“Oh, well, let’s go and spend our five cents,” suggested Rose.  “And we can tell Laddie and Vi and Margy and Mun Bun to go for theirs.  We’ll have to wait for them to go to the store with us, anyhow.  Mun Bun and Margy can’t go alone.”

“All right, you go and tell ’em,” returned Russ.  “Shall I go and listen some more at the window?”

“No, I guess not,” said Rose.  “They might see you.”

For it was in listening at the window that Russ had fallen.  As he had partly explained, he had climbed up the hammock, as a sailor climbs a rope.

The hammock swung on the side porch, but when it was not in use it hung by one hook, rather high up, and by twisting it together it could be made into a sort of rope.  Russ and Rose, as I have told you, had been listening under the porch window to what Grandpa Ford had been telling about the queer happenings at Great Hedge Estate.

Just as he reached the point where he was going to tell about the strange noise at midnight, Russ decided he could hear better if he were higher up, and nearer the window.

The hammock had been left hanging by one hook, after Laddie and Vi had finished swinging in it a little while before, and up this Russ climbed.

But his hands slipped, and down he fell, making a good deal of noise.  Of course if Rose had put the mat under him, as he had told her to do, there would not have been such a racket.

“And now we sha’n’t ever know about the ghost,” said Russ, just before his sister hurried off to tell the others that Grandpa Ford had a treat for them.

“Yes, we shall,” said the little girl.

“How?”

“We’ll wait till we get there.  We’re all going, ’cause Grandpa Ford said so.  When we get to Great Hedge we can find the ghost for ourselves.”

“Yes, maybe we can,” agreed Russ.  “Anyhow, I’m not going to climb up any more hammocks.  It hurts too much when you fall.”  And he walked from the porch, limping.

Then, after Russ and Rose had gone away, Grandpa Ford told Mr. and Mrs. Bunker more about the strange doings at his house, which was surrounded by the great hedge.  And the old gentleman ended with: 

“And now I want you all to come out there with me and help solve the mystery.  I want you, Son,” and he turned with a kindly look to Mr. Bunker, “and I want your wife and the six little Bunkers.”

“Maybe the children will be afraid of the ghost,” said their mother.

“We won’t tell them anything about it,” said Grandpa Ford with a laugh.  “They’ll never know a thing about it.”

If he had only seen Russ and Rose listening on the porch under the window!

“Well, as long as they don’t know about it, I don’t see that they can be frightened,” said Mr. Bunker.  “As you say, it is queer, but maybe Mr. Ripley can explain the queer noises and other things.”

“Maybe he can,” agreed Grandpa Ford.  “That’s what I came on to see about, and I’ll take you all back with me.”