“It sure is like old times,” agreed Roy, adding with a smile as he turned to their chaperon, who had been quietly enjoying herself:  “We even have Mrs. Irving with us.  Gee, it’s just like that summer at Pine Island!  All the old crowd together——­”

“Except Allen,” put in Will, frowning a little.  “Gosh, it didn’t seem right at all to leave the old fellow behind.  You wouldn’t know him,” he added, his face flushing enthusiastically, “I’ve never seen a fellow change the way Allen has—­ for the better.”

“Was there so much room for improvement?” asked Betty demurely, and they looked at her laughingly.

“Nobody would expect you to think so,” Will replied, his eyes twinkling, then added seriously: 

“Of course we all know that Allen was the finest kind even before the war, but, gosh!  I wish you could just see how all the fellows love him and how even his superior officers consult him and seem to value his judgment.  I tell you, I’m glad to have him call me his friend.”

“You bet!” exclaimed Frank, nodding soberly.

“Allen sure has come out strong,” Roy agreed; and at this glowing praise of the only absent one Betty felt her heart swell with pride and she wanted to hug the boys for being so loyal to her Allen.  Also, deep down in her heart, she began to feel a little trepidation about the homecoming of this hero.  Who was she, Betty Nelson, to call this glorious Lieutenant Allen Washburn, her Allen?

So engrossed was she in these and other absorbing thoughts that it was some time before she noticed that the conversation had taken another turn.  Also that the boys and girls were becoming rather excited.

“I didn’t say it was a ghost,” Mollie was declaring hotly.  “In fact I have always thought of a ghost as wearing a sheet and pillow case sort of garb.  And this thing certainly wore nothing of the sort.”

“Tell us all about it,” said Frank, leaning forward.

“Yes, it sounds as if it might prove interesting,” added Roy.

So the girls told them all about it from that first night when they had been so badly frightened by the “Thing” that had hidden in the shadows of the porch.  The boys listened with scarcely an interruption till they were through.

“Gosh, I don’t like the sound of that at all,” said Will, when they had finished.  “It isn’t a pleasant thing to have a lunatic roaming the woods while you girls are all alone here in this place.  Could you possibly put us up for the night?” he asked, turning abruptly to Mrs. Irving.

“Why, there isn’t any room,” said the latter slowly, frowning a little as she tried to think up ways and means.  “There aren’t any extra beds, but there is a large settee in the living room and a couple of you can sleep on that.  I found plenty of blankets stowed away.”

“Fine!” cried Will enthusiastically.  “Just the very thing!  One of us can take turns sleeping on the floor.  It won’t be the first time we’ve slept on harder things.”