Free The Secret of the Sand Castle by Margaret Sutton

death,” Irene called to her.
    “I’ll make this bed then. Someone’s been sleeping in it,” the child announced, running into the large bedroom Irene had called the dormitory.
    “What!”
    Judy wasn’t sure which one of the girls voiced the exclamation. She only knew all four of them and little Judy had slept upstairs!
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CHAPTER XII
The Intruders

    “IT was the woman in black. She must have been here all night. I wouldn’t have slept a wink if I had known it,” declared Pauline.
    “Maybe she lives here. Maybe she thinks we’re the intruders. If she’s one of my relatives—” Flo began.
    “At least she’s one of the living,” Irene interrupted with a sigh.
    “She couldn’t be Hazel Barton,” Judy insisted.
    “Mrs. Barton wasn’t that tall.”
    “How do you know, when she was sitting down?” Pauline’s question was a practical one. Judy began to ask herself, “How do I know?” She wasn’t sure she ought to tell her friends everything she had heard—or seen. The very thought of entertaining the same tall figure in black she had glimpsed near the dock would be enough to frighten them. One thing puzzled her. Was the woman in hiding or was she 87

    showing herself on purpose?
    They were frightened, all except little Judy, who had returned to the kitchen without realizing what a commotion she had started by simply announcing that someone had been sleeping in one of the beds.
    “Who was it?” the girls were asking each other.
    They were all in the dormitory now, standing around the bed that had been slept in. All at once Flo dashed over to the dresser, pulling out an empty drawer so suddenly that it sent her backwards against the bed.
    “Nothing!” she exclaimed. “I thought maybe her clothes would be in there. I’d feel better about it if she wore something—”
    “A sheet, perhaps. There’s bedding in this one,” Pauline announced, opening another drawer.
    “Seriously, girls, if she lives here she’d have to keep makeup or clothing or something around to show that she’s alive,” Judy put in.
    “Maybe she isn’t. Maybe those black clothes are all she wears,” Pauline suggested. “There is a broom in the corner.”
    “I’m sure she rides it.” Flo was giggling as she said this, but she suddenly sobered. “She may have used that shovel. But would she dig in a long black dress?”
    “She must have been digging. You didn’t think we dug out that huge tunnel all by ourselves, did you?” Judy asked.
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    “Honestly,” Pauline confessed, “I didn’t know what to think, but I might have known there’d be a ghost. There always is when you’re around.”
    “And Judy always shows them up for what they really are,” Irene added loyally.
    “I have to catch them first,” Judy replied. “This one, apparently, got away.”
    “Maybe it will be back again tonight,” Flo quavered.
    Now Flo was calling the intruder it as if it were other than human. A knock on the door was all she needed to make her start violently. Judy peered outside and saw the carpenter, Gus Henderson, waiting for the door to open.
    “Yes?” she asked cautiously, keeping the chain on the door. It had been there all night. The back door had also been bolted and so had the door to the screened-in porch. How, then, could anyone have entered?
    “Sorry, miss. I didn’t mean to scare you,” the carpenter apologized, “but there’s a boat at the dock.
    Thought you girls might like to know—”
    “The Fair Harbor dock?”
    “Yep. Been there all night. Don’t know who owns her.”
    “Thanks, Mr. Henderson.” Judy unbolted the door. “Would you like to have coffee with us? We—
    we were just about to sit down to breakfast.” 89

    “I helped,” little Judy announced. “I cooked the eggs.”
    Smoke pouring from the kitchen told Judy they were well cooked.
    “I’m afraid they’re—burned,” Irene faltered. “I forgot to turn off the fire when—” She stopped at a look from Judy. The carpenter