The Mystery of the Red-Brick House — Betty Casbeer Carroll

This is a mystery involving five siblings, Jeanie, Ann, Liz, Ricky, and Neil. They move to a near-by city for the summer, where their mother has rented a red-brick house that had been vacant for years. The house is located on the back of a wooded lot populated with oak, maple, and pine trees, and is surrounded by an iron picket fence with a rusty gate that squeaks and creaks when it's opened.

The neighbor kids, except Cindy, think the place is haunted because it's been vacant so long, the red bricks are chipped and cracked, and the yard is full of tall weeds. Cindy once lived in the house, and laughs at such rumors. But the spider webs hanging on the eaves, in the doorways, and all through the house when they first move in, reinforces their initial impression that they are moving into a haunted house.

When Liz sees a stranger run from their basement to the orchard one evening, and Jeanie and Ann find the trap door to the attic locked after they left it open, a mystery begins to unfold, affecting the whole household. Muddy footprints that go only to the middle of the porch arouse further fears.

Their mother hires a housekeeper, Miss Briggs, who has beady eyes that get red and watery when she's provoked. When Miss Briggs forbids their only friend, Cindy, from coming over, they know something is definitely wrong. But what? Jeanie and Ann devise a scheme to chase Miss Briggs away, because complaints to their mother just fall on unheeding ears. She learns eventually how wrong she was.