Bob's make-up was doubtless excellent, but much experience with Harding Hallowe'en parties had made the night-watchman extremely sceptical. He walked boldly up to the ghost, explained to her that Georgia Ames "wan't nothin' but them girls' fool doin's," turned a deaf ear to her pleadings to be let into the Belden to see Madeline, and finally grasped her wrist so tightly that Bob abandoned her ghostly falsetto and howled for mercy.