"Why, we want to see something," said Nan, puzzled. "We want to see our sweaters. And we want to feel them, too."
"But I don't mean that," insisted Bess.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what they say," objected Bess Harley. "It's haunted!"
"I declare! you don't believe that foolishness, do you, Bess Harley?"
cried Nan.
"I don't know whether I believe it or not," confessed her chum. "But I don't want to see any ghost."
"I don't believe you ever will, honey," Nan said, more seriously.
"You can laugh----"
"I'm not laughing: But we can't stand here and take cold. We want those sweaters."
"I'd rather not go," Bess whispered, hanging back.
"Then _I'll_ go."
"But I don't want you to leave me alone," objected Bess.
"You're the greatest girl I ever saw!" sputtered Nan.
"I know I'm a coward," said her friend, shakingly. "I'd have given up all hope and been drowned, out there on the lake, if it hadn't been for you, dear Nan."
"Nonsense! Come on! Let's get the sweaters. It's almost supper time and Mrs. Cupp will give us fits."
"She won't, for I shall tell her just how brave you were, and how Walter saved us both."
"Ha!" cried Nan. "After being through what we have this afternoon, Bess, I shouldn't think you'd be afraid of the dark."
"It _is_ dark," murmured Bess, as they approached the boathouse.
"Bah!" repeated Nan, gently scornful.
"Maybe you won't 'bah' so much before we get out," whispered Bess, as they entered the open door and approached the girls' dressing room and lockers.
They had to cross the big room where the boats were hauled up the sloping plank floor from the cove. It was dark and mysterious.
Suddenly Bess clutched her chum by the arm. "Oh-o-o!" she moaned faintly.
Her shaking hand indicated the direction of a window across the room. It was lighter outside the boathouse than it was within. Against the gray background of the window-pane moved a figure! A black figure! A human figure!
The two girls halted and clung together. Even Nan's heart beat faster.
The figure moved slowly across the window opening. It made no sound. It disappeared for a moment and then reappeared before a second window. It was all in black and not very tall. It was soon gone entirely.
The girls heard no door open and close. It was just as though the black figure had evaporated--melted into the air!
"The ghost! What did I tell you, Nan Sherwood?" moaned Bess.
CHAPTER XVI
RELATING IT ALL
"I won't believe it!" declared Nan Sherwood.
"You saw it with your own eyes!"
"I don't believe my own eyes, then!" was Nan's energetic rejoinder.
"Well, I know I saw it!"
"That doesn't convince me in the least, Bess Harley."
"Well! you are the most obstinate girl!"
"I won't own up to such foolishness!" cried Nan, hotly. "A ghost _just doesn't exist_!"
They were back in their own room at Lakeview Hall. Bess could not have told for the life of her how they had obtained their sweaters out of the locker, put them on, and escaped from the boathouse. But she knew that somehow Nan had kept her from running away in a panic.
"Why, Nan, we _saw_ it!" Bess reiterated.
"Saw what?"
"The ghost."
"We saw nothing of the kind. We saw something."
"Well!"
"But a ghost is nothing. We could not see a spirit. That was something palpable we saw. It crossed in front of two windows and we could not see through it. It had a solid body."
"We--ell," Bess returned. "There may be solid ghosts."
"Doesn't stand to reason. There's supper!"
"I--I don't want supper much," said Bess, shivering.
"We'll go down and ask Susan for hot tea. That's what we need," said practical Nan. "And let's keep still about this."