Part 9 (1/2)
”I thought it really was alive,” he said. ”But I guess I was wrong. Well, let's put it back.”
They lowered the portrait into place and went up the next flight of stairs. They were going to start at the top and work their way down.
They kept on climbing flights of stairs until they found themselves inside a little round tower, high up on top of the castle. it had narrow windows, like a real castle, except that there were panes of gla.s.s in them. The two boys looked down. They were above the top of Black Canyon, and for a distance of several miles they could see hills and more hills rising into the horizon. Then Pete let out an exclamation.
”Look!” he said. ”A television aerial.”
He was right. On top of the ridge nearest them was a television aerial, put up there by someone who lived down in the next canyon and couldn't get good reception.
”There's another canyon there quite close,” Pete said. ”It isn't as lonely here as it looks.”
”There are dozens of canyons running into these mountains,” Bob told him. ”But look how steep the ridge is. n.o.body but a mountain goat could get over the top.
You'd have to go round.”
”You're right,” Bob said. ”Well, nothing up here. Let's start down and see what we can find that Jupe might want to know about.”
On the floor below they came to a hall, and down the hall a door was open. They looked in. It must have been Stephen Terrill's library, the place where he left his farewell note, because there were hundreds of books on shelves. More pictures similar to the ones down in Echo Hall, but smaller hung on one of the walls.
”We better look this over,” Pete decided, so they went in. The pictures were very interesting. They all showed Stephen Terrill in scenes from his movies. In every picture he looked different. He was a pirate, a highwayman, a werewolf, a zombie, a vampire, a monster from the ocean. Bob wished he could have seen the movies.
”They called him 'The Man with a Million Faces',” he reminded Pete, as they went from one picture to the other. ”Wow, look at that!”
They had come to a mummy case in a little alcove. It was a real Egyptian mummy case, like those often seen in museums. The lid was closed, and there was a silver plate attached to it. Pete turned his torch on the plate and Bob squinted to read what was engraved there.
It said: THE CONTENTS OF THIS CASE.
WERE WILLED BY THEIR OWNER,.
MR. HUGH WILSON,.
TO THE MAN WHO GAVE HIM SO MUCH ENTERTAINMENT.
MR. STEPHEN TERRILL.
”Whiskers!” Pete said. ”What do you suppose is inside?”
”Maybe a mummy,” Bob suggested.
Could be something valuable. Let's have a look.”
They began to push up the lid of the mummy case. It wasn't locked, but it was quite heavy. They had it about half-way up when Pete gave a yell and let the lid go.
”Did you see what I saw?” he asked.
Bob swallowed a couple of times. ”I saw it,” he said. ”It's a skeleton.”
”A nice, s.h.i.+ny white skeleton, grinning at us!”
”I guess that's what this Hugh Wilson willed to Stephen Terrill for giving him so much entertainment,” Bob told him. ”His skeleton. Let's open up the case so that I can take a picture of it for Jupe.”
Pete didn't much want to. But Bob reminded him that a skeleton was nothing but some bones and couldn't hurt anyone. They opened the mummy case again, and Bob was able to take a good picture of the grinning skeleton. He was positive Jupe would be interested.
While Bob was winding on the film and slipping in a new flash-bulb, Pete wandered over by a window. He looked out and gave a yell.
”We better hurry,” he said. ”It's getting dark!”
Bob looked at his watch. ”It can't be. It's more than an hour to sunset.”
”Maybe the sun doesn't know that. Take a look.”
Bob limped over to the window. Sure enough, it was getting dark outside. The sun was disappearing behind the canyon wall. The only reason it was still s.h.i.+ning in at the window was because Terror Castle was built so high up on the ridge.
”I forgot about the sun setting early in these canyons,” he said. ”That makes a difference.”
”Let's go!” said Pete. ”One place I don't want to be in is this place after dark.”
They headed for the hall. As they looked up and down the long corridor, they saw that there were stairs at both ends. They couldn't figure out which set of stairs they had used before, so Pete finally picked the ones that were nearest.
By the time they reached the floor below, the light was getting much dimmer. And they couldn't seem to locate a staircase that would take them on down. Finally they found a narrow set of steps at the far end of the hall behind a door.
”This isn't the way we came up,” Bob said. ”Maybe we ought to go back.”
”All stairs go down,” Pete answered. ”And down is where we want to go and fast! Come on.”
They started down. As soon as they let go of the door, a spring closed it and they were in pitch darkness on the narrow stairs.
”We better find the way we came up,” Bob said uneasily. ”I don't like this darkness. I can't even see you.”
”You don't like it. I don't like it. That makes it unanimous,” Pete said. ”Where are you?” His fingers reached for Bob. ”Okay, let's not get separated. Back up and open the door.”
Together they climbed back up to the door. But the k.n.o.b refused to turn.
”I guess it locks on this side,” Bob said, trying to sound calm. ”It looks as if we have to go down this way whether we like it or not.”
”We need some light!” Pete said. ”If we could just find Hey, what's the matter with me? I have a torch a nice new torch.”
”Well, go ahead, switch it on,” Bob urged him. ”This darkness seems to be squeezing in on us. It's getting blacker, too.”
”Correction.” Pete sounded a little shaky. ”I haven't got a torch, after all.
Remember when we were shutting that mummy case? I must have left it there.”
”Great,” Bob said. ”Wonderful. And mine busted when I was knocked down by that suit of armour.”
”Maybe it was just shaken up,” Pete suggested. ”That happens.”