CHAPTER XIV--THE TEST

The end of Mary's story seemed to be a signal awaited by the M. O. R.'s, for they all began to rise now and quickly surrounded the little group of candidates for initiation. Some of these girls started to rise, too, but Mary commanded:

"Wait! Candidates for the honors and the secrets of the M. O. R.'s must show both bravery and obedience. The hour has arrived for those candidates who desire to enter into the confidence and trust of the older members of the society, to show such desire. Obedience and courage are our watch words to-night. Those of the candidates who desire to go back--who dare not submit to The Test--may now make final decision. But she who puts her hand to the plough may not turn back after this decision."

"Well, I'm going to stick it out, ploughing and all!" giggled Jess in her chum's ear.

None of the candidates expressed a desire to back out in the silence that ensued, although the mournful bell tinkled on the hillside and now a "booby" owl added its mournful complaint to the note of the whip-poor-will.

"We are ready for the test, then," said Mary, still solemnly. "Let the ballot-box be brought. In it have been placed the names of the candidates, each on a separate slip of paper. They will be drawn in quartettes, and each quartette will be given a task which will require both courage and obedience."

There was a little rustle among the girls as one of them brought forward one of the lunch boxes.

"The first test," said Mary O'Rourke, "will be for the first four candidates drawn to take each three nails and this hammer and go together to the haunted house, enter by the front door, go into the east front room where Old Sarah is wont to show her light, and drive the nails, one after another, in the floor of the room."

"O--o--oh!" moaned the candidates, in a horrified chorus.

"Silence, infants!" commanded the president of the M. O. R.'s. "Each girl must drive her own three nails. There must be no balking. The nails will be examined--er--later--by daylight--to make sure that the test has been honestly performed. I will now draw the slips and announce the names of the first quartette."

"How dreadful!" whispered one of the Lockwood twins. "I'll faint if I have to do that."

"Dora Lockwood," announced Mary the next instant.

"Oh!" squealed the twin named; but nobody save the twins themselves knew which one spoke.

"Josephine Morse."

Jess grabbed Laura by the arm. "I--I'm scared to death!" she whispered in her chum's ear.

"Helen Agnew."

The doctor's daughter grabbed Jess. "We've got to do it!" she murmured. "Isn't it awful?"

"Laura Belding."

"Goody!" exclaimed Jess, aloud. "You've got to go, too, Laura."

"The four candidates named will step forward and receive the nails and the hammer," said Mary, sternly; but a good many of the older girls were laughing.

It was no laughing matter to the candidates in question, however. Only three approached the president at first.

"Miss Lockwood!" commanded Mary.

"Which one?" giggled somebody in the background.

"Miss Dora Lockwood!"

"Both of them are 'Dorothy' now," said Celia Prime. "This is one time when either is willing that the other should take her place. They declare that on Touch Day Dora was touched twice, once for herself and once for her sister."

"Then Dora is doubly called now," said Mary O'Rourke, sternly.

One of the twins pushed the other forward suddenly.

"Oh!" cried the girl pushed. "I'm not Dora!"

"The right one had better come," cried Mary. "The next Test may be a good deal worse than _this_ one."

"Oh, then I'll take it!" cried the Lockwood twin who had been pushed.

"No, you don't, Miss!" exclaimed her sister, elbowing her way to the front. "_I'm_ Dora."

"Well," said Mary, "if I shut my eyes and you girls changed places I couldn't tell you apart. I wish one of you had a different dimple in her cheek--or even a mole----"

"O--oh! How horrid!" chorused the Lockwoods.

"Then the right one must come forward. As Gee Gee says: 'On your honor, young ladies!'"

The twins finally decided to own up to their rightful names, and Dora joined the other three candidates and accepted the three nails. To Laura was given the hammer.

"Remember what you have been told. Each must drive her own nails. And mark well where you drive them, for they will be examined--by daylight," finished Mary, with a chuckle.

The crowd of girls parted and left an open lane for the four candidates to pass through. The owl hooted again and the cowbell tinkled upon the hillside. The quartette started on their mission slowly. It was very dark about the haunted house, for big trees overshadowed it.

"I'm scared clear down to the soles of my feet," whispered Jess to Laura.

"Never mind. Don't let the rest of them know it," was her chum's reply.

They came to the ruined gate and pushed it open. The path was weed-grown, and as they rustled through, keeping close together, the owl hooted again--right over their heads.

"Ouch!" screamed Nellie Agnew.

A chorus of giggles answered from the crowd in the rear. But her companions saw nothing to laugh at. The owl had startled all four.

"Oh, dear!" whispered Dora. "Let's go back."

"We can't!" hissed Jess.

Laura marched straight on to the step of the porch. The boards creaked under her feet as she mounted to the door. The door hung from one hinge and when she pushed upon it, it creaked frightfully.

"Oh!" squealed Nellie again.

"Do come on!" muttered Jess. "I'm just as scared as you are; but don't let those girls know how bad we feel. They're just enjoying themselves."

"And of course there's nothing, or nobody, here," Laura added. "They are just having fun with us. Even if something does startle us in this old house, it will be nothing worse than rats."

"But I don't like ra--rats," wailed Dora, under her breath.

"Does anybody?" snapped Jess. "Come on!"

They entered the house, Laura leading. The door of the east room was open and some light entered through the broken windows--light enough to show them the way. Laura stepped carefully over the floor, fearing that some broken board might trip them.

But once in the big, empty, musty room, there seemed nothing to bother them. Even the owl had flown away.

"Now we'll drive the nails as quickly as possible and get out again," said Laura in a low, but perfectly even, tone.

She stooped and fumbled her first nail for a moment. Then she smote the head of it a sharp blow with the hammer.

On the heels of that sound came a scream from Nellie.

"Look! Oh, look!" she shrieked.

She was standing erect, pointing through the east window.

"The light! The ghost light!" cried Jess.

Laura raised up a little and saw a light, dancing close to the ground, and on the other side of the brook. It was just about where a lantern under a carriage would have been.

"Come away!" gasped Jess, and she turned and ran. Nell and Dora ran with her. And it must be confessed that Laura was heartily frightened herself, and their panic was communicated to her.

She scrambled to her feet and tried to run. But something seized her skirt and dragged her back to the floor!

Laura screamed aloud then, herself. She tried to get up once more, but the ghostly hand again tugged at her garments and dragged her back upon the floor of the haunted house.