"You do! Well, you'd better think again, before you let out any such yarn as that! Why, she's a queen, that woman is!"
"Oho! She's subjugated you, has she? Well, look out that she doesn't convert you to spookism,--you'd lose your job!"
Other curious people journeyed up to Black Aspens for the pleasure of looking at the house where the mystery was staged. If allowed to enter they walked about, open-mouthed in admiration or wonder.
"Stunning hall!" exclaimed one young man, a budding architect, who examined the old house with interest. "Look at those bronze columns! I never saw such a pair."
"I've heard the first Montgomery brought those from Italy or somewhere, and put up a house behind 'em," volunteered another sightseer. "Ain't it queer, the way they're half in and half out of the front wall? Land! You wouldn't know whether you was going to school or coming home!" and the speaker laughed heartily at his own wit.
But at last, the sightseers were refused admittance to the house, and the remaining members of the party gathered in conclave to decide on future plans.
Professor Hardwick was the one who showed the calmest demeanour.
"If there was a chance of a human being having committed these crimes," he said, "I'd be the first one to want to track him down, and send him straight to the chair. But nobody who has thought about the matter can present any theory that will account for the human element in the cause of the tragedy. Therefore, feeling certain, as I do, that our friends were killed by supernatural influences, I am ready to stay here a short time longer, in hopes of convincing the authorities up here that we are right. Moreover, I planned to stay here a month, and we've been here but little more than a fortnight."
"I'm willing to stay for the same reason, Professor," and Eve Carnforth's strange eyes glowed deeply. "I too, know that no living beings brought about the deaths of Mr. Bruce and little Vernie, and I will stay the rest of our proposed month, if the others will."
"I am ready to stay," said Milly Landon, quietly. "I've gotten all over my hysterical, foolish fears, and I _want_ to stay. I have a good reason, and if I hadn't, I'd be willing to stay to keep house for the rest of you."