The next morning was rainy. Nell came over to the Van Meter farm between showers, but late, and Jannet declared that it was a shame how much it rained in the country, where it ought always to be bright.

Nell laughed at that and told Jannet that nothing would grow for them without the rain. “We have nothing but good showers, Jannet, mostly, at least. Besides, what fun it will be up in the attic, listening to the ‘rain upon the roof.’”

“That is so, Nell, and it will be cooler up there, too, if it rains.”

Jannet led the way to the attic as soon as Nell had laid aside her raincoat. Rather timidly Nell entered, when with a flourish Jannet threw open the attic door. “Behold the mysterious abode of ghosts, and our ancestral treasure house!”

“Well, it looks innocent enough, Jannet!”

“It certainly does, but back in the shadows beyond our ghosts may have their lurking place!”

“Don’t, Jannet; you give me the creeps!”

“All right, Nell, we want to have lots of fun to-day. I’m crazy to show you some of the things I’ve peeped at, and I hated to get out too much, too, without somebody after me. But we’ll have no interruptions this afternoon, with everybody away that would bother us, though Cousin Di, Andy and Uncle Pieter won’t leave the house till a short time before supper. Will you mind if I get supper for us? Daphne will have everything ready.”

“It will be fun, Jannet. I’ll help you. You didn’t know that I’m a very fine cook, did you? Honestly, Jannet, I’m learning to do some things very well, Mother says.”

But while the merry tongues ran on, it was more interesting to get to business. Jannet pointed out some of the trunks and told what she had seen by peeping into them. Her grandmother’s trunk was “sweet,” she said; but she had felt almost as if she were opening a grave to disturb the things folded away so carefully after her grandmother’s passing. It was different with her mother’s, she felt, and a big trunk, old, but in good condition was full of old silk dresses and costumes that Jannet had only had time to discover, much less examine. “I’m a gregarious being, Nell, after being with such a lot of girls most of my life, and it wasn’t enough fun to get these things out by myself.”

Jannet opened the window and propped it as before. Fresh, misty air came in to sweeten the close attic atmosphere. There was only a gentle patter of drops upon the roof so close to their heads and Nell said that it was an ideal day for old attics. Jannet disclosed her plan, which was to see everything first that looked interesting and then after dinner to dress up in old costumes and explore the rest of the attic, unless Nell would rather not do that.

The big trunk came first in order. Jannet, with her big bunch of keys found the right one and opened it. She spread some papers, which she had brought with her, over the bulging top of the little bed and its bundles and upon the top of the large chest. Paulina’s housekeeping was not to be criticised, but attics were very likely to gather dust. Then she began to take out the neatly folded garments, some to be looked at and laid aside on the papers, others to be exclaimed over. “O Jannet!” Nell exclaimed. “If your uncle gives these things to you, I’d fix some of them up and wear them, though it would be a pity to change them!”

But Jannet shook her head. “Uncle has a daughter, though I suppose that I have as much right to these things as any one. I may have some of mother’s dresses fixed for myself, because I’d love to wear them, but these ought to stay as they are. I wonder if we can’t have a real costume party some day, Nell,—look here!”

Jannet held up and shook out a gay silk costume, with skirt, blouse, sheer and thin, and a laced velvet bodice. That was not very old, the girls thought. Perhaps Jannet’s mother had worn that some time. There was a funny clown’s costume and a velvet colonial suit in gray and blue, with silk hose and buckled shoes and a three-cornered hat. Jannet said that it was almost the prettiest thing there.

A gypsy outfit included a tambourine and when Jannet danced around over the attic floor with it, she stopped the performance to see Cousin Di standing in the attic door and laughing at her. The light clapping of Cousin Diana’s hands was the only announcement of her presence.

“O Cousin Di, come in!” called Jannet, running to that lady and drawing her within. “Can we have a party and dress up some time?”

“You can and you may,” promptly answered Cousin Diana, interested. She remained long enough to see some of the main treasures, telling the girls that they had found some excellent relics of a day gone by. While some of the costumes had been made for special occasions, most of the trunk’s contents were dresses of former days actually worn by the women of the family. Gayly figured lawns and chintzes, light or heavy silks with queer waists and sleeves and tight-fitting linings, trailed long lengths and voluminous skirts about the delighted girls. A square pasteboard box was found to contain a host of beads and other decorations used with the fancy costumes.

As Cousin Di had suggested that they dress up in something for dinner, Jannet declared that they would change the original plan and surprise them all by doing it.

Nell rather demurred at first. “Won’t we feel silly, Jannet? And what will your uncle Pieter say to us?”

“I’m not afraid of Uncle Pieter any more, and he’ll just see that I am doing what he gave me permission to do. I just love that ducky little silk costume with the blue velvet laced bodice. I think that it is a shepherdess costume and I think that Mother must have worn it. Would you like that?”

“No, indeed. That is just your color. I’ll wear the gypsy suit.”

“Fine, you carry the tambourine and I’ll take the shepherd’s crook if there is any.” But Jannet did not find one.

Uncle Pieter was not at dinner, as it happened, which fact relieved Nell of the slight embarrassment she felt. Cousin Diana and Cousin Andy admired the result, though the costumes would have been considerably improved by pressing. Vittoria, who waited upon the table, looked curiously at the girls, so pretty in their new characters, and Jannet caught one look that was not very friendly. Perhaps poor Vittoria was a little jealous. It must be hard not ever to be in things! But Jannet had too many pleasant things to think about to be disturbed by the opinion of Vittoria. Remembering what Paulina had said, Jannet asked Mrs. Holt after dinner how old she supposed Vittoria was. “Probably about thirty,” said Mrs. Holt. “She is engaged to a young man who works in the village. I think that they are to be married as soon as he gets his house built. He is building it himself, as he has time, and hopes to finish it this summer.”

The rain had stopped by noon. Jannet and Nell walked around outside for a little while and went into the kitchen to show Daphne their finery. Paulina gave them a comprehensive glance, but made no comment. Perhaps Paulina remembered times when those costumes were worn before this.

Lazily the girls rested in the swing for perhaps half an hour before they felt like returning to the attic. But by that time their pristine energy had returned. Jannet had a bright idea and collected cookies, then decided that fudge and lemonade would be good to take up with them, “so we’ll not have to run downstairs every time we get thirsty, or hungry, Nell.”

That seemed sensible. They spent some time making fudge, a little in making lemonade, and went up the two flights about two o’clock, the ice clinking in the pitcher. Nell had been advised to bring her flashlight, in case they discovered the perhaps imaginary secret passage, and Jannet had one which was a recent purchase. But they had so much fun dressing in the various garments and were so hot, that they drank up all their lemonade and went down again about four o’clock to make more. Not a soul was around, but the house was locked, they found. They washed off their dingy hands, for handling the trunks had soiled them, though they had managed to keep the dresses from being harmed.

After “splashing around” in Jannet’s bathroom, they went to the kitchen, where they not only mixed fresh lemonade, but made sandwiches when they found that Daphne had left them some delicious ham in thin slices. “At this rate, Jannet, we’ll not need any supper,” said Nell, but Jannet thought that they would “after doing our real work of the day,” Jannet said. And, indeed, the search was just to begin.

Into the far corners, under the eaves, soon went the flashlight rays. What they disclosed was innocent enough, chiefly cobwebs and dust. Shrouded shapes of the few old things left around lay here and there. Most of the central part was floored. In a few places the girls were obliged to be careful where the boards seemed to be laid across loosely. Jannet said that the ghost had laid the track for itself, and Nell remarked that they could follow the trail, then.

Jannet had expected to see some evidences of some one’s walking through dust, but the boards had been swept since she was first in the attic, she thought. “I tell you what, Nell, I ought to have done this right at first, before the ‘ghost’ had a chance to cover up her—his—its—tracks.”

“Probably you ought, Jannet.”

They were obliged to look out for bumps upon their heads in places, but finally they reached what was Jannet’s chief objective, the great chimney between her room and the front bedroom. There were the bricks, rough and red. But that whole end of the attic was boarded off with a rough partition. “I thought so!” exclaimed Jannet. “Now for a door!”

But there was no sign of a door in the boards. Certainly, if there had been a secret passage there, it could not have been concealed, the girls thought. “If Jan or somebody got in your room, Jannet, it must have been by the window,” said Nell.

“All the same,” declared Jannet, “there is something in my wall. It may not connect with the attic. I suppose now that it doesn’t. But I believe that if we can’t find it out, Uncle Pieter will let a carpenter take away the panels on that side, to satisfy me, and himself, too. He looked awfully interested, Nell.”

“The queer thing,” said Nell again, “is that it all seemed to begin in the attic and then come nearer. Could it really be ghosts, that can go in or out of walls?” Nell half believed it, Jannet thought.

“What ghost would carefully take a blue comforter through walls and finally deposit it neatly, well folded, in the closet where it belongs?”

“Well,” laughingly declared Nell, “Paulina told you that ghost did take one once, you said.”

“Yes, she did,” Jannet acknowledged.

It took some time to go over the attic, although if there were some connection between the attic and Jannet’s room, it could only be in a certain part, the girls thought, and there they spent some time. They looked dubiously at various piles of boards not far from the partition. Some old carpet close to it Jannet with great effort drew aside till she could see how the floor looked at the angle. The girls grew a little tired. What was the use of doing it all to-day? Jannet suspected the big cupboard that stood against the partition, but their combined strength could not move it, and there was no indication of a way through it and the partition.

“Let’s go down, have our supper, and give this up till to-morrow, Nell. We had too much fun dressing up first. Besides, we ought to have some one help us move the heavy stuff. I’ll ask Uncle Pieter.”

Nell, who was quite ready for something different, assented. Gradually they made their way back to the trunks, though they did pause again to examine anything that seemed worth while to know about. If their hands had been soiled before, they were “filthy” with the “dust of ages,” Nell declared,—“with all apologies to Paulina, Jannet.”

Again jingling her keys, Jannet went to the door, which she had closed before they began their search in the other part of the attic, though why Jannet scarcely knew. Surely there was no one to watch them. “Why!” Jannet exclaimed, “it doesn’t open!” She looked at Nell, startled. “Try it for yourself!” Nell shook the door and they looked at each other in dismay.

“Could Paulina have locked it by mistake?” asked Nell.

“Some one very likely has locked this on purpose,” declared Jannet presently. The two girls stood by the door, puzzled, slightly alarmed. “This is a mess, Nell. It doesn’t look as if I’d get you that good supper we were going to have.”

“Perhaps we can call to some one from the window.”

“Perhaps we can. But the tenant house is where all the evening activities are, unless some one has an errand here. Paulina said that she would be back about seven o’clock, unless she took a notion to go to prayer-meeting with her sister. They drive to the village church. Daphne doesn’t sleep here. No telling how soon the girls will come back,—but who locked us in, then?”

“Never mind, Jannet. We have cookies, the fudge and something to drink. Your guardian angel must have told you to bring those up. Do you suppose we’ll have to be up here after dark?”

Jannet shook her head regretfully. “You be sister Ann, Nell, and watch the window for any one that might come. Paulina is the most likely one before dark, and it does not get dark early, fortunately. I’m going to see if I can’t open the door. I will know enough to lock the door myself the next time I am up here, and leave my key in the lock on this side. That’s what she has done, you see, and I can’t get my key in. I left it on the ring with the rest, or—”

“You say ‘she,’—how do you know that it isn’t ‘he’?”

“I don’t know it, I just think it.”

Nell asked nothing more but sat on a box by the low window, to watch like the sister of Bluebeard’s wife. Jannet tried to poke the key, which was on the outside, and force it out, but with no success. Then she shook the door and called. “The trouble is,” said she, “if Paulina hears a racket in the attic, she will think it the ghost, and Hepsy and Vittoria sleep over in the new part. But there is no use in calling or going into hysterics over it. If the one who locked us in is here, very naturally she wants us to stay.” Jannet thought of burglars, but did not mention that theory. It was bad enough for Nell as it was. She had heard the family car drive off some time before.

Jannet worked at the key, trying to force it out. She found a bit of wire and she used the smaller keys; but when one became wedged in so tightly that she had difficulty in getting it out again, she gave it up.

Nell did her best to be cheerful, but Jannet could see that it was an effort. She took Nell’s place at the window and they ate what cookies and fudge were left and drank lemonade with less than their customary flow of conversation. It was, indeed, a gloomy prospect, that of spending the night in the attic.