"I don't know," Betty answered mechanically. "I only know it was
horrible."

Then quite suddenly and without warning Grace broke down and cried.




Chapter XV

Wild Roses



"We will go into the house," Mrs. Irving answered to their concerted cry of
"What shall we do?" "Whatever it was that has frightened us has
disappeared now, and we shall certainly be safer inside the house than out
here. Come on, girls, I have the key."

And so, leaving the cars where they were, the girls approached the house
with shaking knees and hearts that hammered their fear aloud. The Outdoor
Girls were ordinarily afraid of nothing real and human, but to be held up
at the point of a pistol would unnerve almost any one, and the struggle
the girls had made not to give way to their fears at the time had made
them more nervous still. And this thing that had startled them now, added
to what had gone before, seemed a little more than could be borne. It
seemed, in fact, like nothing human.

Mrs. Irving turned the key in the lock, opened the door and stepped inside
the dark place, motioning to the girls to follow her.