Boarded-Up House
Page 5
CHAPTER V
JOYCE MAKES A NEW DISCOVERY. SO DOES GOLIATH
Yes, the door was locked, and there was no vestige of a key. Joyce wassuddenly inspired with an idea.
"Let's try the keys of the other doors! I noticed that they most all hadkeys in the locks. Perhaps one will fit this." They hunted up severaland worked with them all, but not one made the slightest impression onthis obstinate lock.
"Now isn't this provoking!" exclaimed Joyce. "The only room in the housethat we can't get in, and the most interesting of all, I'm certain! What_shall_ we do?" Cynthia made no reply, but looked at her little silverwatch.
"Do you know that it's quarter-past six?" she asked quietly.
"Mercy, no! We've got to go at once then. How the time has gone!"Reluctantly enough they hunted up Goliath, who in thorough boredom hadreturned to his place on the hearth-rug in the big bedroom, gatheredtogether their candles, and found their way to the cellar. Cynthia hadthoughtfully requested a tin biscuit-box from the grocer, and in thisthey packed their candles, thus protecting them against the ravages ofmice, and left them in the cellar near the window. Then they clamberedout.
"To-morrow's Saturday," said Joyce. "In the morning we'll go to thelibrary and look up that book of costumes. After lunch we'll go back tothe B. U. H. and finish exploring. There's the attic yet, and maybe wecan find that key, too!" With a gay good-by they separated each to herhome, on opposite sides of the Boarded-up House.
The result of their researches in the library, next morning, was notwholly satisfactory. They found that the most recent fashion ofhoop-skirts or crinolines had prevailed all the way from 1840 to 1870,or thereabouts. And while these dates limited, to a certain extent thetime of the mysterious happening, it did not help them very much. Theyfelt that they must look for some more definite clue.
That afternoon they entered the Boarded-up House for the third time.They found Goliath already in the cellar, owing, no doubt, to the factthat Bates's pup was patrolling the front yard. So they invited him toaccompany them, an invitation which he accepted with arched back andresounding purr. Deciding to explore the attic first, they found that adoor from the upper hall opened on a stairway leading to it.
At any other time, or in any other house, they would have found thisattic of absorbing interest. In its dusky corners stood spinning wheelsand winding-reels. Decrepit furniture of an ancient date had found arefuge there. Antique hair trunks lined the sides, under the eaves, andquaint garments hung about on pegs. The attic was the only apartment inthis strange house that received the light of day, for the two littlewindows like staring eyes were not boarded up. So dim were they, howeverwith dirt and cobwebs, that very little daylight filtered through.
But the attic had no great holding interest at present, since it wasevident that it contained no clue to help them in the solution of themystery. And they soon left it, to search anew every room below, in thehope of coming upon the missing key.
"These old-fashioned keys are so immense that it hardly seems possiblethat any one would carry one off--far," conjectured Joyce. "But why inthe world should just that room be locked, anyway? What can be hiddenthere? I'm wild,--simply wild with impatience to see it all!"
The search for the key was not exactly systematic. Neither of the girlsfelt at liberty to open bureau-drawers or pry into closets and trunks.Besides, as Cynthia wisely suggested, it was not likely that any onewould lock a door so carefully and then put the key in a drawer or trunkor on a shelf. They would either carry it away with them or lay itdown, forgotten, or hide it in some unusual place. If it had beencarried away, of course their search was useless. But if it had beenthoughtlessly laid aside somewhere, or even hidden away in some obscurecorner, there _was_ a possibility that they might come upon it.
With this hope in mind, they went from room to room, searching on desks,chairs, and tables, poking into dark corners, peeping into vases andother such receptacles, and feeling about under the furniture; but allto no purpose. They came at last to the great bedroom where were so manysigns of agitation and hurried departure, deciding that here would bethe most likely field for discovery. Goliath had evidently precededthem, for they found him once more curled up on the soft rug before thefireplace. He seemed to prefer this comfortable spot to all others, buthe rose and stretched when the girls came in. Joyce went straight forthe chimney-place.
"I'm going to poke among these ashes," she announced. "A lot of thingsseem to have been burned here, mostly old letters. Who knows but whatthe key may have been thrown in too!" She began to rake the dead ashes,and suddenly a half-burned log fell apart, dropping something through tothe bottom with a "chinking" sound.
"Did you hear that?" she whispered. "Something clinked! Ashes or woodwon't make that sound. Oh, suppose it is the key!" She raked away againfrantically, and hauled out a quantity of charred debris, but nothingeven faintly resembling a key. When nothing more remained, she poked thefragments disgustedly, while Cynthia looked on.
"See there!" Cynthia suddenly exclaimed. "It isn't a key, but what'sthat round thing?" Joyce had seen it at the same moment and picked itup--a small, elliptical disk so blackened with soot that nothing couldbe made of it till it was wiped off. When freed from its coating ofblack, one side proved to be of shining metal, probably gold, and theother of some white or yellowish substance, the girls could not telljust what. In the center of this was a curious smear of various dimcolors.
"Well, what do you suppose that can be?" queried Cynthia]
"Well, what do you suppose that can be?" queried Cynthia.
"I can't imagine. Whatever it was, the fire has pretty well finished it.You can see that it must have been rather valuable once,--there's goldon it. Here's another question to add to our catechism: what is it, andwhy was it thrown in the fire? Whatever it was, it doesn't help muchnow. If it had only been the key!-- Good gracious! is that a rat?" Bothgirls jumped to their feet and stood listening to the strange soundsthat came from under the valance hanging about the bottom of the greatfour-poster bed. It was a curious, intermittent, irregular sound, as ofsomething being pushed about the floor. After they had listened amoment, it suddenly struck them both that the noise was somehow veryfamiliar.
"Why, it's Goliath, of course!" laughed Cynthia. "This is the secondtime he has scared us. He has something under there that he's playingwith, knocking it about, you know. Let's see what it is!" They tiptoedover and raised the valance.
Cynthia was right. Goliath was under the bed, dabbing gracefully withone paw at something attached to a string or narrow ribbon. Despite therolls of dust that lay about, Joyce crawled under and rescued it. Sheemerged with a flushed face and a triumphant chuckle. "Goliath beats usall!! He's made the best find yet!"
"Is it the key?" cried Cynthia.
"No, it's this!" And before Cynthia's astonished eyes Joyce dangled alarge gold locket, suspended on a narrow black velvet ribbon. In thecandle-light the locket glistened with tiny jewels.
"Do you recognize it?" demanded Joyce.
"_Recognize_ it? How should I?"
"Why, Cynthia! It's the very one that hangs about the neck of our LovelyLady in the picture down-stairs!" It was, indeed, no other. Even thenarrow black velvet ribbon was identical.
"She must have dropped it accidentally, perhaps when she took it off,and it rolled under the bed. In her hurry she probably forgot it," saidJoyce, laying it beside the curious disk they had raked from thefireplace. "Isn't it a beauty? It must be very valuable." Cynthia bentdown and examined both articles closely.
"Did you notice, Joyce," she presently remarked, "that those two thingsare exactly the same shape, and almost the same size?"
"Why, so they are!" exclaimed Joyce. "Oh, I have an idea, Cynthia! Canwe open the locket? Let's try." She picked it up and pried at the catchwith her thumb-nail. After a trifling resistance it yielded. The locketfell open and revealed itself--empty. Joyce took up the disk and fittedit into one side. With the gold back pressed inward, it slid into place,leaving no
shadow of doubt that it had originally formed part of thistrinket.
"Now," announced Joyce, "I know! It was a miniature, an ivory one, butthe fire has entirely destroyed the likeness. Question: how came it inthe fire?" The two girls stood looking at each other and at the locket,more bewildered than ever by this curious discovery. Goliath, cheated ofhis plaything, was making futile dabs at the dangling velvet ribbon.Suddenly Joyce straightened up and looked Cynthia squarely in the eyes.
"I've thought it out," she said quietly. "It just came to me. Theminiature was taken out of the locket--on purpose, _to destroy_ it! Theminiature was of the same person whose picture is turned to the walldown-stairs!"