CHAPTER XIX--THE TOWER ROOM
For a moment the girls looked as though they thought Billie had gonemad. The proposal had been made to them so suddenly that it took theirbreath away.
"But, Billie, aren't you afraid--after finding that blood-stainedhandkerchief and everything?" demanded Vi, round-eyed.
"Of course I'm afraid! But I'm going just the same," said Billiestoutly. "I've wondered and wondered about what might be in that lockedroom till I'm nearly crazy. And if you won't go with me, I'm goingalone," she repeated.
"Don't be foolish," commanded Laura. "If you go, of course we'll go. Butsuppose none of your keys will fit?" she added, glancing at a half dozenrusty keys on a still more rusty key ring which Billie was jinglingnervously. Billie had found the key ring on a nail in a dark corner ofher locker the day before. She had been about to deliver it to the lostand found office when the inspiration had come to her. She would try thekeys first to see if by any chance one of them could be used to unlockthe little door in tower three. It would be time enough afterward toreport her discovery.
Now at Laura's question she looked somewhat provoked.
"Don't you s'pose I've thought of that?" she said, adding, with atwinkling smile: "Somebody is always taking the joy out of life!"
"We can try 'em, anyway," said Laura doubtfully, still speaking of thekeys. "But they don't look very promising."
"But, girls," Vi protested weakly, "suppose we should find somethinghorrible up there--a skeleton or something?"
"Well, the poor old skeleton couldn't hurt us," returned Laura, addingwith a giggle: "Probably it would be glad to see us after being up therealone so long."
"But the blood-stained handkerchief"--Vi whispered.
"Oh, that!" said Laura, with a lofty wave of her hand. "That's nothing.I told you before that probably somebody had a nose-bleed."
Which made even Vi giggle and had the effect of stilling her fears forthe time being, at least.
They had hard work getting away from their classmates without arousingtheir suspicion, but they succeeded at last. The three girls ran lightlyup the three flights of stairs that led to the musty old attic.
Now that the moment was at hand they were more excited than nervous, andtheir hearts beat high with the hope that they might really find amystery hidden behind that locked door. But what could it be?
The queer sounds and heavy musty smell of the attic that had seemed sodreadful to Billie on that never-to-be-forgotten night seemed naturaland even funny in the revealing daylight.
The shadowy corners that had seemed so sinister when lighted only by onetiny flickering candle were only corners now, cobwebbed and dusty, to besure, but harmless.
Mice scuttled across the floor squeaking angrily at being disturbed, butalthough Vi screamed and Laura side-stepped nervously, Billie onlylaughed. To-day they were only little mice more afraid of her than shewas of them. That night they had been monsters waiting to devour her.
But just the same, some measure of her nervousness returned when theyreached the stairway down which she had nearly tumbled in her wildflight.
Laura and Vi seemed to share her uneasiness, for they stopped at thefoot of the stairs and held back a little.
"Who goes up first to meet the skeleton?" asked Laura, with an attemptat a laugh that sounded strained even to herself.
"You do," said Vi, adding maliciously: "You were the one who said hewouldn't hurt us."
Seeing that Laura was about to argue the point, Billie pushedimpatiently past them both and ran defiantly up the stairs. Laura, thuschallenged, took the stairs two at a time after her and Vi followedreluctantly.
"Look! There's the handkerchief," said Billie, kicking the tiny squareof blood-stained linen over toward Laura, who jumped nervously out ofthe way.
"Well, you needn't wish it on me," she said resentfully, picking up thehandkerchief by the very tip of a corner and presenting it to Billiewith a low bow. "Here, take back your gold----"
"What are you two whispering about?" demanded Vi, petulantly, for bythis time she was beginning to wish she had not come.
At her question Laura whirled suddenly about and poked the blood-stainedhandkerchief directly beneath Vi's startled nose.
"There," she said. "Want it?"
Vi gave one look, screamed, and fled down the stairs. She had gone onlyhalfway, however, when Laura overtook her and dragged her back.
"None of that," she cried. "You can't back out now. Besides, we're onlybeginning to have some fun."
"Fun!" groaned Vi, keeping a wary eye on the handkerchief that Laurastill held. "Well, I'm glad I know what to call it."
"Come on," said Billie, jingling her rusty keys and starting up theladder. "Now we'll see whether one of these keys will fit."
"I hope it doesn't," said Vi, under her breath, but Laura caught her upsharply.
"What did you say?" she demanded.
"Oh--nothing," said Vi.
By this time Billie was on the top rung of the ladder and her fingerstrembled as she tried to fit the first of the keys into the lock. Shehad more courage than Vi, yet almost she echoed the other girl'swish--that she would not be able to find a key to fit.
She wanted to see what was on the other side of that locked door, yetfor some reason--perhaps the blood-stained handkerchief--she was afraidto find out.
She had tried every key till she came to the next to the last, whileLaura and Vi fidgeted at the foot of the ladder.
"Won't they fit?" asked Laura, impatiently and in a high-strung tone.
"Yes," said Billie unexpectedly, as the key slipped into the lock andturned easily under the pressure of her fingers. She hesitated andlooked down at the two girls before swinging the door wide.
"Aren't you coming?" she asked, and she could not, for the life of her,keep a little scared quality out of her voice.
"Of course," cried Laura, recovering from her surprise--for she hadreally not expected that any of Billie's keys would fit--and ascendingthe ladder hand over hand. "'Lead on, Macduff, to victory or to death!'"
Vi groaned again and gingerly put a foot on the ladder. She did not knowwhich was worse, to remain there by herself or to follow the girlsto--goodness-knew-what. But the squeak of a mouse behind her made herdecide in favor of company, and she scurried in a panic up the ladder.
Meanwhile Billie and Laura were experiencing rather severe pangs ofsomething--they could not have told whether it was disappointment orrelief.
They had braced themselves to find something horrible--or at leastinteresting--in the tower room, and they were rather taken aback atfinding themselves confronted with a large amount of nothing at all.
There seemed to be a great deal of junk scattered about, but in thegloom of the place they could not even make that out very clearly.
There were windows all about the tiny room, but they were so encrustedwith ancient dirt and cobwebs that the bright sunlight of theout-of-doors was reduced to a weird and spooky twilight, which seemedsomehow to correspond to the forlorn aspect of the place.
"Well," said Laura, drawing a deep breath, "we come up here expecting tofind something interesting and we get--stung!"
"It does look that way," admitted Billie ruefully. "Seems as if we mightat least have met a good live ghost or two."
"Live ghost!" sniffed Laura crossly, for she was really feeling verymuch injured. "All the ghosts that I ever heard about were as dead as adoornail."
"For goodness' sake, stop talking about dead people," said Viquerulously from the doorway. "If there isn't anything in here--andthank goodness there isn't--let's go back."
"Not yet," said Billie. Her eyes, become more accustomed to the dimlight, had lighted upon something interesting among the junk. What hadcaught her attention was a large, clumsy-looking thing like a queerlyshaped wooden box. The girls watched her curiously as she bent over toexamine it.
"You haven't found your ghost, have you?" asked Vi, in a voice that wasmeant to be sarcastic.
"No," said
Billie, a thrill of wonder and excitement creeping into hervoice. "But I may have found something! Girls, come here and have a lookat this!"
The girls picked their way over the rubbish that littered the floor.What had seemed like a peculiarly shaped box proved on closer inspectionto be some cunningly fashioned wooden machinery.
The girls looked at each other in awed silence. To them all in aninstant had come the same thrilling thought.
"The lost invention!" murmured Billie. "And we thought there was nothinghere!"