No hand or foot within the precinct came
To rectify or ravage!
Here Echo never mocked the human tongue;
Some weighty crime that Heaven could not pardon.
A secret curse on that old Building hung
And its deserted garden!

--Hood's Haunted House.


Cap was a bit of a Don Quixote! The stirring incidents of the last
few months had spoiled her; the monotony of the last few weeks had
bored her; and now she had just rode out in quest of adventures.

The Old Hidden House, with its mysterious traditions, its gloomy
surroundings and its haunted reputation, had always possessed a
powerful attraction for one of Cap's adventurous spirit. To seek and
gaze upon the somber house, of which, and of whose inmates, such
terrible stories had been told or hinted, had always been a secret
desire and purpose of Capitola.

And now the presence there of a beautiful girl near her own age was
the one last item that tipped the balance, making the temptation to
ride thither outweigh every other consideration of duty, prudence
and safety. And having once started on the adventure, Cap felt the
attraction drawing her toward the frightful hollow of the Hidden
House growing stronger with every step taken thitherward.

She reached the banks of the "Demon's Run" and took the left-hand
road down the stream until she reached the left point of the Horse-