The Boarded-Up House Read Online Free PDF Page A

Goliath’s fat jowls, at which he purred the louder.
    â€œWell, let’s let him stay, since he’s here,” sighed Cynthia, wiping her eyes. “He’ll be sort of company!” So Goliath was allowed to remain, and the two girls, escorted by him, proceeded on their voyage of discovery. Back across the drawing-room and hall they went, and through the dining-room. There for a moment they stood, surveying anew the curious scene.
    â€œDoes it strike you as strange,” Joyce demanded suddenly, “that there’s no silver here, no knives, forks, spoons, sugar-bowls, or—or anything of that kind? Yet everything else in china or glass is left. What do you make of it?”
    â€œSomebody got in and stole it,” ventured Cynthia.
    â€œNonsense! Nobody’s been here since, except ourselves, that’s perfectly plain. No, the people must have stopped long enough to collect it and put it away,—or take it with them. Cynthia, why do you suppose they left in such a hurry?” But Cynthia, the unimaginative, was equally unable to answer this query satisfactorily, so she only replied:
    â€œI don’t know, I’m sure!”
    A room, however, beyond the dining-room was awaiting their inspection. In a corner of the latter, two funny little steps led up to a door, and on opening it, they found themselves in the kitchen. This bore signs of as much confusion as the neighboring apartment. Unwashed dishes and cooking utensils lay all about, helter-skelter, some even broken, in the hurry with which they had been handled. But, apart from this further indication of the haste with which a meal had been abandoned unfinished, there was little to hold the interest, and the girls soon turned away.
    â€œNow for up-stairs!” cried Joyce. “That’ s where I’ve been longing to get. We will find something interesting there, I’ll warrant.” With Goliath scampering ahead, they climbed the white, mahogany-railed staircase. On the upper floor they found a wide hall corresponding with the one below, running from front to back, crossed by a narrower one connecting the wings with the main part of the house. Turning to their left, they went down the narrow one, peering about them eagerly. The doors of several bedrooms stood open.
    Into the first they entered. The high, old-fashioned, four-post bed with its ruffled valance and tester was still smoothly made up and undisturbed. The room was in perfect order. But Joyce’s eye was caught by two candlesticks standing on the mantel.
    â€œHere’s a find!” she announced. “We’ll take these to use for our candles. They’re nicer and handier than our tin one. We will keep that for an emergency.”
    â€œBut ought we disturb them?” questioned Cynthia.
    â€œOh, you are too particular! What earthly harm can it do? Here! Take this one and I’ll carry the other. This must have been a guest-room, and no one was occupying it when—it all happened. Let’s look in the one across the hall.” This one also proved precisely similar, bed untouched and furniture undisturbed. Another, close at hand, had the same appearance. They next ventured down a narrower hall, over what was evidently the kitchen wing. On each side were bedrooms, four in all, with sparse, plain furnishings and cot-beds. Each room presented a tumbled, unkempt appearance.
    â€œI guess these must have been the servants’ rooms,” remarked Cynthia.
    â€œThat’s the first right guess you’ve made!” retorted Joyce, good-naturedly, as she glanced about. “And they all left in a hurry, too, judging from the way things are strewn about. I wonder—”
    â€œWhat?” cried Cynthia, impatient at the long pause.
    â€œOh, nothing much! I just wonder whether they went off of their own accord, or were dismissed. I can’t tell. But one thing I can guess pretty plainly—they went right after the