Whispering Walls

by Mildred A. Wirt

  CHAPTER 20 _TWELVE STEPS DOWN_

  The news did not astonish Penny for she had anticipated it. She saidquietly:

  "Lorinda, surely now you'll call in the police? The Zudi drum must be avery valuable trophy."

  "It is. Yes, I suppose the only thing to do is notify policeheadquarters."

  Lorinda went to a telephone, but although she tried many times, she wasunable to contact the operator. "The line must be down," she reported."The wire sounds dead."

  "Then we're isolated here until after the storm. Lorinda, why don't youquestion Celeste and Anton?"

  "It would be useless."

  "Let me do it."

  "Go ahead, but they'll not tell you anything," Lorinda said despairingly."Anton and Celeste have been interested in the Zudi drum ever since theycame here, but I've never known them to steal."

  "Did they know the safe combination?"

  "Not unless they learned it the last few days. I noticed that Celestewatches lately whenever anyone enters or leaves the library."

  "Then she may have obtained the combination. I know she was tamperingwith the dial yesterday. Where is she now?"

  "In the kitchen, I suppose."

  Celeste, however, was not to be found there, nor was she in any of theupstairs bedrooms, or in her own room on the first floor adjoining thegarage.

  "I don't know where she and Anton went," Lorinda declared, deeplytroubled. "I hate to accuse them without proof, but it does look as ifthey're the only ones who could have stolen the drum!"

  "How about the trophies at the thatched roof cottage? Are they safe?"

  "Let's find out," Lorinda proposed. "Wait, I'll get the key.Incidentally, it was mysteriously returned to my stepfather's roomyesterday."

  She returned with the key in a moment, and the girls ran down theslippery path through the falling rain. The whine of a steadily risingwind was in their ears as they opened the cottage door and steppedinside.

  Lorinda looked carefully about. "Everything seems to be here--" shebegan, only to correct herself. "No, the crossed machetes which were onthe wall! They're gone!"

  "And the rattle!" exclaimed Penny. "Where is it?"

  Lorinda pulled out the wooden chest and raised the lid. "The altar clothis missing and any number of things! Almost everything has been taken!"

  In the midst of checking over the few remaining objects in the chest,Lorinda suddenly raised her head.

  "Listen!" she commanded.

  At first, Penny could distinguish only the whistle of the wind, then shebecame aware of a low rumbling murmur which seemed to come from the verywalls of the cottage.

  "It's a chant!" whispered Lorinda. "I can hear drums too, as if from along distance away!"

  A little frightened, neither girl spoke for a while. The strange sounddied away, then was resumed. This time they distinctly could hear thethumping of drums.

  Penny went to the door of the cottage to listen. Outside there was onlythe whine of the wind and the crashing of tree branches.

  "Lorinda, this cottage must have a secret passage!" she declaredexcitedly. "I thought so before, and now I'm certain of it!"

  Already Lorinda was down on hands and knees before the fireplace, tappingthe tiles. They gave forth a hollow sound. However, she could find noopening.

  Penny removed a huge black kettle from hanging chains, and peered up intothe chimney. Her groping hand encountered a rod which she assumedcontrolled the draft. She pulled on it. The floor beneath her feetsuddenly gave way, and she would have pitched through the opening had notLorinda seized her arms and held her.

  Scrambling back to solid flooring, Penny peered down into the darkopening where the hearth had been. The tiles were only a sham, she sawnow, fastened to a hinged rectangle of wood, which had fallen back like atrap door.

  Steep stone steps led down into inky darkness.

  "Why, I never dreamed this was here!" Lorinda whispered. "It must havebeen built that summer Mother and I were away!"

  The sound of drums and incantations came plainly now. Neither Penny norLorinda was eager to investigate the passage. They feared that they mightencounter something with which they would be unable to cope. But toretreat was equally unthinkable.

  Penny found the cocoanut shell lamp and lit the floating wick. Movingahead, she cautiously descended the stone steps. Lorinda kept closebeside her.

  Twelve steps led almost straight down. There the girls found themselvesin a bricked-over passageway, so narrow they could barely squeezethrough. However, after they had gone a few yards, it widened a little.

  "Where do you suppose this leads?" Penny whispered. "To the river?"

  "Probably. It seems to me the sound of the drums came from thatdirection."

  The weird noises no longer could be heard and the silence disturbed thegirls. Could it be that in entering the tunnel they had revealed theirpresence? Nervous and tense, they moved forward at a snail's pace,feeling their way along the wall and taking care to make no betrayingsound.

  The tunnel led downhill. In places the roof was so low the girls wereforced to bend double to pass through. The walls were damp and crumblyand, at points near the roof, water dripped steadily.

  Then presently Penny halted, shifting the lamp to her other hand. Thepassage had widened into a tiny room from which two tunnels branched.

  "Which shall we take?" she asked Lorinda.

  They selected the wider of the two, which soon proved a deception.Scarcely had they left the little dugout than it narrowed until they werebarely able to edge through.

  "Shall we turn back and try the other?" Penny suggested.

  Lorinda wanted to keep on. "We're moving uphill now," she pointed out. "Isuspect this must lead either to the house or the road."

  Her guess proved to be correct. Another twenty yards and the tunnelterminated abruptly in front of a door. It opened readily. A dozenroughly carved steps led upward to a trap door. Penny pushed it aside andblinking owlishly, climbed out into a bedroom.

  She saw then that the trap door had been cut in the center of the roomfloor, hidden from view by a large rag rug which now lay in an untidyheap.

  "Why, we're in Celeste's room!" Lorinda exclaimed as she too emerged."Adjoining the garage!"

  "This explains quite a few things to me," remarked Penny.

  "And to me! Celeste must have known about this passage all the time, butshe never hinted of it to Mother or me!"

  "If you ask my opinion, Celeste not only has known about the passage,she's been using it regularly," declared Penny, gazing curiously aboutthe room.

  The bed had been carelessly made, and a red bandana handkerchief had beenleft hanging on one of the wooden posts. On the dresser were a number ofobjects which drew the girls' attention. From the pin tray Penny pickedup a tiny black feather and there were strips of torn black cloth whichexactly matched the packet she wore about her neck.

  "This proves it!" she exclaimed. "Celeste made the evil charm which wasthrown through my window last night!"

  "Charm?" Lorinda inquired. "Penny, what are you talking about?"

  Penny showed her the packet and explained how it had been hurled throughthe window pane. "I'm sure Celeste had Anton do it or perhaps she tossedit herself. At any rate, she made the packet to frighten me, only itdidn't work."

  "Unless Celeste can explain matters satisfactorily, I'll turn her over tothe police!" Lorinda said angrily.

  "Finding her may not be so easy now. Also getting her into police custodymay take a little doing. I'm afraid we've waited too long, Lorinda."

  "No, we'll find her!" Lorinda announced with determination. "After all,she doesn't know how much we have learned. Let's investigate the otherpassageway."

  "All right," Penny agreed, "but this lamp isn't much good. We need aflashlight."

  "I have one in my room. I'll get it, see if Mother is all right, and beright back."

  Lorinda was gone less than five
minutes. "Mother is sleeping, so it'ssafe to leave her," she reported. "Here's the flash, but I couldn't findan extra battery."

  Descending into the passageway, the girls retraced their steps to thetiny dugout midway between the thatched roof cottage and the mansion. Asthey entered the other tunnel, they again heard the throb of jungledrums, and the weird incantation of many guttural voices.

  "A chant to the Serpent God!" whispered Lorinda. "Do you hear thathigh-pitched drum which sounds above the others?"

  Penny nodded as she moved forward in the dark, narrow passage.

  "It is the Zudi," Lorinda added. "I would know its tone anywhere! We mustrecover it, but if what I think is so, it will be a dangerous task!"