“Don’t whisper in my ear—­you tickle,” hissed Billie, and again they laughed hysterically.

“Look out, now, go slow,” Mrs. Gilligan was cautioning them.  “We don’t want to stumble over this luggage and get a broken leg or two.  Ouch!” she exclaimed, as she stubbed her toe against something hard.  “I guess I’m the first casualty!”

She bent down to find what she had stumbled against, while the girls glanced nervously into the corners of the hall which the flickering candle light only seemed to make more dark.

“Goodness, if we feel like this now, I don’t see how we’re ever going to spend the night here,” cried Laura, shivering a little.  “I don’t believe I’ll be able to sleep a wink.”

“Oh, yes, you will,” said Billie, trying hard to make her voice sound natural and unconcerned.  “We’re all so tired we couldn’t help sleeping anywhere.”

“Just as I thought,” said Mrs. Gilligan, referring to the object she had stubbed her toe against.  “Your suitcase, Billie, and the creepy noise we heard was when it slid off the trunk.  Come on now,” she added, holding her candle high over her head again, “let’s see what we can find in the way of bedrooms.”

“Let’s go in the first door we reach,” suggested Billie, and at the moment Mrs. Gilligan’s candle showed a wide, high doorway leading into a black cavern of a room.

“Well, here’s the first one,” she said.  “If we have luck and find some bedding—­”

She was already feeling her way cautiously between several chairs and tables, with the girls following close behind.

“There’s the bed!” cried Laura.  “Oh, isn’t it funny?  A regular old four-poster.”

“With a canopy over it!” marveled Violet.

“And it’s made up with clean things,” added Billie, making another discovery.  “Goodness, it makes you feel like the ‘Little Princess’ when she found all the good things in her room.”

“Sure enough, it has been made fresh,” said Mrs. Gilligan, as she wonderingly turned down a somewhat dusty spread and disclosed snowy sheets beneath.

“Somebody’s been keeping house anyway,” said Laura.

“Here’s room for two of you girls,” said Mrs. Gilligan.

“Oh, we all three want to sleep together,” cried Violet, fearful that she might be picked to sleep alone.  “There’s safety in numbers.”

“All right, but I have to sleep somewhere,” Mrs. Gilligan reminded her with a wry little smile.  “Aren’t you going to help me find some place?  This may be the only bed that’s in sleeping condition in the house.”

“Then we’d have to sleep four in a bed,” said Billie, with a chuckle.  “But come on, let’s see if some kind fairy hasn’t prepared for you too, Mrs. Gilligan.”

Laughing, the girls pushed out into the hall and looked for the next doorway.  They no longer glanced fearfully in the corners for something they were afraid to see.  The thought of the nice clean bed pushed all their weird fancies into the background.  Ghosts and clean beds did not seem to go together!