Page:Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car.djvu/173

Rh their chaperone and Mr. Blackford, stared about it. No Mollie was there!

"But I'm sure she was thrust into this room by that figure in white," declared Betty. "We all saw it."

"Are you sure?" asked Mr. Blackford, slowly.

"Positive. She was put in this room for some unknown purpose, and she can't have gotten out, for we have been in the hall all the while, and the door was locked."

"There is the window," said Mr. Blackford, as he took the lantern from Betty. Walking over to the casement he uttered an exclamation, as he saw the bent bars.

"This explains it!" he cried. "She has escaped!"

"Or else the—the ghost—came in here and took her away," faltered Amy.

"Well, we'll have a look about outside," suggested the young man. "There may be marks that will aid us, especially as the ground is soft now."

They all went outside. The rain was but a mere drizzle now. The fury of the storm had passed, and the night was becoming calm. The old house, and the mansion beyond it, which could now be seen dimly back of a fringe of