Part 4 (2/2)

Jupiter walked over and fished a big, rusty iron key out of a box of junk, where no one would have given it a second look. He unlocked the oak door, pulled it open, and they ducked in.

Now they were in an old iron boiler that bad come from some monster steam engine. They walked through it, slightly stooped, and at the other end crawled through a round door directly into Headquarters. Jupiter turned on the light and sat down behind the desk.

”Now,” he said, ”we must evaluate what happened. Pete, what made you run from Terror Castle tonight?”

”Nothing made me run,” Pete told him. ”I ran because I wanted to.”

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”I will phrase the question differently. What made you want to run?”

”Well,” Pete said, ”there in Echo Hall, I first began to feel uneasy. Just uneasy.

After a little while, I was feeling extremely nervous. All of a sudden the extreme nervousness became sheer terror, and then I wanted to run.”

”Mmm.” Jupiter pinched his lower lip. ”Your experience was exactly the same as mine. First uneasiness. Then extreme nervousness. Then sheer terror. And yet, what really happened? We heard some echoes we felt a cold draft ”

”An ice-cold draft!” Pete corrected him. ”And what about the picture that looked at me with a living eye?”

”Probably only imagination,” Jupiter told him. ”We actually saw and heard nothing to frighten us. Yet we felt frightened. The question is, why?”

”What do you mean, why?” Pete asked. ”Any old deserted house is kind of frightening, and that place is so scary it would frighten spooks!”

”Perhaps that is the answer,” Jupiter agreed. ”We must visit Terror Castle again and ”

And then the telephone rang.

They stared at it. The telephone had never rung before. Jupiter had had it installed less than a week ago when they had definitely decided they would start some kind of business. They planned to pay the charges from the money they made repairing broken items for Mr. Jones. It was listed in Jupiter's name, but of course the listing hadn't been put in the telephone book yet. So far, no one else knew they had it. Yet here it was ringing!

It rang again. Pete gulped. ”Well, answer it,” he said.

”I will.” Jupiter picked it up. ”h.e.l.lo?”

he said into the phone. ”h.e.l.lo?”

He held the telephone close to a microphone and speaker he had put together from the parts of an old radio.

This made it possible for them all to hear what was said. But all they could hear was a curious humming, far off.

”h.e.l.lo!” he said once more. But there was still no answer, so finally he hung up.

”Probably a wrong number,” he stated. ”As I was saying ”

The phone rang again.

They stared at it. Jupiter reached for it as if someone was holding on to his arm for dear life.

”Huh-h.e.l.lo?” he said.

They heard the strange humming again, sounding far off and lonesome.

Then they heard a voice that seemed to be gargling, as if the speaker hadn't talked in years but was trying hard to say something.

”Stay ” the voice said. Then, as if it were a great effort, as if it were the most tremendous effort imaginable, the voice got out another word. ” the voice said. Then, as if it were a great effort, as if it were the most tremendous effort imaginable, the voice got out another word.

” away away,” it said. ”Stay ... ... away away.”

Then it died out in a long gasp, and again there was just a weird humming noise.

”Stay away from what?” Jupiter asked the telephone.

But the telephone didn't answer. It just went on humming.

He hung up. For a long moment no one said anything. Then Pete stood up.

”I've got to get home,” he said. ”I just remembered something I have to attend to.”

”Me, too.” Bob hopped up. ”I'll go with you.”

”Possibly Aunt Mathilda would like me to do some errands,” Jupiter said, and he got up, too. They practically fell over one another in their eagerness to get out of Headquarters.

The voice on the phone hadn't finished the sentence But they didn't have any trouble figuring what he or it, or whatever it was had been trying to tell them.

Stay away from Terror Castle!

Chapter 7.

Trapped!

”WE HAVE A PROBLEM,” Jupiter said the following afternoon. He and Pete were seated in their Headquarters office Bob was busy at the library and Jupe was scowling at a sheet of paper.

”In fact, we have two problems,” The First Investigator added.

”I can tell you how to solve our problems,” Pete said. ”Just pick up that telephone and call Mr. Alfred Hitchc.o.c.k and tell him we've decided not to find a haunted house for him. Tell him we break out into large lumps of goose-flesh whenever we get near one. Tell him our legs go all wobbly and start running of their own accord.”

Jupiter ignored the suggestion.

”Our first problem,” he stated, ”is to determine who made that phone call last night.”

”Not who,” Pete declared. ”What ... Was it a phantom or a spook or a werewolf, or just a disembodied spirit?”

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