In another moment a head peered cautiously through the branches. It was Elsie Grant.
“Will you come over here and talk to me a little while?” she whispered, as if she were afraid of being caught. “I never see any girls my own age – and – you look so nice!”
Both Mary Louise and Jane were touched by the loneliness of this poor unhappy orphan. They went gladly to her side.
“Don’t you go to school?” asked Mary Louise. “I mean – when it isn’t vacation time?”
The girl shook her head.
“That must be awful!” exclaimed Jane. “Sometimes I hate school, but I’d certainly hate worse never to go. How old are you?”
“I’m only fifteen,” replied Elsie. “But it seems as if I were fifty. I mean – the time is so long. Yet I’ve really only lived here with Aunt Mattie two years.”
“And didn’t you ever go to school?” questioned Mary Louise. She couldn’t believe that, for the girl spoke beautiful English.
“Oh, yes – before I came here. I was just ready to enter high school when mother died – only a couple of months after my father was killed in an accident. He was Aunt Mattie’s youngest brother. And he didn’t leave any money, so I had to come and live with her.”
“But I can’t see why she doesn’t send you to school,” protested Jane. “It’s a public high school. It wouldn’t cost her anything.”
“Yes, it would, because I haven’t
