CHAPTER X--AN ATTIC MYSTERY
The library of Ten Eyck Hall was, to Bab, the most beautiful of all therooms. The walls were literally lined with books from floor to ceiling,and there were little galleries halfway up for the convenience ofgetting books that were too high to reach from the floor. Big leatherchairs and couches were scattered about and heavy curtains seemed toconceal entrances to mysterious doors and passages leading off somewhereinto the depths of the old house.
"This is just the place for a secret door or a staircase in the wall,"exclaimed Grace.
"There is a secret door, I believe, in this very room," replied themajor; "but it is really a secret, for the location was lost long agoand nobody has ever been able to find it since."
"How interesting!" said Ruth. "Can't you thump the walls and locate itby a hollow sound?"
"But, even if you discovered a hollow sound, you wouldn't know how toopen the door," said Martin.
"Press a panel, my boy. That is all that is necessary," replied Jimmie."With a wild shriek Lady Gwendolyn rushed through the portals of thelofty chamber. With trembling hands she pressed a panel in the wainscot.Instantly it flew back and disclosed a secret passage. Another instantand she had disappeared. The panel was restored to its place and SirMarmanduke and her pursuers were foiled."
All this, the irrepressible Jimmie had acted out with wildgesticulations.
They all laughed except Alfred Marsdale, who stood looking at Jimmie ina dazed sort of way.
"Wake up, Al, old man! What's the matter with you?"
"Oh, nothing," replied Alfred, "I was only wondering where I had readthat before."
There was another laugh, and the major led the way to the red drawingroom. It had been the ball room in the old days.
"It's a long time," observed the major, "since anyone has danced onthese floors."
The room took its name, evidently, from the red damask hangings andupholstering of the furniture. The walls were paneled in white and goldand there was a grand piano at one end.
"We'll have to take turn about playing," said Ruth. "Grace and I eachplay a little."
"Oh, Jimmie can play," replied Martin. "Is there anything Jimmie can'tdo?"
"Jimmie, you're a brick," said Alfred.
Back of the red drawing room was another smaller room which, the majorsaid, had always been called a morning parlor, but it had been afavorite room of the family when he was a young man, and had been usedas a gathering place in the evening as well as after breakfast.
"This is the prettiest room of all, I think," observed Mollie.
And it was certainly the most cheerful, with its brightly floweredchintz curtains and shining mahogany chairs and tables.
After that came a billiard room, a small den used as a smoking room, anda breakfast room.
"Who wants to see the attic?" said Martin.
"We all do?" came in a chorus from the young people.
"Now, girls," protested Miss Sallie, "remember you were to take yourrest this afternoon."
"Oh, we shan't be up there long," said Martin. "We promise you to bringthem back in time for the beauty sleep."
"Very well," answered Miss Sallie; "go along with you. It's very hard tobe strict, Major. Don't you find it so!"
"I never even tried the experiment, Sallie," replied the gentle oldsoldier, "because I always found it harder on me than on the boys. It'sreally a certain sort of selfishness on my part, I suppose. Cut alongnow, boys, and don't keep the girls from their rest too long."
The pilgrimage started up the great front staircase, led by Martin andhis older brother, who together had made many excursions to the atticand knew the way by heart.
On the second floor the explorers followed a passage that led to anotherflight of stairs, and this in turn to another passage, and finally toone last narrow flight of steps with a mysterious door at the top.
"This reminds me of the House of Usher," said Jimmie, "only it goes upinstead of down. Can't you imagine all these doors opening and closing,and the sound of footsteps on the stairs, down, down?"
Just then Martin opened the door and a gust of wind blew in their faces.Something flashed past that almost made the whole party fall backwardsdown the steps.
Mollie gave a little shriek.
"Don't be frightened," said Jose, who was standing just behind her. "Itis only a bird."
"Somebody must have left the window open," exclaimed Stephen insurprise. "I wonder who it was? The servants are afraid to come up here.They believe it is haunted. Lights have been seen at midnight, shiningthrough some of these windows, and the only persons who are not afraidare the housekeeper and the butler, who come twice a year, and clean outthe dust."
The young people found themselves in a vast attic whose edges werehidden by dense shadows. The center was lighted by dormer windows, hereand there, that gleamed like so many eyes from the high sloping roof.Scattered about were all sorts of odds and ends of antiquated furniture,chests of drawers, hair trunks, carved boxes and spinning wheels.
"Isn't this great!" cried Jimmie Butler. "Just the place forhandsprings," and he began to turn somersaults like a professional,while the girls looked on delighted.
"Stop that, Jim," protested Stephen. "You'll get yourself filthy andbreak your neck into the bargain. You are much too old for such child'splay. You'll have rush of blood to the head and strain a nerve, andheaven knows you've got enough to strain."
"'In my youth, Father William replied to his son, I feared it would injure the brain, But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none; Why, I do it again and again!'"
sang Jimmie as he wheeled over the floor toward a partition wall whichcut off one end of the great room. Over and over he circled, withoutlooking where he was going, until suddenly, bang, his heels hit againstthe wall.
There was a curious grating noise, a creaking of rafters, and beforetheir amazed eyes the wall slid along and disclosed another attic aslarge as the first.
Jimmie was so bewildered he forgot to pull himself up from the dustyfloor, and lay with his head propped against an old trunk looking acrossthe enormous space.
Then everybody began talking at once.
"This looks to me like smugglers," cried Alfred. "I was in an old housein England, where there was the same sort of wall, only not so large."
"And look," called Bab, "there are footsteps in the dust. Who could havebeen here lately, to have left those marks. Do you see? They come fromover there in the right hand corner."
"Yes, is it not curious," replied Jose, "that they are going away fromthe wall and not approaching it? He must have walked out of the wall.Perhaps there is a secret door there, too."
They rushed across pell mell, and began thumping the walls, but nothinghappened.
"I say, Stephen," said Martin, "do you suppose we had smugglers in ourfamily?"
"I don't know," answered Stephen. "They managed to keep it secret ifthey had."
"I'd like to be a smuggler," cried Martin. "There would be someexcitement in life then. But how did you manage to do it, Jimmie? Youare always having things happen to you."
"I don't know," replied Jimmie. "I must have kicked the panel thatworked the spring. Let's see if we can move it back again. Here's theplace in the floor," and bending over he pressed on a sliding board inthe floor. Instantly the wall began slipping back in place. The othersleaped back into the first attic, and in a moment the partition hadfitted itself as snugly as if it never had been moved.
"All is as if it never had been," exclaimed Jimmie. "Now let's find theplace I kicked."
But try as they would, no one could locate the spot again.
"Well, of all that's curious and mysterious!" said Stephen. "Jimmie, goand turn a few more wheels and see if it happens again."
Jimmie did as he was bade, and kicked the wall vociferously from one endto the other but it never budged an inch.
In the meantime, Martin and the girls were diving into some old trunksand carved chests which were filled with clothes
of another date,old-fashioned silks and dimities that had been worn by the major'sgrandmother and aunts.
"There is a trunkful of men's things, too," called Stephen, leaving thesliding partition, to join in the rummage.
"I say, girls," cried Jimmie, "wouldn't it be fun to give a fancy dressparty some day, and surprise the major and Miss Stuart?"
"How delightful!" exclaimed the girls in one voice.
"Oh, pshaw!" said Martin, disgusted.
"Oh, I say now, Jimmie, what a beastly idea!" exclaimed Alfred, equallydisgusted.
"Come on, fellows; don't throw cold water on the scheme if the girlslike it," put in Stephen.
And so the party was arranged.
All this time Jose had never left the partition, but had kept up acontinuous thumping to find the sliding panel.
"Everybody take a hand, and we will carry down everything we can find,and then we won't have to make another trip," called Stephen. "Come,Jose, we're going to dress up. You'll have to be a pirate. Here's a redsash and a three cornered hat that will just suit your style."
So saying, the cavalcade departed from the dark old attic, laden withspoils.
"If this is to be a surprise on uncle and Miss Stuart, we had betterhide the things, hadn't we?" observed Martin, who was very cautious andalways thought ahead, once he had decided to do a thing.
"Very well. We'll let Mary take charge of them and divide them later,"replied Stephen. "You had better go take your naps now, girls," he addedin a whisper, "or we'll have the old lady and gentleman on our necks."
The young people separated, the boys taking a corridor leading to theleft wing, the girls following the main hall. Bab left the others andstarted downstairs.
"I'll be right back," she called. "I left my handkerchief in thelibrary."
She confessed to herself, as she descended the stairs, that she wasrather tired. The excitement of the two past days, her uncomfortable bedmade of a steamer rug spread on the ground, the night before, andfinally the close, dusty air of the attic had combined to give her aheadache and a feeling of extreme weariness.
When she reached the cool, darkened library, she sat down for a momentin one of the big chairs and closed her eyes. It was very restful inthere. The sun had left that side of the house in the shade and the roomwith its heavy hangings, its dark leather furniture and rich rugs wasfull of shadows.
She was almost asleep, a slender little figure in a great armchair ofcarved black oak. Her head dropped to one side and her eyes closed, whenshe was awakened with a start by a draught of cold air. One of thecurtains next the book shelves bulged out for a moment and Barbara'seyes were fastened on a long, white hand that drew them aside. Then aface she had seen in the wood looked from around the curtain. The eyesmet hers, and again that strange, childlike look of sorrow and amazementfilled them.
A dizziness came over Barbara. She closed her eyes for a moment, and,when she opened them again, the face, or phantom, or whatever it was,had gone.
Holding her breath to keep from crying out, Barbara ran from the room asfast as her trembling knees could carry her. In the hall she met Jose.He looked at her curiously.
"Mademoiselle, have you seen a ghost?" he asked as he stood aside to lether pass.
She was afraid to answer, for fear of bursting into tears.
"I am sorry," he continued. "Has anything really happened?"
But still she refused to speak, and ran up the stairs.
He turned and went into the library, closing the door after him.
There was a queer little smile on his face. Perhaps he, too, had seenthe old man and understood her look of terror.
By the time she reached her room, Bab had regained her self-composure,and had again determined to say nothing about the adventure. It wouldonly frighten the girls and take away from the pleasure of the visit.