CHAPTER XVI.

THE GHOST ALARM.

Mrs. Ellsworth turned from her task of chafing Dainty's cold hands, and

glared scornfully at the black mammy, exclaiming:

"How can you listen to such silly lies, Love? The old woman is in her

dotage!"

Love gave her a cold glance of rebuke and made no reply, motioning the

old woman to continue.

With her big eyes rolling in her ashy-pale face, and her toil-worn black

hands nervously clasping and unclasping each other, the old woman went

on:

"I'se sorry, Massa Love, but I cudn't git up as quick as I ought to go

ober to dat poor chile's aid, kase I was kinder struck dumb wif terror

an' 'sprise; an' whiles I was settin' an' watchin' her, all to onct I

seen a figger come glidin' from back o' me somewhar to de bedside, an' I

seen 'twas dressed in a long black gownd, wif string o' beads down de

side, an' a li'l black skull-cap on his haid, an' his face white like a

corpse, an' glarin' eyes dat struck terror to my soul!"

"Nonsense!" Mrs. Ellsworth cried, testily; but mammy paid no heed; she

only looked at Love, and went on with her story.

"When I seen dat figger all in black, I t'ought sure 'tis de debbil

hese'f, an' I got to sabe Miss Dainty from his clutches. I seen him lean

down, I seen him look in her pale face, an' I hear her low, stranglin'

moan o' fear, an' I pray, 'Lord he'p us!' den I rise to my feet an'

start to'ard de baid, dough shakin' lak a leaf; but jest den de brack

vilyun swoop down lak a hawk on a li'l chick, an' grab her up in his

arms an' run to de do', me a-follerin' an' screamin' at de top o' my

voice. Out de do' we dash, de good Lord givin' strength to my laigs, so

dat in de hall I catch holt o' dat black gownd, an' hang on a-screechin'

an' henderin' de debbil, so dat he hab to let go and drap de honey-chile

on de flo'. But de owdacious vilyun clapped me a lick onter my haid, an'

I seen so many stars as I fell ober Miss Dainty, dat he got away safe

enough befo' yo' all come rushin' out from yo' rooms--umme!" concluded

mammy, groaning, for her old gray head ached with the force of the blow

she had received in her plucky defense of her beautiful young charge.

At that moment the old physician, Doctor Platt, was ushered into the

room, and Love turned to greet him, saying anxiously:

"Some one has played ghost and frightened Miss Chase into such a long

spell of unconsciousness that I fear for her life."

The old doctor looked very grave when he saw his patient lying like one

dead among the pillows, in spite of all that the women were doing to

revive her, and he muttered in his irascible way:

"The person that was mean enough to frighten this sensitive young girl

into such a state deserves lynching."

And having delivered this frank opinion, he turned all his attention to

Dainty, and by his skill succeeded after some time in restoring her to

consciousness again, though it was indeed a pale, woeful face that

looked up at the anxious group around the bed.

"You are better, dear!" cried Love, gladly; and he took her little hand

and kissed it before them all in his great joy, heedless of his

step-mother's angry frown.

"Yes, she is better; but I shall stay and watch by her a little while,"

said Doctor Platt; and he did not go till the pale dawn glimmered

through the windows.

By that time Dainty was vastly improved, and able to corroborate mammy's

strange story of the abduction by the mysterious visitor that had

appeared to her imagination no less a person than his satanic majesty.

Doctor Platt was most indignant; but he laughed at the idea of a

supernatural visitant, and concurred in Love's belief of some malicious

person in the house playing ghost.

When he started home, leaving Dainty in a deep sleep from the effect of

a sedative he had administered for her nerves, he talked quite seriously

to Love as they stood on the steps in the struggling light of early

morn.

"It would seem as if Miss Chase has a malignant enemy who is trying to

frighten her into death or insanity," he said. "Another such experience

as this of to-night would probably effect her enemy's purpose. She is of

a very nervous physique, and this shock told most terribly upon her. I

warn you that the perpetrator should be discovered at once, and severe

punishment meted out for the offense. If this proves impossible, why not

send the young girl home to remain until her wedding-day?"

"I am loath to do so, because the weather in Richmond is so hot at this

season," Love replied; adding: "I shall take such measures, however,

that it will be impossible for this thing to occur again!"

The stern tone of his voice and the flash of his eyes assured Doctor

Platt that he would keep his word, and he went away much comforted, for

all his sympathies had been keenly enlisted by Dainty's misfortunes.

The young girl herself slept on heavily till noon, when she awoke,

refreshed by her long rest, and was able to meet the family at luncheon,

though her pallid cheeks and wistful eyes were enough to strike remorse

to the hearts of her bitter enemies, if they had not been hard and cold

as stone.

But her lover's looks and smiles were warm enough to atone for the

indifference of the rest, and the soft color flew to her cheeks again as

he took her hand tenderly, saying:

"Get ready, darling, and I shall take you for a long drive into the

country this evening."

Ah! how Olive and Ela envied her the bliss of the long tete-a-tete drive

as they watched the lovers going away in the elegant phaeton behind the

spirited gray ponies, the sunshine resting so lovingly on Dainty's curly

locks beneath the simple white hat. When they returned, in the last rosy

glow of sunset, Dainty seemed to have received a new baptism of beauty,

she was so changed from the pale, nervous girl of a few hours ago. Now

her cheeks and lips glowed rosy-red, and her eyes were bright with

happiness--the happiness of loving and being loved. It made her cousins

so angry they could have killed her in their jealous spite, for it

lacked but two weeks to the wedding now, and it seemed as if nothing

that spite or malice could invent had any power to break off the

consummation of the engagement.

They were so furious they would willingly have poisoned her, but for

fear of being found out.

No words could tell how they hated that fair face and golden hair, that

rosy mouth, those blue eyes and dimples that had rivaled them in the

prize they longed to win.

The sight of the happy lovers was gall and wormwood to their envious

hearts.

They were indignant, too, because they could see, beneath the surface of

Love's coldly courteous manner, that he vaguely suspected them of having

a hand in the mysterious plot to frighten his timid betrothed.

To-day he had carried matters with a high hand, interrogating all the

servants carefully, and offering a reward of a hundred dollars to any

one who should discover the identity of the person playing ghost.

Their greed thus excited, every hireling was anxious to earn the reward,

and it would certainly be dangerous for any one to attempt again the

cruel role of ghost, for detection seemed almost certain.

The young man had also made some investigations that resulted in showing

him how very easy it had been for the malicious enemy of Dainty to

intrude on her whenever it seemed desirable to do so.

The room adjoining hers was an unused bedroom that communicated with

hers by a narrow curtained door back of her bed. How easy it had been

for the intruder to enter the vacant room, imitate the monk's cough

there to the heart's content, then glide through the curtained door to

the bedside, alarming the sleeping girl by a cold touch or hacking

cough, and escaping before she could give any alarm!

Love even found that a small hole had been bored in the wall between the

two rooms, thus affording an opportunity for the use of chemicals in

displaying the grisly green light whose weird play upon the walls and

about the room had so alarmed the victims of the cruel joke.

"How careless I have been! I should have discovered all this long ago if

I had believed it was aught but a girl's nervous fancies; but mammy's

corroboration assures me it was reality. Now I shall take such steps

that she will never be annoyed again," he said, sternly; and suited the

action to the word by giving up the room next his own, an airy

dressing-room, to Dainty's use, making it perfectly safe by having in a

carpenter to attach a wire to the young girl's bed, that, running along

the ceiling, passed through into his own room, with a large bell at the

end.

The whole household was made aware of this unique ghost alarm, and Love

said, sternly:

"At the least disturbance in Miss Chase's room, she has but to touch the

wire by her bed, and the communicating bell will ring close to me, so

that I can fly to her rescue. I do not need to say that the practical

joker will fare badly at my hands."

Poor, nervous, shaken black mammy had been sent home to rest.

Dainty would not need any one, now that she had her ghost alarm, the

young man said, smilingly; and every one understood his determination to

protect his love at every hazard. The guilty party must have felt rather

disconcerted at the turn affairs had taken.

Black mammy had not told any one yet that she had a clew by which she

hoped to win the reward Love had offered for the detection of the

impostor; but after she had grappled with the wretch who was bearing off

Dainty, she had found in the claw-like grasp of her fingers some bits of

torn torchon lace that might have been clutched forcibly from the sleeve

of a night-dress.

She kept the fragments carefully, determining to find the garment they

matched.