Our Next-Door Neighbors Part 22

"Oh, do you know them?" asked Miss Frayne. "Dr. Felix Polydore, the eminent LL.D. or something like that."

"The whole family are D's," I said.

"His wife is the highest of high-brows, and they are averse to interviews. They moved to a small city sometime ago to be secluded.

Just think of my opportunity! I have them headlined! 'The Haunted House of Hope Haven. Ghost that appears at midnight scientifically explained by the distinguished Dr. Felix Polydore.'"

"I think we are in luck," I said to Silvia, on second thoughts. "We will take them home by the nape of the neck and deliver their children into their keeping to have and to hold."

"I can't turn Diogenes over to them," she said plaintively.

"Diogenes!" repeated Miss Frayne in astonishment.

I then narrated to her the history of our next-door neighbors, and how they planted their five children upon us.

"We had better go down at once and see them," said Silvia, "before they escape. No telling where they might take it in their heads to go."

"We will," I said, "we'll go soon after luncheon."

"Thrice blessed haunted house," quoted Rob. "It gave me Beth, and it has restored the parents of the wise Ptolemy and 'Them Three.'"

"And gave me a ripping story," said Miss Frayne.

Just then the gong sounded, and after luncheon while I was comfortably tipped back in a chair, my feet on the veranda rail, seeing in the smoke from my pipe dream visions of Polydoreless days, a faint cry from Silvia brought me back to earth.

"Lucien, look!"

I looked.

My chair came down to all fours and my feet slipped from the rail.

CHAPTER XVI

_Ptolemy's Tale_

Four defiant, determined-looking Polydores came up the steps and bore down upon us. Then Silvia as usual thought she saw land ahead.

"Oh, boys," she asked hopefully, "did your father send for you to meet him here? And when is he going to take you home?"

"Didn't I tell you," I thundered at Ptolemy, "that you were not to leave that house--"

"It left us," interrupted Emerald with a grin.

"Went up in smoke," added Pythagoras blithely, "ghost and all."

"Four minutes quicker," said Demetrius, "and it would have took father and mother, too."

"Oh, is it the haunted house they are talking about?" asked Miss Frayne joyfully. "What a story I'll have!"

Life to Miss Frayne seemed to be one story after another. Well, it was certainly becoming the same way to us.

"Did the ghost set fire to the house?" asked Beth.

"What are you all talking about," demanded Silvia, "and how did you know these boys were there? How long have you been here?" she asked, turning to Ptolemy.

"I told you," I repeated angrily to the subdued boy, "not to leave.

Those were plain orders. If the house did burn up, you could have stayed in your tent in the woods."

Ptolemy's lips twitched faintly.

"The house burned up and all our clothes and our stuff to eat, and our bats and things, and father and mother went away and I didn't know what to do, so--I came here. But we'll go back to our own house. We have learned to cook. Come on, boys."

"You'll stay right here with me, son," and Rob's hand came down intimately on Ptolemy's shoulder.

"It isn't likely we'll turn them out into the woods, when they haven't a roof over their heads," declared Silvia, drawing Emerald to her side.

"I think you are absolutely inhuman, Lucien," cried Beth. "I don't see what has changed you so," and she proceeded to make room for Pythagoras in the porch swing.

"Did the fire scare you?" asked Miss Frayne gently, as she put her arms about Demetrius.

"Et tu, Brute? Well, I plainly see this is no place for an inhuman, childless, married man," I said with a laugh, walking down the veranda.

In the doorway I met Diogenes, who raised his chubby arms invitingly.

"Up, up, Ocean!" he begged sweetly.

I lifted him to my shoulder, and then turned and walked triumphantly back to the family group.

"Now," I said, "here is the whole d-dashed family. And I propose that each keep unto his charge the child he has now under his wing."

Miss Frayne quickly relinquished the dirty Demetrius. Beth shrank away from Pythagoras.

As I seated myself still holding Diogenes, his brothers sprang toward him in greeting, but he spat at one, kicked at another, and pulled the hair of a third, although he patted Ptolemy's cheek gently.

"Now, we'll have this affair thrashed out," I declared in my most authoritative, professional manner, and I then proceeded to explain to Silvia the housing of the Polydores, and our strategies to keep their arrival a secret simply on her account.

"Because you know," interpolated Beth, with a consideration for the feelings of the young Polydores--a consideration they had never before encountered--"we wanted you to have a nice rest."

Silvia looked quite penitent and remorseful for her seeming lack of appreciation of our combined efforts. When I had answered all her inquiries satisfactorily, Miss Frayne's curiosity regarding the progeny of the eminent Polydores had to be fully relieved.

"And do you mean that the scribbling lady I saw at the table is really the mother of these five boys?" she asked, unable to grasp the fact.

"Yes; and the father hereof is the man who explained the ghosts to you so scientifically that you cannot remember what he said. Now, Ptolemy, we'll hear your story of the fire and the whereabouts of your parents.

Take your time and tell it accurately."