Part 4 (2/2)

”Clay wanted him for company,” Alex. explained. ”Joe looked like his heart was broken when we came off without him! I'll bet he runs away and comes after us!”

Seeing that their automatic revolvers were in working order, the boys walked back up the broken walk, mounted the steps, and pa.s.sed into the ancient hallway of the mansion. All was ruin and decay there. The floor was broken out in places, and there were marks of an axe on the casings of the door and on the narrow windows beside it.

The stairway leading to the rooms above was broken, too, some of the steps being gone entirely. The lads stopped at the foot of the steps for an instant to gaze upward and then turned into a lofty room on the left. This must have been the parlor, and the apartment beyond it must have been the library.

The furniture, which had once been valuable, was broken into bits, and a charred spot on the floor showed where a fire had been kindled. The rooms on that floor were all desolate and dismantled, and the boys soon turned their attention to those above the ruined staircase.

Scarcely had they gained the head of the stairs when the music began again. It seemed to come down the wide hallway which ran nearly through the house parallel with the front.

”We're getting nearer to the band!” Jule whispered.

There was such a hush over the place, such a weird, uncanny atmosphere, that, somehow, the boys did not feel like being loud-voiced or boisterous.

”We'll be running into a reception committee next!” Alex. returned.

The music continued for a few seconds, then ended in a repet.i.tion of the dragging, rustling sound and the shriek which had been heard before. This time the noise indicating physical motion appeared to come from the very hallway where the boys were standing!

Alex. and Jule continued on through the hall until they came to a part.i.tion which shut off the north end of it. There was a door in this part.i.tion, but it was locked. At first all the efforts of the lads failed to budge it.

”There's one part of the ranch that hasn't rotted away,” Alex.

observed, as red-faced and perspiring, he paused in his attack on the door.

”That shows there's some one taking care of it,” Jule decided.

”Suppose we try the door once more? It ought to give way before our weight.”

They both threw their shoulders against the upper panels and they dropped back, revealing a small room which had the appearance of having recently been occupied. There was a wide fireplace at the back of the room, which was at the end of the house, and a chair standing near the hearth was softly cus.h.i.+oned. There was a window on each side of the fireplace, but the curtains were drawn so all the details of the apartment were not visible. The boys drew back for an instant.

”We're breaking into some one's house!” Jule whispered.

”I guess that's right!” Alex. returned. ”What ought we to do now?”

”Keep right on until we get at the solution of the mystery,” Jule answered. ”It may be that we shall find a maiden in distress, and----”

The boy stopped in the midst of his light-hearted speech and looked again through the broken panels of the door at the end of the hall.

What he saw was a side door opening.

As the door swung back an old man, white haired and walking with a stout cane, came into the room and sat down in the chair by the hearth. Then, without glancing toward the broken panels and the boys beyond, he spoke:

”The door is not fastened, boys. You are welcome to enter.”

The boys entered, feeling ashamed and half afraid, and the old man pointed to two chairs by the hearth which had not been seen through the broken door.

”Sit down!” he said, almost with an air of command, ”and tell me why you are here.”

The boys sank down into the chairs; then there came a sharp click, and they felt themselves falling through the floor!

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