THROUGH THE MYSTERIOUS WINDOW
Their dance came suddenly to an end when Peggy exclaimed, “Jo, stop!
Hush! There’s someone coming up the stairs.”
“Oh, do you suppose it’s Florence? We haven’t washed a dish.”
“And whose fault is it, I wonder?” Peggy retorted teasingly.
In a few more moments a decrepit, half-blind old man, led by a small,
wizened-faced boy, appeared at the head of the stairs.
Jo Ann gave a long sigh. “They must be patients for Dr. Blackwell. I’ll
have my troubles now trying to talk to them.”
“Can’t you ask them what they want?”
“I’ll try. Let’s see. Ah—_que queres_ [what do you want]?” she finally
managed in Spanish.
The old man mumbled a reply, but Jo Ann could not understand a single
word.
“Do you want _el doctor_?” she asked again. Once more the old man mumbled
an unintelligible reply.
Jo Ann turned to Peggy. “I can’t make out a thing he says. What’d we
better do? Take them into the office and let them wait? Florence always
tries to persuade the patients to wait for her father.”
“I don’t know what to say,” replied Peggy doubtfully. “I’ve never seen
such pitiful-looking specimens of humanity in my life. They look like
charity cases to me, but maybe you’d better try to hold them.”
“Well, I’ll try—if I can make them understand.”
With renewed efforts Jo Ann struggled to make herself understood, using a
mixture of Spanish and English and gesturing vigorously with her hands.
Not the slightest change came over the expressionless faces of the man
and boy.
In despair Jo Ann turned again to Peggy. “They’re hopeless,” she
declared. “I give up. Let’s just leave them standing here.”
As soon as she had stopped talking, the boy took the old man by the hand
and led him down the stairs and into the street.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t hold them,” sighed Jo Ann, dropping down on the
steps to rest after her strenuous efforts.
“Come on,” urged Peggy. “Let’s finish the dishes before Florence gets
back.”
“All right. We’ll have to hurry.”
Returning to the kitchen, they attacked the dishes energetically, though
talking over the discovery of the hidden room all the time.
“While you put things away,” offered Jo Ann, “I’ll sweep, and
everything’ll be straight in a jiffy.”
When they had almost finished, Florence appeared in the doorway.
“How smart you’ve been!” she praised, glancing around the kitchen
approvingly. “You didn’t have time to get into mischief, did you?”
“We’ve had time to make a wonderful discovery!” exclaimed Jo Ann quickly.
“Guess what we’ve found!”
“What—the family skeleton?”
Ignoring Florence’s sarcastic remark, Jo Ann went on rapidly, “We’ve
found the door to a mysterious room at the end of the hall!”
“A door! A room!” Florence gasped. “What’re you talking about?”
With her words tumbling over each other in her excitement, Jo Ann began
explaining the details of their discovery.
“It seems almost unbelievable that there’s a hidden room in this house,”
Florence exclaimed, wide-eyed as she wheeled about to examine the shadow
of the doorway by the flashlight.
“There’s a door there, all right—I can see it,” she agreed finally. “But
what—why do you imagine anyone sealed it up?”
Peggy shook her head dubiously and replied, “I haven’t the slightest
idea.”
“I’m not sure about that either,” put in Jo Ann, “but I do know that the
mysterious window opens into this hidden room.”
“I believe you’re right,” Peggy agreed quickly. “I believe it does.”
“I do, too,” added Florence. “But what do you suppose is inside this
hidden room? That _is_ a mystery!”
“I’ll be able to explain that before long,” declared Jo Ann. “I’m going
to look through that window this very day.”
“Oh, Jo, do be careful,” warned Florence. “I’m afraid you’ll be——”
Before Florence could finish her sentence, Peggy broke in with, “If you
go, Jo, I’m going up on the roof with you.”
“All right—that suits me. If things work out right, I’m going during the
siesta hour. I slipped past the watchdog once—surely I can slip into the
office without getting caught——” She stopped suddenly. “Mentioning the
office reminds me that two patients came while you were gone, Florence. I
did my best to hold them, but I didn’t succeed—I couldn’t make them
understand a word. They looked stupid to me.” She went on to give a vivid
description of their appearance.
Before she had finished, Florence began to smile.
“What’s the joke?” Jo Ann demanded.
“I’m glad you didn’t hold them—they weren’t patients at all,” Florence
replied, still smiling. “That was just a poor old beggar who comes by
every few days.”
Peggy burst into laughter. “That makes Jo’s efforts to hold them all the
funnier. I wish you could have seen her—she talked with her hands as much
as she did with her mouth.”
“She’s a true Mexican, then,” laughed Florence. “That’s the way they do.
But this won’t get us anything to eat. We’re going to have your fried
chicken today. How does that suit you, Peg?”
Peggy nodded approval. “Fine! Who says I don’t rate high in this
household?”
“Don’t get so conceited,” teased Florence. “I just thought that’d be the
easiest thing to fix.”
Joking and laughing over their work, the morning passed quickly.
As soon as lunch was over and the girls had gone to their room for the
siesta hour, Jo Ann pulled a pair of knickers from her trunk and began
putting them on. “It’ll be much easier to climb in these, and I won’t be
nearly as conspicuous,” she remarked to the girls.
“Since I’m not going to do as much climbing as you are, I won’t bother
about changing,” put in Peggy.
“Peep out the door, Florence,” Jo Ann ordered a moment later, “and see
where Felipe is. If he’s awake, get him out of the way. We can’t wait any
longer—we’ll have to hurry, or we can’t get through before the city wakes
from its siesta.”
“W-ell,” she agreed hesitantly, walking over to the door. The next moment
she called over her shoulder, “He’s awake. I’ll have to put him to work
at something.” She disappeared into the hall.
“I’m so excited I can scarcely wait,” Jo Ann went on as she finished
dressing. “Let’s see—I’ll need my flashlight. By the time I get in that
narrow opening, there won’t be much space left for the light to filter
through.”
“Have you the rope?” asked Peggy. “Do you suppose it’ll take you as long
to fasten it as it did before? Gee, I hate to think of that sun!”
“You forget the parasol’s still up there. I’ve got everything I need. Are
you ready?”
Just then Florence returned and announced that she had sent Felipe to
sweep the kitchen.
Thus assured that Felipe was out of the way, the girls slipped quickly to
the balcony.
Unfastening the string from the hinge where they had left it, the rope
dropped within reach. With the flashlight fastened to the back of her
belt, Jo Ann climbed, hand over hand, up to the roof.
As soon as she had helped Peggy over the ledge and slipped the rope off
the iron bar, the two girls hurried on across the roof. They did not want
to stay in the sun longer than necessary or climb back to the balcony
before a crowd of spectators.
“Isn’t this view gorgeous!” exclaimed Peggy, running first to one side of
the building and then to the other, to gaze down on the city lying
quietly below.
“Yes,” nodded Jo Ann, busily making the necessary preparations for her
hazardous adventure. “Bring me the parasol a minute, will you?”
“All right, but what in the world are you going to do with a parasol?”
“Wait a minute and you’ll see. I’ve got to fasten this rope to the wall
by poking it through this little hole—left here for a drain I suppose.
You’ll notice the roof slopes down this way a little.”
“Yes, I see, but how’ll that fasten it?”
“Well, I’ll tie this stick”—Jo Ann held up a piece of wood—“to the end of
the rope, then push it through the hole.” Suiting her words to action,
she began poking it with the parasol. “Climb up on the wall and tell me
when it comes through, will you?”
“All right,” said Peggy, scrambling up on the wall. “It’s through!” she
called a moment later.
“Now—you see the stick hangs across the opening, making sort of an anchor
for the rope,” Jo Ann explained. “Isn’t it lucky for me that hole was in
the right place? I’d surely hate to drive another iron bar in this wall.
It’s terrible!”
“Wh-ew!” Peggy gasped as she looked down over the wall. “It’s so high on
this side of the house, you’d break every bone in your body if you fell
on these cobblestones!”
“Cut out the dramatics, Peg,” scolded Jo Ann. “I’ll be careful. Tell me
if the loop on the end of the rope comes just a little below the window,”
she added, testing the knots in the rope.
“Yes, it’s all right.”
“Fine! Everything’s ready, then—ready for the great adventure—the solving
of the mystery.” The next moment Jo Ann was over the edge of the wall.
Peggy watched, breathless, till Jo Ann disappeared; then, throwing
herself across the wall and oblivious of the intense heat of the stones,
she watched anxiously as Jo Ann descended the sheer side of the building.
With the utmost caution Jo Ann slowly made her way down the rope.
Carefully she lowered herself from knot to knot. A false move might be
dangerous. “It’s lots more dangerous than I realized,” she told herself.
On a level with the window she stopped. Then, while standing in the loop
on the end of the rope and clinging tightly to it with one hand, she
tried to get a fingerhold in the opening. Unfortunately, on a wall that
was over two feet thick and perfectly smooth, it was not possible;
moreover, it was exceedingly difficult for her, while clinging to a rope
high in the air, to crawl into an opening only two feet high and four
feet across. Holding tightly to the rope with both hands, she finally
swung her feet into the window, but could get no further. In this
half-sitting position her head and shoulders came above the top of the
opening.
“To think I’m in the window and yet can’t look inside!” she exclaimed
aloud.
“What’s the matter?” called Peggy anxiously.
“Oh, I’m just too big to get into this hole!” she answered disgustedly.
“Well, come back up here, then. Give up this foolishness while you’re all
in one piece.”
“What! Give up when I’m this near? I should say not!” Jo Ann’s voice was
emphatic.
She began wriggling and twisting more determinedly than ever, and at
last, after repeated efforts, she managed to stretch herself across the
broad ledge, with her feet dangling in the air. After resting a moment,
she worked herself around till she faced the mysterious room.
Immediately she felt cold air against her face and caught whiffs of a
dank, musty odor.
Her heartbeats quickened as she realized how near she was to solving the
mystery. What secret lay concealed within these walls?
Unfastening the flashlight from her belt, she threw its rays around in
the darkness. Blank walls, stained with age, loomed before her. As nearly
as she could judge, this tiny, high-ceilinged room was only about six by
ten feet, and the window in which she lay, about fifteen feet from the
floor.
The room appeared perfectly bare. Not an object of any sort was to be
seen. For what had it been used? Since it had at one time been connected
with the rest of the house, there was bound to have been some reason for
its construction.
“Peggy and Florence’ll have the laugh on me if there’s nothing in this
room and I’ve had all this work for nothing,” she thought. “There ought
to be something to show what it was used for.”
Again casting the rays of her light over every inch of the room, she
stopped suddenly on noticing the curious appearance of the floor. One
half of it was the dull gray color of the cement, and the other half,
black.
Taking the string from her belt, she fastened it securely to the
flashlight and carefully lowered it down the wall into the room. As the
rays shone directly on the floor, she gasped in surprise. The black strip
was an open shaft!
“Why is it there?” she asked herself. “Where does it lead?”
Peggy called down just then, “Jo! Oh, Jo! Come on. It’s time to go, and
I’m roasting.”
Jo Ann kicked her feet in response. Why would Peggy interrupt her at such
a time?
By twisting and turning the string she was able to throw the light back
and forth along the shaft. Carefully she examined it. There was some
object at one end of it, she was sure, but in the dim light she could not
distinguish what it was.
Again Peggy’s impatient voice floated down to her.
“Oh dear, there’s Peg calling again,” she groaned. “I suppose I’ll have
to go now, but I’m coming back—with more light and more rope.”
Just as she started to wind up the string, it suddenly slipped through
her fingers. Down fell the flashlight to the floor, then rolled over and
disappeared down the black hole.
As its rays shone on the sides of the shaft, Jo Ann caught sight of
something which made her gasp in surprise. In her excitement she almost
fell off the ledge in her attempt to get a better look at this object.
“Why! This is a bigger mystery than I ever dreamed!” she ejaculated
aloud.