The Boarded-Up House Read Online Free PDF Page B

through the years. Everywhere a hasty departure was indicated, so hasty, as Joyce remarked, “that the lady decided probably not to take her trunks, after all, but left, very likely, with only a hand-bag!”
    â€œAnd now,” cried Joyce, the irrepressible, “we’ve seen everything in this room. Let’s hurry to look at the last one on this floor. That’s right over the library, I think, at the end of the hall. We’ve discovered a lot here, but I’ve a notion that we’ll find the best of all in there!” As they were leaving the room, Goliath, who had curled himself up on a soft rug before the fireplace, rose, stretched himself, yawned widely, and prepared to follow, wherever they led.
    â€œDoesn’t he seem at home here!” laughed Cynthia. “I hope he will come every time we do. He makes things seem more natural, somehow.” They reached the end of the hall, and Joyce fumbled for the handle, this door, contrary to the usual rule, being shut. Then, for the first time in the course of their adventures in the Boarded-up House, they found themselves before an insurmountable barrier.
    The door was locked!

CHAPTER V
JOYCE MAKES A NEW DISCOVERY. SO DOES GOLIATH
    Y ES, the door was locked, and there was no vestige of a key. Joyce was suddenly inspired with, an idea.
    â€œLet’s try the keys of the other doors! I noticed that they most all had keys in the locks. Perhaps one will fit this.” They hunted up several and worked with them all, but not one made the slightest impression on this obstinate lock.
    â€œNow isn’t this provoking!” exclaimed Joyce. “The only room in the house that 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 silver watch.
    â€œDo you know that it’s quarter-past six?” she asked quietly.
    â€œMercy, no! We’ve got to go at once then. How the time has gone!” Reluctantly enough they hunted up Goliath, who in thorough boredom had returned to his place on the hearthrug in the big bedroom, gathered together their candles, and found their way to the cellar. Cynthia had thoughtfully requested a tin biscuit-box from the grocer, and in this they packed their candles, thus protecting them against the ravages of mice, and left them in the cellar near the window. Then they clambered out.
    â€œTo-morrow’s Saturday,” said Joyce. “In the morning we’ll go to the library and look up that book of costumes. After lunch we’ll go back to the B. U. H. and finish exploring. There’s the attic yet, and maybe we can find that key, too!” With a gay good-by they separated each to her home, on opposite sides of the Boarded-up House.
    The result of their researches in the library, next morning, was not wholly satisfactory. They found that the most recent fashion of hoop-skirts or crinolines had prevailed all the way from 1840 to 1870, or thereabouts. And while these dates limited, to a certain extent, the time of the mysterious happening, it did not help them very much. They felt 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 fact that Bates’s pup was patrolling the front yard. So they invited him to accompany them, an invitation which he accepted with arched back and resounding purr. Deciding to explore the attic first, they found that a door from the upper hall opened on a stairway leading to it.
    At any other time, or in any other house, they would have found this attic of absorbing interest. In its dusky corners stood spinning wheels and winding-reels. Decrepit furniture of an ancient date had found a refuge there. Antique hair trunks lined the sides, under the eaves, and quaint garments hung about on pegs. The attic was the only apartment in this strange house