some of us an excuse for coming up this way. And my aunt had supplied
all the necessary funds covering our railroad fare from Oakvale to the
little station where we jumped off the local train---Scarsdale."

"Which aunt, Alec?" demanded Billy, whom it was always difficult to
suppress.

"Oh! none of you ever met _this_ relative of mine, I guess," considered
Alec. "Aunt Susan is a very rich woman, and what you might call
eccentric if you wanted to be particularly nice, and not use a harsher
word. In fact, her nerves have gone back on her, and every little
noise about sets her _wild_. She has taken a notion that the only
salvation for her is to find some sort of a quiet country home in
which her servants can glide around in felt slippers, with never a
rooster's crow to disturb the dead silence."

"Whew! you must mean she's a regular crank, Alec---excuse me for
saying it!" exclaimed Billy, wiping his heated brow, for when others
were shivering the fat boy perspired.

"Well, forget that part of it," resumed Alec, making a wry face. "Aunt
Susan is peculiar, and immensely wealthy, so that money needn't stand
in the way of her doing anything she fancies. In some way or other it
seems she heard about a queer place away up here in the woods. It is
known as Randall's Folly!"

"Why, seems to me I've heard something about that place!" burst out
Arthur Cameron, in a surprised tone. "Isn't it a modern castle built
by a man years ago and meant to look like some British place in the
days of Queen Elizabeth?"