The Camp Fire Girls Solve a Mystery

arved mahogany. The polish was gone, but it must have been handsome once, must have been--Katherine gave a great start and nearly dropped her flashlight. Her eyes, traveling up the mahogany stair rail, encountered those of a man who was leaning over the banister half way up. His face, in the light of her flash, was white as a sheet, and he seemed to be staring not so much at her as at the door behind her, through which she at that moment discovered the voice to be proceeding.

Katherine recovered from her surprise and remembered her manners. This man must live here. She must explain quickly, or he would take her for a burglar, coming in that way and looking around with a flashlight. Katherine suddenly felt apprehensive. Suppose he wouldn't believe her story? It was one thing to go into a house in search of a voice that wouldn't come to the door; it was another thing to find a man inside.

She cleared her throat and wet her lips. "Excuse me for coming in like this--" she began. She got no farther w