As the bus rolled away and we started on foot up the hill toward Old Beecham, we told Hattie May of our plan to stop at Craven House on the way back and take another look for the missing statue. Hattie May said she didn't think she ought to waste time hunting for lost goddesses when her own brother was missing.
"She wasn't a goddess," I corrected, more for the sake of making talk than anything else. "She was an enchantress who turned the companions of Ulysses into swine by the wave of her wand."
"Well, she must have been a very disagreeable person," returned Hattie May. "I'm sure I don't see why anyone should want a statue of her about!"
As we came abreast of the old house, Hattie May said she'd got to sit down and rest for a minute. The road was deserted as usual. Beyond the wall the old house seemed asleep. "To think that we almost spent a night there," I mused.
"I'll bet you'd have seen a ghost if you had," said Hattie May. "I can't think whatever induced you to go inside in the first place."
"That was Eve's curiosity," I said. "Without curiosity, you know, Hattie May, you never get anywhere."
Eve said nothing. She was gazing intently at the road in front of where we sat. "I didn't know cars came out this way much," she remarked at last.
"They don't," I said. "That day on the roof we didn't see a single one. Michael said there was a better road the other side of the hill."
"But look at those tracks there in the dust," Eve said. "It looks as if two or three cars had been out here recently."
Hattie May was on her feet in a flash. "You're dead right!" she cried. "A car has turned around right in front of this house--see the double tracks!"
She was right. There were marks of tires going in both directions clearly discernible in the dry dust of the road.
"Maybe Hamish came out here!" Hattie May cried. "Maybe he went inside the house and--and--" she cast terrified eyes beyond the wall.
"Hush, Hattie May, don't be ridiculous. There aren't any such things as ghosts as you very well know. Besides," I added illogically, "no one ever heard of one's harming a person."
"But people die of fright," Hattie May went on wildly. "Or--or they fall in a swoon. I'm sure I should if I saw one and Hamish is a year younger than me. Oh, Eve, would you dare to--to just go up to the house and--listen?"