Part 11 (1/2)
”Curious,” he muttered. ”There must be some secret means of opening the door.”
He swung it shut. There was a firm click. And they were shut into the narrow pa.s.sageway.
”Now you've done it!” Pete yelled. ”You've locked us in!”
”Hmm.” His partner tried to find some finger hold by which to pull the door open.
There was none. The back was smooth wood, fitting snugly so that there was scarcely a crack into which to insert a fingernail.
”Definitely, there must be a secret means of opening the door,” he said. ”I wonder why it opened so easily when I touched it just a minute ago?”
”Never mind that,” Pete told him. ”Let's see you open it easily again again. I want to get out.”
”I'm sure that if an emergency arose, we could break through this wood, and then through the gla.s.s mirror,” Jupiter said, running his finger tops over the wooden backing of the door. ”However, it should not be necessary. We want to go in the other direction.”
Pete was on the point of telling him that the opinions expressed were not necessarily those of the Second Investigator, but already Jupe was moving down the narrow pa.s.sageway, tapping the walls with his knuckles.
”Solid,” he remarked as he moved along. ”But there is a suggestion of hollowness beyond the stone. Listen.”
He rapped again. Pete listened. And he heard something.
He heard the far-off sound of the big ruined pipe organ beginning to play. The weird, wheezing tones seemed to fill the narrow pa.s.sage, coming from all directions at once.
”Listen to that!” Pete exclaimed. ”The Blue Phantom plays again!”
”I hear it,” the other boy told him. Jupiter put his ear against the wall of the pa.s.sage and held it there for a long moment.
”The music seems to be coming through the stone wall,” he stated. ”I'd say we are probably directly behind the ruined pipe organ in the projection room.”
”You mean the Blue Phantom is on the other side of that wall?” Pete yelped.
”I hope so,” Jupiter said. ”After all, the whole purpose of tonight's expedition is to meet the Phantom and take his picture. And if possible interview him.”
”Interview him?” Pete groaned. ”You mean actually talk to him?”
”If we can catch him.”
”But suppose he catches us?” Pete demanded. ”That's what worries me.”
”I must repeat” Jupiter sounded rather severe now ”that according to all available records, the Blue Phantom has never harmed anyone. I am basing my entire strategy upon this point. During my stay in bed, I came to some conclusions about this case. I have kept them to myself, in order to verify them. I think we will soon find out whether I am correct or not.”
”But suppose you're wrong?” Pete asked. ”If you're wrong and the Blue Phantom decides he wants us to join his gang of spooks, then what?”
”Then I will admit I was wrong,” Jupiter said. ”But I will make one prediction now. In a few moments we will begin to feel a sensation of extreme terror.”
”In a few moments!” Pete yelled. ”What do you think I'm feeling now?”
”Merely great nervousness. The extreme terror is about to come.”
”In that case I'm about to go. Come on, let's bust that mirror and get out of here.”
”Wait!” Jupiter gripped his wrist. ”Let me remind you that fear and terror are merely feelings. You will be terrified, but I a.s.sure you, no harm will come of it.”
While Pete was trying to answer that, he became aware of a strange change inside the secret pa.s.sage. Unnoticed, while they listened to the weird music beyond the wall, curious wisps of fog had suddenly appeared in the air. They were all over along the floor, along the walls, along the ceiling.
Pete flashed his light up and down. In the bright beam the wisps of fog swirled slowly, coming together in weirdly sinuous coils and circles. As he stared at them, they seemed to form strange and sinister forms in the air.
”Look!” Pete's voice wavered. ”I can see faces! And there's a dragon and a tiger and a fat pirate ...”
”Steady!” Jupiter said. ”I can see strange images too, but they are just the product of our imagination. It's the same as lying on a hillside and watching the clouds. The eye turns them into all kinds of creatures. This mist is perfectly harmless. But I believe the extreme terror is about to begin.”
He gripped Pete's hand hard, and Pete gripped back. Jupiter was right. Suddenly he felt fingers of terror running into every part of his body, from his scalp down to his toes. His skin seemed to quiver with the awful sensation. Only the fact that Jupiter must be feeling it too, and was standing as steady as a rock, kept Pete from racing back and hammering wildly on the mirror that blocked the pa.s.sage.
As the sensation of terror swept over them, the fog thickened, twisting and turning in fantastic images in the air.
”The Fog of Fear,” Jupiter said. His voice shook a little, but he stepped forward firmly. ”Reported once before, many years ago. The ultimate manifestation of Terror Castle. Now let us try to get out and catch the Blue Phantom while he thinks we are paralysed with fear.”
”I can't,” Pete managed to mumble through his clenched teeth. ”I am am paralysed. I can't make my legs move.” paralysed. I can't make my legs move.”
Jupiter paused. ”The time has come to tell you what I deduced while forced to stay in bed, Pete,” he said. ”I deduced that Terror Castle is really haunted ”
”That's what I've been telling you all along!”
” is really haunted, but not by a ghost. It's haunted by a man who is very much alive. In fact, the Phantom of Terror Castle, according to my deductions, is Mr.
Stephen Terrill, the supposedly dead movie star himself.”
”What?” Pete was so surprised he forgot the feeling of terror. ”You mean alive and living here all these years?”
”Exactly. A living ghost. Scaring people away from his home so that he will not lose it.”
”But how could he?” Pete asked. ”I mean, we both know there's no sign that anybody ever comes or goes from here. How'd he get food and supplies?”
”I don't know. That's one thing I want to ask him. But now you understand he has been scaring us on purpose just to keep us away. He doesn't really want to hurt anybody. Does that make you feel better?”
”Well, sure,” Pete said. ”Even though I still have that feeling of my legs wanting to go someplace else.”
”Then let us complete our investigation by unmasking the Phantom,” Jupiter said.
He started for the door at the end of the pa.s.sage and Pete found himself keeping step. Now that Jupe had explained it, the whole thing made sense. Stephen Terrill himself, the master of terror, living in the old castle all these years, frightening people away!
They reached the door at the end of the pa.s.sage. To their surprise, it opened easily. They stepped through into pitch darkness. The weird music was louder now, and from its echoes they knew they must be in a bigger room.
”The projection room,” Jupiter whispered. ”Don't use your light. We want to surprise the Phantom.”
Side by side they felt their way along a wall and round a corner. Pete almost let out a wild yell when something soft and slithery swooped down and wrapped itself around his face and head. But it was just a rotten velvet drape that he had torn loose. He managed to free himself without making any noise.