That evening, at the Clydes’ country home, Nell called up some of her friends and asked them to drive over for an evening of good times. Perhaps half a dozen girls and boys came, initiating Jannet into the pleasures of country life. It was a new atmosphere to Jannet and she liked it. They were all a little stiff at first, pleasant, but waiting to see what the girl from the city school was like. Soon, however, when Nell and Chick started some games and they found Jannet throwing herself into everything with a real delight, the party waxed merry.

The next morning Jannet and Jan rode home. Jannet heard Jan and Paulina in more than one mild argument as she tried to pack for him and he objected to her packing. “Of course I’m going to take that, P’lina. That is one of the most important things. If you can’t get that in, I’ll tumble the whole mess out and pack it all over myself. What’s the idea? Do you think that you have to do it?”

“Now, Jan, your ma—” but Jannet shut the door to hear no more. She supposed, as she smiled over what she had heard, that some treasure like a bat or a ball glove or mask had been omitted. She was beginning a diary, suggested to her by her mother’s having kept one. But Jannet decided that she would never destroy hers, because it would be such a good history for her children, if she had any.

Jannet spent a good part of the morning in this way, after a good visit with Mrs. Holt. Then Paulina came in to sweep and clean her room. There was another servant to help with this sort of thing, but Paulina, who almost felt that she had part ownership in the place, liked to take care of this old part of the home herself. Paulina was “queer,” Jannet thought. She could not tell what Paulina thought of her, but she rather hoped that Paulina did not hate her, for “Old P’lina” was a family institution, it seemed. She grew older and older in Jannet’s thought, for Paulina’s face was much more lined than Uncle Pieter’s, in spite of the dark hair. Nell said that P’lina must dye her hair, but Jannet knew that Nell was wrong.

Nell and Chick Clyde did not arrive until long after supper and said that they had company at home, unexpected company for supper. But they enjoyed the evening together, Mrs. Holt keeping her promise of the “party,” which meant something good to eat at the proper time.

Jannet wondered if Uncle Pieter would have approved, for they had chicken and biscuits, with other accompaniments, for a first course, and Paulina’s delicious angel food cake with a whipped cream “salad” over it or “by” it, as Jannet put it. Nuts, maraschino cherries and pineapple made this toothsome. But this was Jan’s last evening at home. Sometime the next day he was leaving for school. “Yes, Nell,” said he, “hard-hearted Uncle Pieter is responsible for my leaving; but after all Chick could scarcely get his lessons without me, and it will be fun to see the other boys.”

After the refreshment the boys were restless. It was not far from bedtime and Jan suggested that Chick go with him to the attic den to see his latest invention.

“You might invite us, too, Jan,” said Jannet, with a freedom which she was beginning to feel in this new environment.

“Oh, girls wouldn’t understand, and besides, it doesn’t work yet. I want to get Chick’s ideas about it. Then the attic is where the ghost usually begins, you know.”

“Honestly, Jan, did you ever hear or see anything strange?”

Jan looked mysterious, then laughed. “‘Honestly,’ Jannet, I think most of the noises might be from some ordinary cause. But once I did—oh, well, there are lots of odd sounds and things in an old house. But no ghost has ever come into my attic den so far as I know.”

“I wouldn’t go up there after dark for worlds!” Nell declared.

“Silly!” So her brother commented. “Jan’s den is a real room, at a gable, and used to be a bedroom, Paulina says. There’s a rambling sort of hall, and a door, that Paulina keeps locked, into the rest of the attic, which isn’t all floored, she says. Paulina says ‘Keep Out,’ in large letters, doesn’t she, Jan?”

“Yep,” answered Jan, with a look at Chick which was intended to mystify the girls.

“Maybe P’lina is the ghost, then,” Nell suggested, and Jannet thought to herself that it was not impossible.

“I’ll tell P’lina that I want to see if any of my mother’s boxes or trunks are up there, and perhaps she will give me the key!”

“You wouldn’t dare, Jannet!”

“Yes I would, Nell!”

“Much you would,” and Jan’s disbelieving eyes laughed into Jannet’s sparkling ones. “Wait till I come home again anyhow,” he added.

“Perhaps I will, Jan,” his cousin conceded.

The boys said goodnight, leaving the two girls in the quaint old kitchen, where they had made taffy in one of the old kettles, by the express permission of Mrs. Holt, and under her supervision, for Paulina had not wanted to have the “trouble and muss” of a fire here, among the cherished antiques of the kitchen. “Before the weather gets too hot,” meditatively said Jannet, taking a last piece of the sticky but very delicious sweet from one of the pans, “I’d like to have an old-fashioned taffy pull and invite some of the girls and boys that I met at your house, Nell. I’m afraid that Uncle Pieter and Old P’lina might not like it, but perhaps Cousin Di could get permission for me.”

“Perhaps so,” doubtfully answered Nell, “but remember that Chick and Jan leave to-morrow.”

“That’s so. Well, perhaps I’ll be here next winter. I’ve read about the good times in the country in the winter and I almost wish I needn’t go to school.”

“Your uncle intends to keep you here, Jannet. I heard Mother say so.”

Jannet looked inquiringly at Nell, but made no comment. That might not be so nice after all, not to go back to the girls and Miss Hilliard. But Miss Hilliard was her guardian, and she would do the deciding.

Mrs. Holt came hurrying in to say that she had almost forgotten them, and that by all means they must get to bed. With a kind goodnight she left them, and they heard her routing the boys from their attic den. The sound of their descent by the attic stairs could have been heard in Philadelphia, Nell said.

The girls went upstairs by the front staircase, turning to the right with the dark, curving rail of the banisters. To Jannet’s door there was only a step, and Nell looked on along the railing to the front of the upstairs hall. “That front room on this side,” Jannet explained, “belonged to my grandfather and grandmother, and the big chimney, with gorgeous fireplaces, is between their room and what was my mother’s, now mine. There are plenty of other fireplaces, though,” she added, “only this seems to be the biggest chimney. See, my door almost faces the corridor that leads to the new part, where Cousin Di sleeps, and Paulina’s room is right off the back hall, there. Jan’s room is downstairs. He picked it out himself.”

“Chick says that he has a cot in the den upstairs, too.”

“Is that so? I shouldn’t think that he would want to sleep there.”

“Why, Jannet! I thought that you didn’t believe in ghosts!”

“I don’t but just the same,—” and Jannet stopped to laugh at herself.

By this time they were in the room, Nell wondering a little at Jannet’s having to unlock the door. But she did not ask her why she kept the door locked, and Jannet did not explain. One thing after another had interfered with her having had an opportunity to open the secret drawer in her desk for a glimpse of the pearls. First she had been expecting Paulina in to clean. Then, after some delay, the cleaning took place. A call, plans with Cousin Di and a long drive with her and Cousin Andy, partly for the sake of errands, completely filled the day till time for the Clydes to come.

But now, as Jannet displayed her room to her guest, placing the little overnight bag, and quietly mentioning her pleasure in having her mother’s room and her mother’s picture, she was anxious to assure herself of her new possession in the desk and felt impatient with herself for not having locked the door against everybody long enough to see that the pearls were safe. Of course they were, though.

What was Nell saying? Oh, yes, she was commenting on the size of the house, admiring it, but telling Jannet the gossip. Some said that her uncle intended to turn it into a summer hotel, and others said that he had expected his daughter’s family to occupy it with him, as well as his son’s. “Andrew was going to be married, if he hadn’t gotten all banged up in the war.”

“Oh,—too bad!” exclaimed sympathetic Jannet. “Wouldn’t his sweetheart marry him?”

“More likely he would not let her.”

“Dear me, I’ll never catch up with the why and wherefore of our family. Can you keep a secret, Nell?”

“Try me. Even Chick says that I can.”

Nell had admired the desk before, but Jannet led her to it again.

“I want to show you a secret drawer, Nell, and what I found in it, something wonderful,—my mother’s pearls, the ones she has on in the picture!”

Nell leaned over with the greatest interest, while Jannet seated herself in front of her desk, now open, and pressed the spring as she had done before. Out came the drawer, more easily than before,—but empty!

Quickly Nell looked into her friend’s face, which was blank with surprise. “Gone!” Jannet exclaimed. “Why, Nell, it’s just as it happened before! Mother lost them, too, or they were stolen from her desk. Oh, who could have done it! Why did I leave them there!”

Jannet dropped her hands in her lap and sat there looking at Nell, who drew up a chair and took one of Jannet’s hands to pat it and try to comfort her.

“I ought not to care so much, perhaps,” said Jannet, almost ready to cry, “but I loved to think that Mother has worn them. I’d think it a dream, but Nell, I put them on my neck and loved to have them there,—don’t tell me that I’m quite crazy!” Jannet, smiling, was herself now.

“Of course you are not crazy. I believe that the pearls were there, and where could they have gone? They did not walk off by themselves certainly, and there isn’t another thing in the drawer. Could there be a crack in the bottom?” Nell tapped the delicate wood with her finger.

“Not big enough to lose a big case full of pearls, Nell. Well, it can’t be helped. I’ll examine the desk to-morrow and see if they could have been put in another drawer,—or something.” As she spoke, Jannet began to open the little drawers which she knew, while Nell exclaimed over the tiny springs and the skill with which the drawers had been hidden.

But Jannet did not want to make Nell have an unhappy time over her lost pearls. In a few moments she was her philosophical self again. “It can’t be helped, Nell, and as I never did have them before, I can get along without them now. Let’s get to bed. I’m glad that you think the room is pretty and the things nice. I’m wealthy enough in my mother’s things without the pearls. It seems now as if I have been waiting all my life to come to this room!”

It was as they settled down in bed, after putting the windows at the proper height and turning off the light, that Nell happened to think of something. “Jannet, you’ll find your pearls! Didn’t your fortune say that you would lose something and find it again?”

“‘You will find what you look for,’” replied Jannet, in such a good imitation of the old fortune-teller’s cracked tones that Nell laughed and Jannet apologized, saying that she ought not to have made fun of Grandma Meer.

“Poor old soul,” said Nell, drowsily. For a wonder the girls did not lie awake to talk. It had been a full day and soon they were asleep; for Nell was an easy-going girl, not nervous about fancied ghosts in a room as bright and pleasant as this, while Jannet, accustomed to share her room and often her bed with Lina Marcy or some other school-girl, felt it quite natural to have company.

What time it was when Jannet was suddenly wide awake, she did not know. A confused dream, the result, she well knew, of taffy and other good things to eat, was floating away from her. Nell was not stirring the least bit and she could not even hear her breathe. That was odd. Cautiously she turned, sighed, and reached over to touch her friend lightly, when suddenly Nell clutched Jannet’s hand and reached Jannet’s lips with her other hand to insure silence.

Jannet squeezed Nell’s hand to indicate understanding, but she was a little frightened. What was it? The same old ghost, a burglar, or was Nell only startled at some little sound? Jannet had bolted her door, but it would be possible for some one to climb up on the trellis and climb into the window which opened upon the little balcony, she remembered. That one she had not raised very high and the screen was in.

It was pitch dark. There were no glimmerings of lights outside as in a city. The night was cloudy, without star or moon visible. Quite a breeze was stirring. Perhaps there would be another storm, though there were no flashes of electricity.

“Tap, tap, tap, tap,” she heard. Well, that might be the broken branch that she had noticed hanging against the pergola outside.

Then a weird sound began. Perhaps that was what had wakened Nell. That must be the “Dutch Banshee” that Jan had mentioned. It was indescribable, something like the whistling of the wind, then a little like the hooting of an owl. Was that what Paulina meant, then?

That was a queer, rustling sound. Yes, it did sound like someone lightly coming down a stairway; why, it sounded right in the wall, Jannet thought! Step, step, step, step, slowly. Paulina would be saying “That’s ‘Her!’”

Could it be true that there was something sinister and evil, or something unhappy, that could not rest, that came back to its old home? In the daytime Jannet would not have had these fearful thoughts, but it was eerie, indeed, to lie in a dark room and listen to sounds that she did not understand.

A faint moaning sound began and suddenly stopped with a little choke or gasp.

“Is Chick a ventriloquist?” whispered Jannet.

“No,” replied Nell, “and neither is Jan.”

For a few moments there was no sound at all. Then the “Dutch Banshee” began again. Jannet whispered, “Static,—Jan’s radio!”

“No,” whispered Nell. “Keep still!”

Jannet listened. Yes, it did sound more like a voice now. How scarey it did make a body feel! Anyhow it wasn’t in the room. Jannet sat up in bed, determined not to be frightened as she had been before. If there were anything going on, she was going to see it, come what might! She wished again for the flashlight that she had forgotten and left at school. Nell gained courage and sat up, too.

Now there was an odd light from somewhere. Why,—there was a dim veiled light on the wall, as if shining through! What in the world! There, it was gone. But some one was moaning,—no, sobbing!

Next the sound, tap, tap, tap. Jannet again thought of Paulina’s expression: “I suppose that’s ‘Her’ coming down some stairs somewhere,” she whispered to Nell, who still clutched her hand.

“Let’s put on the light and run to Paulina’s room,” Nell whispered, trying to pierce the darkness, and looking in the direction of the wall where the light had appeared. There it was for a moment again! Now it faded; then it came more strongly and went out again.

“It looks as if somebody were passing back and forth behind a screen, Nell,” whispered Jannet. “Come on.” But just then there came that clicking sound that Jannet had heard on that other night. “Wait, Nell,” she whispered. “I’ll get to the door, and if nothing gets me, come, too.”

“No,” again said Nell, holding Jannet as if to keep her in bed. There was somebody,—something,—in the room! A cover of the bed began to be drawn off, as before. Gently it moved. Jannet, ready for an experiment to find out if this were a person or a ghost that entered her room so mysteriously, reached for the slowly moving cover and gave it a jerk back toward her. She met with no resistance at all, and pulled the cover in a little heap around her by the force of her own effort.

This was too much! Jannet leaped out of bed, seized Nell by the arm, and ran in the direction of the electric button and the door. As she pushed the button, she was sure that she heard a similar sound behind her, but she only glanced behind to see that no one was after them, as she pulled out the little bolt and pushed Nell into the hall ahead of her.

Barefooted and breathless, the girls stood in the hall a moment, listening. Nothing followed them. They peeped back into the room after a few minutes. It was not cold, but both girls were shivering.

“Do you suppose that the boys could fool us in some way?” asked Nell, who remembered her brother’s tricks.

“Perhaps one of them hid somewhere,” said Jannet. “But how did he get out? This business of pulling a cover off happened once before, Nell. Perhaps there is a way of getting into the room. The windows were ’way up to-night, too.”

“Let’s run down and see if the boys are in their room,” suggested Nell.

“All right, but the other time was before Jan got home.”

Back the girls went, somewhat timorously, to be sure, to put on slippers and kimonos. Thus clad, they slipped quietly down the back stairs, and Nell stepped close to the door to listen. A heavy pin, with which she had fastened her kimono, fell out at this juncture and in the stillness of the hall it made quite a little noise.

“What’s that?” they heard Chick say, and presently a low grunt answered him. The bed creaked and the girls flew upstairs as fast as they could, Nell retrieving her pin first.

“Well,” said Jannet, as they entered the room again, “shall we wake up Paulina and get things stirred up? You will be afraid to go to sleep again, won’t you?”

“I g-guess not,” shivered Nell. “Put down the windows and leave the light on.”

“We’d smother, child,” said Jannet.

“Look under the bed, then. I refuse to get into it unless that is done.” Nell tried to be jolly with poor success.

“Perhaps that is where—It—was. Say, that was a funny feeling, Nell, to jerk that coverlid and find it come just too easy!”

As before, Jannet went all over to see what she could see. There was no sign of any one’s having been in the closets or in the bath room. The vines on the porch looked undisturbed. Jannet put the windows down to a point where they would have to be raised to admit anyone. Again she went over the paneled wall to see if there were a hidden door between her room and the next one. “But that light was too near the big chimney,” she said. “Perhaps there might be an opening of some sort there.”

The girls looked up into the chimney with its bricks discolored by many a fire. “What’s on the other side of the chimney?” Nell asked.

“That other room just like this,—are you afraid to go in there?”

“No,” answered Nell, beginning to get over her scare. But they found the door of the other room locked and looked at each other as much as to say, “Perhaps the mystery lies here.”

“Nothing hurt us anyhow, Nell, as I thought before. We’ll leave the side lights on and put that little screen I have up on a chair to keep the light out of our eyes. I haven’t heard another sound, have you?”

“No, I guess the ghosts have gotten through. What time is it, Jannet?”

Jannet looked at her wrist watch but it had stopped. “The ghosts were too much for my timepiece, Nell, but it must be ’most morning. It is about the same time, I think, that the comforter went off my bed and never did come back. I’ve always wanted to ask Paulina about it, but someway, she is so sure about ghosts that I hated to stir her up, or draw any questions. I declare, Nell, I’m different here. It’s so different!”

“I should say it is,—and yet you like this room.”

“Yes, Nell, I do, and I’m going to find out what or who does this. Maybe it’s Paulina.”

“For half a cent I’d like to see if she is in her room. Don’t you suppose she heard that moaning?”

“I don’t see how she could help it, and with our putting on and off lights all around, too.”

Jannet had scarcely stopped speaking when there was the sound of an opening door. The light went on in the hall again. “Girls,” said Paulina, “did you hear it?”

Jannet almost laughed out, for Paulina in her long muslin gown looked so funny. She had thrust her feet into immense woolen slippers, wore the little shoulder shawl, and—of all things—a night-cap,—over her hair!

“Yes, Paulina, and we almost lost the coverlid, as I lost the blue comforter one night.”

“What?” asked Paulina, “that blue comforter that I put on your bed?”

“Yes. I’ve never seen it since.”

“It’s in the closet. I thought that you put it there.”

Jannet and Paulina eyed each other. Nell laughed. “It was us in the hall, with the lights on, Paulina.”

“I thought so. It was Her in your room, then, I suppose.”

“Who is she, Paulina?” asked Jannet. “Not Mother, of course.”

“No. Ask your Uncle Pieter who cries and sobs and goes through walls. Go to bed. There’ll be nothing more to-night. I’ll not call you early.”

“Thank you, Paulina. I’m going to leave on one little light.”

Paulina made no reply to this remark, but went off in the sudden fashion she had, and the girls heard her door open and close.

The human contact, and the assurance of “Old P’lina” that there would be no further disturbance, relieved the situation for the girls. Nell, with a sigh of relief, crawled between the sheets. “Ghost or no ghost, I’m going to sleep, Jannet.”

“So am I. But the next time, I’m going to ‘yell’ for Paulina, and not try to see it through myself. Who do you suppose she meant when she told me to ask Uncle Pieter?”

“His wife, I suppose. But there is a lots older ghost than she is, and I ’spect P’lina’s mad at your Uncle Pieter about something. She’s terribly queer herself, you know.”

“I’m going to get acquainted with Paulina and find out all about the family history. I’ve been afraid to ask her so far. I’m so sorry, Nell, for all this. I hope that you will sleep now.”

“I will. Don’t worry. Some day I’ll tell of this to my grandchildren and you will see their little eyes bulge out if you are around.”

Jannet laughed, as she arranged the screen and shook off her slippers to hop into bed. “Perhaps in time I’ll get so used to our ghost,” she said, “that I’ll miss her if she does not perform every so often.”

“Sh-sh, Jannet! You might get her mad at you!”

Jannet thought this so funny that she laughed till the bed shook, and Nell giggled with her. But both girls within were really rather serious over the affair, wondering and thinking for some time, Jannet’s mind dwelling on the pearls as well. “Nell,” she said, sleepily, after a little, “perhaps the ghost has my pearls. I’ve thought up a name for them,—Phantom Treasure. Now it’s there, and now it isn’t, but the ghost that has it had better beware!”