The Secret of the Mansion (12 page)

and his hair was a bright splotch of red against his pale forehead. Then, as he let out an involuntary moan, she began tugging at the heavy ladder. Between

them, the girls finally lifted and pushed the ladder away, and Jim looked up with a sickly grin.

“Golly, I know now what a drowning man goes through,” he said. “Everything that ever happened to me flashed through my mind while that ladder was deciding

what it was going to do.” He stretched his arms and legs tentatively, slowly flexing his wrists and ankles. “No bones broken, thank goodness.” He sat up.

“I made myself go limp as soon as I realized I was going to fall.”

“I was pretty limp myself,” Trixie said, and grinned.

Jim scrambled to his feet, rubbing the back of his

137 121 head. “I’ll have a lump the size of yours,” he told Trixie. “It was lucky I didn’t crack my skull.” He laughed ruefully. “Jonesy always said I was

hardheaded, and I guess he’s right.”

“That makes three of us,” Honey declared. “First I cut my knee, then Trixie hit her head on a rock, and now you topple off a ladder. What’s going to happen

next?”

“Nothing,” Trixie said. “Bad things always go in threes, so the jinx is over.”

“I’m not so sure of that.” Honey was counting on her fingers. “Jupiter ran away with you. I almost got run over by the laundry truck, and the dog chased

us down the lake.”

“Well, that’s just another set of threes,” Jim said cheerfully.

“How about the dog running after me a little while ago?” Honey demanded. “Doesn’t that start off still another set?”

Trixie shrugged. “Have it your way. Two more awful things are going to happen to us.”

Honey looked hurt and said quietly, “What I’m trying to say is that I don’t think Jim ought to climb up that ladder again today. He might get dizzy after

such a bad fall.”

“You’re right.” Jim shook his head vigorously. “I can

138 122 still hear bells ringing in my ears. Anyway, the light’s fading. It’ll be pitch black up there with the windows as coated with dirt as they are.

We wouldn’t be able to see a thing.”

“That’s right.” Trixie was sorry she had made fun of Honey. “I really ought to go home and help Mother with supper. I’ll bring up a couple of flashlights,

and we can explore tomorrow morning.”

As the girls strolled down the path to the hollow, Honey said, “I know you think I’m silly to be so superstitious, but-“

“I don’t,” Trixie interrupted hastily. “I’m pretty superstitious myself. I wouldn’t walk under a ladder for anything, and as for black cats!” She laughed.

“One ran across the road in front of our car once, and Dad went into a ditch trying to avoid it. He broke a spring, so now we’re all superstitious about

black cats.”

“It’s more than that with me,” Honey said solemnly. “I just have the most peculiar feeling that something awful’s going to happen. I don’t really believe

in premonitions or dreams, but, after all, I had a nightmare about something attacking me and something did.”

Trixie glanced at her curiously. “That’s so,” she admitted. “What’s this peculiar feeling like? What do you think’s going to happen?”

139 123 Honey shivered. “I don’t know. But it’s connected with that creepy old house, somehow. All the time I’m up there, I feel like looking over my shoulder

to see what’s behind me. It’s horrid, and I suppose it’s just because I’m such a sissy, but-“

“You’re not a sissy,” Trixie broke in. “I wish you’d stop saying that all the time. I think you’re great. Honest. I never heard of anyone going down such

a steep hill on a bike the very first day, and the way you swam after that boat when your knees must have been knocking together the way mine were. By

the way,” she finished, “how is that knee of yours?”

“Oh, oh,” Honey said. “I forgot to put another bandage on it after we went in swimming.”

“Well, don’t forget to put one on tomorrow morning,” Trixie said as she stopped at the mailbox at the end of the driveway. “And you’d better wear a knee

pad, too, if we’re going in for the papers.”

Bobby was well enough to sit up and play checkers with his father on Sunday morning. “Hurry up and bring back the funnies,” he ordered Trixie from the window

as she and Honey set off on their bikes.

The girls stopped long enough at the little Glen Road store to examine the New York papers thoroughly, and they were relieved to find no mention in them

of old

140 124 Mr. Frayne. Trixie introduced Honey to the storekeeper. “Her family just bought the Manor House on the hill above ours, Mr. Lytell,” she explained.

“Is that so?” Mr. Lytell pushed his glasses farther up his nose. “Hear your other neighbor, Mr. Frayne, is pretty sick, Trixie.”

“I guess he’s dying,” Trixie said and started to move away.

“Just a minute.” The storekeeper came out from behind the counter. “You girls had better pick up a stick on the way home. There’s a stray dog loose around

here. A mean-looking cur. Saw him early the other morning when I was riding my old nag through the woods across the road from your place, Trixie. Saw something

else, too.” He took off his glasses and began polishing them with his handkerchief. “Smoke rising from the Mansion. You girls aren’t fooling around up

there building campfires, are you? That old wreck would burn like dry timber if it caught fire.”

He looked up suddenly, and Trixie knew her face was bright red. “Oh, no, Mr. Lytell,” she said hastily. “I wouldn’t light a match anywhere in the woods

or fields after the fire we had summer before last.”

He looked at her suspiciously and grunted. “Smoke doesn’t rise by itself.”

141 125 “Whew!” Trixie gasped as they got on their bikes. “I forgot all about Mr. Lytell. We’d better warn Jim not to build any more fires.”

“It’s lucky he thought it was us,” Honey said. “Otherwise, he might have investigated and discovered Jim-,’

They coasted down the hill to the Belden driveway, Trixie riding no hands, no feet. “At the rate you’re going, you’ll be doing this yourself as soon as

your knee heals,” she told Honey.

“Well, I’m not going to try it for a long time,” Honey said. “So much happened yesterday I’m beginning to think it must have been Friday the thirteenth.”

She waited in the garage where they parked their bikes while Trixie brought the papers down to the terrace where Mr. and Mrs. Belden were having coffee.

“I’ll take the comics up to Bobby,” she said. “Then, can I fool around with Honey till lunchtime?”

Mrs. Belden nodded. “It’s much too hot to work in

the garden.”

“You’ve been doing a good job with the chickens, Trixie,” her father said. “And you deserve a day off; but I’d like to take your mother for a drive this

afternoon, so will you sit with Bobby?”

“Sure, Dad.” Trixie hurried into the house and upstairs.

142 126 Bobby was blowing bubbles through a straw into his grape Juice, but he handed the glass to Trixie and pounced upon the comics.

As she was leaving the room, Trixie picked up the flashlight which was on the top of the bookshelf. “Hey!” Bobby howled. “Where’re you going with

my flashlight? You put that right back, Trixie Belden. You wouldn’t let me play with the one you got for your birthday, so I won’t let you play with mine.”

“It’s not yours,” Trixie said impatiently. “It’s Dad’s. And I’m not going to play with it. I just want to borrow it for a little while.”

“Is so mine. Daddy said so last night,” Bobby insisted loudly and petulantly. “Hey! I know where you’re going. You’re going off ‘sploring again.”

“Sh-h!” Trixie put a warning finger to her lips. Bobby threw himself back on the pillows, wailing at the top of his lungs: “I wanna go ‘sploring, too. My

toe’s all better now. I don’t wanna stay here in bed. I wanna go sploring!”

Trixie could hear her mother hurrying up the stairs to see why Bobby was crying, and she whispered desperately, “Please be quiet, Bobby. If you’re quiet,

I’ll read the funnies to you all afternoon. Promise.”

Immediately, the little boy’s plump face was

143 127 wreathed in smiles. “It’s a see-crud, isn’t it, Trixie? Your see-crud and my see-crud. But you gotta read Peter rabbit to me three times or I’ll

tell.”

“All right,” Trixie promised as she hurried out of the room.

“Lunch at one-thirty,” Mrs. Belden called after her. “And don’t be late. I’m roasting a turkey.”

“Gosh,” Trixie groaned as she joined Honey in the garage. “Bobby was on the verge of telling Moms we’re exploring the Miser’s Mansion. I had to promise

to read to him all afternoon to keep him quiet.”

“What a shame,” Honey said sympathetically. “That means you can’t go riding with Jim and me.” Trixie tried to shrug away her disappointment. “It

doesn’t matter. You two will have more fun without me

until I learn to ride better.”

“That’s not true,” Honey broke in generously. “You’re doing very well, Trixie. Regan told me this morning that you’d be ready for jumping in another week

or two.”

“Golly.” Trixie stopped in the middle of the path, so thrilled she could hardly speak. “Do you really think he meant it, Honey?” she asked humbly.

“Of course. Regan’s like your mother,” she said, laughing. “He never says anything he doesn’t mean.”

144 128 Jim answered their whistle from the barn and came out dragging the ladder. “I got the window open the first thing this morning,” he told them. “But

I put the ladder away in case somebody came snooping around.”

Trixie told him then that Mr. Lytell had seen the smoke from his fire. “That’s one more reason why we should find that will right away,” she finished. “He

may come up here, after all, to investigate.”

“That’s true,” Jim said thoughtfully. “And I suppose there must be a will somewhere. Or at least a deed to the property. Of course, it may be mortgaged

to the hilt.”

,,Have you looked around up there already?” Trixie asked.

Jim grinned. “No, I knew you’d have a fit if I didn’t wait for you. Anyway, it’s so dark I couldn’t have seen anything.”

Trixie handed him a second flashlight that she had picked up in the garage.

“I don’t see why this house hasn’t got electric lights,” Honey remarked. “If Mr. Frayne was as rich as he, was supposed to be, you’d think he would have

had the place wired.”

“It’s wired all right,” Jim said as he started up the

129 ladder, “but he probably had the current shut off at the time that he went into retirement. That’s why there’s no running water, either. The pump in

the basement runs by electricity.” At the top of the ladder, Jim Played the flashlight around inside the house. “This Was somebody’s bedroom,” he called

down to the girls. “My aunt’s, I guess, and it doesn’t look as though it’s been touched since the day she died.” He disappeared through the window.

“I’ll hold the ladder for you, Trixie,” Honey offered. “After what happened to Jim yesterday, I wouldn’t climb up this rickety old thing for all the treasure

in the world.”

When Trixie hoisted herself over the window sill, she turned on her own torch. She found herself in what had once been a luxurious bedroom, but the dusty

silk drapes were hanging in shreds from the rusty rods, and the bedspread had almost completely rotted away. Squirrels and field mice had played havoc

with the rich upholstery of the furniture, and strips of faded wallpaper were crumbling to a yellow powder on the floor. In the long, glass-doored closet

were the discolored remnants of a woman’s wardrobe, fashionable More than ten years ago.

“It’s really a crime,” Trixie said to Jim, “that your

147 130 uncle let this place go to rack and ruin. Why, if that Oriental rug hadn’t been eaten to pieces by moths, it would be absolutely priceless.”

She followed him through a connecting bath into the master bedroom. The beautiful mahogany of the huge four-poster bed was white with mold, and spider webs

almost completely covered the Chippendale desk in one corner of the room. They peered into the closets and drawers and shook their heads over the moth-eaten

suits and the shirts and underclothing which nesting rodents had gnawed to rags.

I don’t get it,” Trixie said in an awed voice. “The only time I ever saw your uncle he was wearing such a funny-looking, patched outfit he looked like a

scarecrow.1y

Jim played his light along the rows of empty bookshelves and stopped to stare a moment at the dried-up body of a baby bird in the ashes of the fireplace.

I guess the desk is our best bet,” he said as he combed away the cobwebs with a coat-hanger.

Trixie hung excitedly over his shoulder and sighed in disappointment when he pulled down the flap. There was nothing but dust in the pigeonholes, and the

drawers were empty except for a few rusty penpoints and paper clips.

148 131 I imagine that’s the answer,” Jim said, pointing his torch to the ashes in the grate. “He must have burned everything before he boarded up the staircase.”

I won’t give up,” Trixie said stubbornly, “until we’ve looked into every nook and cranny of this floor and the attic.”