Chapter 19 The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene
The Hidden Staircase
Seeing the look of delight on Nancy’s face, Mr. Dodd laughed. “Do you think that house is haunted as well as this one?” he asked. “I hear you like to solve mysteries.”
“Yes, I do.” Not wishing to reveal her real purpose to the realtor, the young sleuth also laughed. “Do you think I might find a ghost over there?” she countered.
“Well, I never saw one, but you never can tell,” the man responded with a chuckle. He said he would leave the key with Nancy until Saturday evening and then pick it up. “If Mr. Gomber should show up in the meantime, I have a key to the kitchen door that he can use.”
Nancy thanked Mr. Dodd and with a grin said she would let him know if she found a ghost at Riverview Manor.
She could hardly wait for the next morning to arrive. Miss Flora was not told of the girls’ plan to visit the neighboring house.
Immediately after breakfast, they set off for Riverview Manor. Aunt Rosemary went with them to the back door and wished the two good luck. “Promise me you won’t take any chances,” she begged.
“Promise,” they said in unison.
With flashlights in their skirt pockets, Nancy and Helen hurried through the garden and into the grounds of Riverview Manor estate.
As they approached the front porch, Helen showed signs of nervousness. “Nancy, what will we do if we meet the ghost?” she asked.
“Just tell him we’ve found him out,” her friend answered determinedly.
Helen said no more and watched as Nancy inserted the enormous brass key in the lock. It turned easily and the girls let themselves into the hall. Architecturally it was the same as Twin Elms mansion, but how different it looked now! The blinds were closed, lending an eerie atmosphere to the dusky interior. Dust lay everywhere, and cobwebs festooned the corners of the ceiling and spindles of the staircase.
“It certainly doesn’t look as if anybody lives here,” Helen remarked. “Where do we start hunting?”
“I want to take a look in the kitchen,” said Nancy.
When they walked into it, Helen gasped. “I guess I was wrong. Someone has been eating here.” Eggshells, several empty milk bottles, some chicken bones and pieces of waxed paper cluttered the sink.
Nancy, realizing that Helen was very uneasy, whispered to her with a giggle, “If the ghost lives here, he has a good appetite!”
The young sleuth took out her flashlight and beamed it around the floors and walls of the kitchen. There was no sign of a secret opening. As she went from room to room on the first floor, Helen followed and together they searched every inch of the place for a clue to a concealed door. At last they came to the conclusion there was none.
“You know, it could be in the cellar,” Nancy suggested.
“Well, you’re not going down there,” Helen said firmly. “That is, not without a policeman. It’s too dangerous. As for myself, I want to live to get married and not be hit over the head in the dark by that ghost, so Jim won’t have a bride!”
Nancy laughed. “You win. But I’ll tell you why. At the moment I am more interested in finding my father than in hunting for a secret passageway. He may be a prisoner in one of the rooms upstairs. I’m going to find out.”
The door to the back stairway was unlocked and the one at the top stood open. Nancy asked Helen to stand at the foot of the main staircase, while she herself went up the back steps. “If that ghost is up there and tries to escape, he won’t be able to slip out that way,” she explained.
Helen took her post in the front hall and Nancy crept up the back steps. No one tried to come down either stairs. Helen now went to the second floor and together she and Nancy began a search of the rooms. They found nothing suspicious. Mr. Drew was not there. There was no sign of a ghost. None of the walls revealed a possible secret opening. But the bedroom which corresponded to Miss Flora’s had a clothes closet built in at the end next to the fireplace.
“In Colonial times closets were a rarity,” Nancy remarked to Helen. “I wonder if this closet was added at that time and has any special significance.”
Quickly she opened one of the large double doors and looked inside. The rear wall was formed of two very wide wooden planks. In the center was a round knob, sunk in the wood.
“This is strange,” Nancy remarked excitedly.
She pulled on the knob but the wall did not move. Next, she pushed the knob down hard, leaning her full weight against the panel.
Suddenly the wall pushed inward. Nancy lost her balance and disappeared into a gaping hole below!
Helen screamed. “Nancy!”
Trembling with fright, Helen stepped into the closet and beamed her flashlight below. She could see a long flight of stone steps.
“Nancy! Nancy!” Helen called down.
A muffled answer came from below. Helen’s heart gave a leap of relief. “Nancy’s alive!” she told herself, then called, “Where are you?”
“I’ve found the secret passageway,” came faintly to Helen’s ears. “Come on down.”
Helen did not hesitate. She wanted to be certain that Nancy was all right. Just as she started down the steps, the door began to close. Helen, in a panic that the girls might be trapped in some subterranean passageway, made a wild grab for the door. Holding it ajar, she removed the sweater she was wearing and wedged it into the opening.
Finding a rail on one side of the stone steps, Helen grasped it and hurried below. Nancy arose from the dank earthen floor to meet her.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Helen asked solicitously.
“I admit I got a good bang,” Nancy replied, “but I feel fine now. Let’s see where this passageway goes.”
The flashlight had been thrown from her hand, but with the aid of Helen’s light, she soon found it. Fortunately, it had not been damaged and she turned it on.
The passageway was very narrow and barely high enough for the girls to walk without bending over. The sides were built of crumbling brick and stone.
“This may tumble on us at any moment,” Helen said worriedly.
“Oh, I don’t believe so,” Nancy answered. “It must have been here for a long time.”
The subterranean corridor was unpleasantly damp and had an earthy smell. Moisture clung to the walls. They felt clammy and repulsive to the touch.
Presently the passageway began to twist and turn, as if its builders had found obstructions too difficult to dig through.
“Where do you think this leads?” Helen whispered.
“I don’t know. I only hope we’re not going in circles.”
Presently the girls reached another set of stone steps not unlike the ones down which Nancy had tumbled. But these had solid stone sides. By their lights, the girls could see a door at the top with a heavy wooden bar across it.
“Shall we go up?” Helen asked.
Nancy was undecided what to do. The tunnel did not end here but yawned ahead in blackness. Should they follow it before trying to find out what was at the top of the stairs?
She voiced her thoughts aloud, but Helen urged that they climb the stairs. “I’ll be frank with you. I’d like to get out of here.”
Nancy acceded to her friend’s wish and led the way up the steps.
Suddenly both girls froze in their tracks.
A man’s voice from the far end of the tunnel commanded, “Stop! You can’t go up there!”