“Which room are we going to sleep in?” asked Abby. “I’d just as soon sleep out here all night on blankets, wouldn’t you, Etoile?”
“We don’t care if you want to,” Doris agreed. “Try it on the little side porch. Then you can watch the cellar entrance because the ghost may decide to come up that way.”
It was getting quite dark by the time the supper was cleared away. Candles were lighted and set on the mantel in the front room and in the kitchen. Kit and Hedda had returned from a successful foraging expedition around the barn and corn house, and had brought back armfuls of hay to spread under their blankets on the floor. Tip, the brown water spaniel, took the whole affair very seriously and made the circuit of the grounds over and over again, chasing imaginary intruders.
“Well, girls, I guess we’re all ready to go to bed, aren’t we?” Kit called finally. They agreed and went into the big living room where the fireplace was. The nights were still very cool up in the hills, so Hedda and Doris had been appointed wood-gatherers and a fine dry wood fire blazed on the stone hearth. After they were ready for the night, they sat around this in a semicircle, eating popcorn balls and telling stories, until all at once there came a sound that silenced everyone and left them wide-eyed and scared.
It was unlike any sound the girls had ever heard back at the Cove, almost like a human being in distress and yet like some animal cry too.
“It’s a fox,” whispered Astrid, getting nearer to her big sister.
“No, it isn’t,” said Abby. “That’s a deer. They always yell like that when there’s a full moon.”
“It was right near, I think, right outside.” Kit sat up, eager and tense. “Shall I flash the light, Jean?”
“Not yet. Wait until it comes again. I think it was only some night bird.”
So they waited breathlessly. Every tiny creaking noise in the old house was intensified by the heavy silence. Jean rose and went to the window. The moon was not up yet, and it was hard to distinguish objects, but down in the garden she thought she saw something that looked like a cow lying down.
“I can’t tell just what it is. It may be only a stray cow or horse,” she said softly.
“Throw something at it,” suggested Kit hopefully. “Let’s all throw something.”