"Look!" Terry suddenly exclaimed, pointing. "Footprints in the snow. At least one man has gone in there!"
"That is very evident, Robinson Crusoe," laughed Arden. "As your man Friday, I agree with you. Someone has gone in, and one man only, judging by the footprints. And as these are plain footprints and not little scratchy marks in the snow I think we may safely argue that it is no ghost."
"Who said it was?" countered Terry. "But what can one workman do in tearing down such a big house?"
At that moment a head was thrust out of an upper and partly demolished window and a voice cheerily called:
"Oh, it's Harry Pangborn!" exclaimed Arden.
"Hello, Harry!" greeted Terry. Since the episode at Cedar Ridge, the friends had begun to call one another by their first names.
"What are you doing in there?" Arden called back.
"Investigating ghosts, as I promised. Want to help me?"
"We're after holly," said Terry, "in the back woods."
"Well, you have time for both ghosts and holly too, perhaps."
"No, thank you," Arden decided, shaking some of the snow off her hat. "I think you can do your investigating alone. I mean, you come to it with an open mind. Terry or I might suggest something to you, in our eagerness, and that would throw you off the track." They were so near the Hall they could talk easily to the young man at the window above.
"There is something in what you say," admitted Harry with an assumed judicial air. "I shall take it under consideration. Well, then, I'll go on investigating by myself, reserving the right to call at Sim's house to see you all, later, and report."
"Have you found anything yet?" Arden wanted to know.
"I only arrived a few minutes ago. Well, on with the ghost hunt! Stop in if you come past this way, and I'll help you carry the holly branches home."
"Oh, that will be fine!" called Terry. "I was wondering how we could carry enough to make really satisfactory decorations."
"But I draw the line at a Yule Log!" stipulated the young millionaire, whose car, the girls now noticed, was parked near a big clump of lilac bushes that nearly concealed it. He had driven in from a direction opposite that which they had traversed and so they had not seen the tire marks.
"Did you come here this morning just to investigate?" pressed Arden as young Pangborn started away from the window and she and Terry were about to walk on.