JANNET BEGINS HER SEARCH
It must not be supposed that "Jannetje Jan Van Meter Eldon" was
frightened into leaving her room and fleeing into the newer part of the
great house. She felt decidedly uncomfortable after the visitation, or
the ghostly phenomena, to which she and Nell Clyde had been subjected.
Had Jannet been brought up in the midst of superstition, she might not
have been so sure that there was a human cause back of the
manifestations, but she was more determined than ever to find out how
these things had happened. She was inclined to suspect Jan, though the
fact that he had not arrived at the time the blue comforter had
disappeared was an objection there.
"If the boys _did_ do it," said Nell, that next morning, "it was mean
of them, and I don't see how I ever could forgive Chick for frightening
me so."
"It was possible for one of them to get into the window, I suppose,"
answered Jannet, "and you remember that there was a short time before
we got to their door. Jan could have let himself down from the balcony
and gotten into his own window in a jiffy. Perhaps he could have thrown
the light on the wall in some way, and he certainly could have made
those noises, only I scarcely see how they could have come from the
direction they seemed to come from unless Jan knows how to throw his
voice."
"I'm sure that he doesn't," said Nell. "_I_ think that it was Paulina!"
"_That_ could be," said Jannet. "She looked awfully queer, and she had
heard it all, and she wanted us to think that it was 'Her.' But I can't
imagine why she would do it. She is so mortally sensible and
matter-of-fact about everything else."
"That's the very kind," insisted Nell. "I don't think that Paulina is
so very smart; besides, Jan and Chick say that she is 'queer in the
bean'."
Jannet laughed at this expression. "That sounds like Jan. He has all
sorts of slang for every occasion. But I'm not so sure. Paulina may
have been scared by things like this long before any of us came here,
and you know how stories grow. I'm going to talk to Paulina myself. I'm
not going to let this go and not try to find out about it. I may talk
to Uncle Pieter, too, but not yet."
"Your courage is not quite up to that yet?" laughed Nell.
"Not quite, Nell."
The girls did not have a chance to see how the boys looked and acted
that morning, for Paulina called them so late that they missed the boys
altogether. Chick had gone home, to meet Jan at the train later, and
Mrs. Holt had driven off with Jan, intending to do some errands for him
before he started back to school. The maid who helped Paulina gave Nell
and Jannet a good breakfast, after which Nell rode home, warning Jannet
in farewell not to "do anything rash."
Jannet, bare-headed, stood in the rear of the house, waving goodbye to
Nell. Then she slowly sauntered up the path which led to the pergola,
under her own windows and those of the room in front. "I'm going in
there first," she said to herself.
Accordingly, she decided to get permission from headquarters, and as
she had seen her uncle go into the house a short time before, she
crossed the court to the rear of the new building and entered it. Her
uncle was just coming out of his library when she met him.
"Uncle Pieter," she began, and he stopped in front of her with the air
of being in a hurry. "Excuse me, sir,--but I have just one little
question."
Mr. Van Meter smiled a little. "Well, Jannet, you need not be afraid to
ask it. I'll not bite."
This made Jannet feel more at home with him and she laughed. "Uncle
Pieter, do you care if I go around the old house and find out all about
it? I'd like to go into some of the rooms and into the attic, too,
perhaps."
"You are not afraid of Paulina's ghosts, then?"
"Not so very."
"Go anywhere you please, my child. Get the keys from Diana, or from
Paulina. I'm rather pleased that you should take the interest."
"Oh, _are_ you, Uncle Pieter? Thank you _so_ much. I'll not hurt
anything."
"From what I have noticed about you, I feel sure that you will not. And
Jannet, I have been wanting to talk to you about the plans for our
summer and other things. Come into the library after supper. No, there
will be some people here. I will see you to-morrow morning about ten
o'clock."
"Yes, sir," Jannet replied, and Mr. Van Meter hurried on his way down
the hall, into the back entry and outdoors again.
Her uncle had confidence in her then, and he had noticed her, and she
could go anywhere,--hurrah! Jannet felt like performing a jig then and
there, but somebody might see and be shocked. It would be better to
reserve such performances for her own room, whither Jannet sped
immediately to think out the campaign.
First, where were the pearls? Who had taken them? Second, who had
played the part of ghost? Why? Or was there such a thing as an unhappy
ancestral spirit that wandered around at times? This was not the first
time Jannet had asked herself these questions, and now once more she
examined her desk, going over every inch of it to make sure that she
had not omitted any secret drawer, had not missed any little spring.
Again she opened the drawer where the lovely case and pearls had lain.
Regret was almost a pain when she saw it so empty.
It certainly _could_ not have been her uncle, though it was possible.
How about Paulina? Cousin Andy,--impossible! Cousin Di, likewise
impossible. Yet the pearls were gone. Could her uncle have taken them
out by a sudden thought of surprising her with them some time? He might
think that she could not have found that most secret of drawers. Jannet
exhausted in thought the whole range of possibility. Perhaps some one
had seen her open the drawer,--from the balcony! But her back was
toward the balcony,--no, she had put on the necklace and gone to her
mother's picture and around the room.
But who would climb the balcony, other than Jan or Chick or some other
boy? Perhaps a burglar,--yet nothing else was missed, to her knowledge.
It certainly was a mystery. Perhaps she would tell her uncle the next
morning. Jannet rather dreaded that interview. For she was used to
ladies, her teachers, and knew scarcely any gentlemen except the lawyer
in Philadelphia, Lina's father, and now these relatives.
After her musings and searchings at the desk, Jannet went all over her
room again, looking closely at the paneled walls, and examining the
chimney and mantel. She even ran her hands down the boards, to see if
there were a spring, and again peered among the sooty bricks inside the
great chimney. There was a small closet at one side of the chimney,
where tongs and shovel or any necessary paraphernalia might be kept.
This was clean and bare and gave no evidence of an opening.
Thinking it likely that Mrs. Holt might be back by this time, Jannet
went by the long corridor to where Mrs. Holt slept, but there was no
answer to her knock. Then she wandered downstairs again; but Cousin
Diana was doing errands and did not get home until after dinner. She
was in fine spirits, telling laughingly things that the boys had said
before their departure and displaying to Jannet some of the pretty
articles which she had bought.
Jannet went with her to her room to help her with her packages. "Did
the boys tell you to ask Nell and me if the ghost walked last night?"
queried Jannet on an impulse.
"Why?" quickly returned Mrs. Holt. "Were they playing tricks on you and
Nell?"
"We think that perhaps they were."
"I heard what Jan calls the 'Dutch Banshee,'" said Jan's mother, "but I
imagine that it is only the wind, whistling in the chimney, or in some
odd corner. You don't worry about ghosts, do you Jannet?"
"No, Cousin Diana. And that makes me think of what I wanted to ask you
this morning. I want to poke around a little and see everything, and I
asked Uncle Pieter if he cared. He said he didn't and that you or
Paulina would give me keys. I'd like to see again the front room on my
hall, and the attic, too, and anything else that is interesting."
"I used to like to poke around in attics, too," said Mrs. Holt, "but I
outgrew that long before I came here. Perhaps there are boxes of your
mother's in the attic, and there may be chests of bygone
ancestors,--who knows? But you wouldn't want _me_ to go there with you,
would you? I'm not fond of cobwebs and low ceilings to bump my head."
How nice Cousin Di was! She knew what girls liked to do. "Oh, no," said
Jannet, "I'll go by myself. I would love it if there were old chests
and trunks that I could look into. But they would be locked, too,
wouldn't they?"
"I suppose that they will be."
Cousin Diana went to her desk and soon handed to Jannet a jingling
bunch of keys marked "Attic Keys." "There are more of them than I
recalled. Keep them as long as you want them, but lock everything up
when you leave the attic, please, and elsewhere, too."
"I will," promised Jannet, receiving more keys.
"Not many of the help are in the house at night, but any of them might
take a notion to rummage around there by day; and while there can not
be anything of any great value there, we do not want to lose what has
been thought worthy to keep. I feel a sense of responsibility, now that
I am temporarily in charge."
"Has Paulina keys?"
"Yes, I believe so. I have never directed her to clean the attic."
"If Paulina wanted to, I don't believe that she would need to be
directed."
Cousin Diana answered Jannet's mischievous look with a smile. "I see
that you already appreciate Paulina," she remarked.
After leaving her cousin, Jannet went straight to the front room whose
great fireplace was a duplicate of hers. Unlocking the door, she
stepped inside, finding herself in a large, shadowy room, whose shades
were down and whose furniture was draped in coverings. From these
swathed chairs, perhaps, came that smell of moth balls.
A large mirror between two windows revealed dimly her own figure.
Jannet put up the shades and opened a window. She intended to look
thoroughly for any evidences of the "ghost." Here was a possibility.
Perhaps from this side there could be found some opening. There had
been funny noises in that wall, at any rate.
But never did walls look more innocent. She scanned them closely.
There was a little closet which corresponded to the one in her room.
Another, high and deep, corresponded to her clothes closet. They
certainly were large closets, the depth of the big chimney, she
supposed.
Jannet examined the walls of the closets and of the room. She even
looked at the ceiling for a possible trap door, though how the ghost
could have flown so quickly out of her own room she could not imagine.
This was a fine old room, but it offered no solution of her problems,
so far as she could see. One thing, however, confirmed her in her idea
of some secret passage,--the space between the rooms, the size of that
great chimney.