Christmas dinner at the High Cliff House was a joyful affair, notwithstanding that the promise of fair weather had come to naught and it was raining once more.John stayed for that dinner, so did Captain Obed.The former and Miss Emily said very little and their appetites were not robust, but they appeared to be very happy indeed.Georgie certainly was happy and Jedediah's appetite was all that might have been expected of an appetite fed upon the cheapest of cheap food for days and compelled to go without any food for others.Thankful was happy, too, or pretended to be, and Captain Obed laughed and joked with everyone.Yet he seemed to have something on his mind, and his happiness was not as complete as it might have been.
Everyone helped Imogene wash the dishes; then John and Emily left the kitchen bound upon some mysterious errand.Captain Obed and Georgie donned what the captain called "dirty weather rigs" and went out to give George Washington and Patrick Henry and the poultry their Christmas dinner.
The storm had flooded the low land behind the barn.The hen yard was in the center of a miniature island.The walls of the pigsty which Thankful had had built rose from a lake.
"It's a mercy Pat moved to drier quarters, eh, second mate!"chuckled the captain."He'd have had to sleep with a life-preserver on if he stayed here."
They fed the hens and gave George Washington a liberal measure of oats and a big forkful of hay.
"Don't want him to go hungry Christmas Day," said Captain Obed.
"Now let's cruise around and see if Patrick Henry is singin' out for liberty or death."The pig was not, apparently, "singing out" for anything.When they reached the wall of the pen by the washshed he was not in sight.
But they heard him, somewhere back in the darkness beneath the shed, breathing stertorously, apparently sound asleep.
Georgie laughed."Hear him," he said."He's so fat he always makes that noise when he's asleep.And he's awful smart.When it's warm and nice weather he sleeps out here in the sun.When it rains and is cold, same as now, he always goes way back in there.
Hear him! Don't he make a funny noise."
Emily came hurrying around the corner of the house.
"Captain Bangs," she whispered."Captain Bangs!"The captain looked at her.He was about to ask why she whispered instead of speaking aloud, but the expression on her face caused him to change his question to "What's the matter?"Emily looked at Georgie before replying.
"I--I want to see you," she answered."I want you to come with me.
Come quick.Georgie, you must stay in the kitchen with Imogene."Georgie did not want to stay in the kitchen, but when he found Jedediah there he was more complacent.The ex-gold seeker and his tales of adventure had a tremendous fascination for Georgie.
Emily led the way toward the front stairs and Captain Obed followed.
"What's up?" he whispered."What's all the mystery about?""We don't know--yet.But we want you to help us find out.John and I have been up to look at the haunted room and--and IT'S THERE.""There! What?"
"The--the ghost, or whatever it is.We heard it.Come!"At the door of the rooms which were the scene of Mr.Cobb's recent supernatural experience and of Miss Timpson's "warning" they found Thankful and John standing, listening.Thankful looked rather frightened.John was eager and interested.
"You found him, Emily," he whispered."Good.Captain, you and Iare commissioned to lay the ghost.And the ghost is in.Listen!"They listened.Above the patter and rattle of the rain on the roof they heard a sound, the sound which two or three members had heard the previous night, the sound of snoring.
"I should have gone in before," whispered John, "but they wanted me to wait for you.Come on, Captain."They opened the door of the larger room and entered on tiptoe.The snoring was plainly heard now and it seemed, as they expected, to come from the little room adjoining.Into that room the party proceeded, the men in the lead.There was no one there save themselves and nothing out of the ordinary to be seen.But the snoring kept on, plainer than ever.
John looked behind the furniture and under the bed.
"It's no use doin' that," whispered Thankful."I've done that myself fifty times."Captain Obed was walking about the room, his ear close to the wall, listening.At a point in the center of the rear wall, that at the back of the house, he stopped and listened more intently than ever.
"John," he whispered eagerly, "come here."John came.
"Listen," whispered the captain."It's plainer here than anywhere else, ain't it?""Yes.Yes, I think it is.But where does it come from?""Somewhere overhead, seems to me.Give me that chair."Cautiously and silently he placed the chair close to the wall, stood upon it, and, with his ear against the wallpaper, moved his head backward and forward and up and down.Then he stopped moving and reaching up felt along the wall with his hands.
"I've got it," he whispered."Here's the place."His fingers described a circle on the wall.He tapped gently in the middle of the circle.
"Hark!" he said."All solid out here, but here--hollow as a drum.
It's--it's a stovepipe hole, that's what 'tis.There was a stove here one time or 'nother and the pipe hole was papered over.""But--but what of it?" whispered Thankful."I don't care about stovepipe holes.It's that dreadful noise I want to locate.Ihear it now, just as plain as ever."
"Where could a stovepipe go to from here?" mused the captain."Not into the kitchen; the kitchen chimney's way over t'other side.
Maybe there was a chimney here afore the house was moved.""But the snoring?" faltered Emily."Don't you hear it?"Captain Obed put his ear against the covered stovepipe hole.He listened and as he listened his face took on a new expression, an expression of sudden suspicion, then of growing certainty, and, a moment later, of huge amusement.
He stepped down from the chair.
