Chapter I: A Family Secret

Eric Stone lived in Westminster with his aunt, for he had no mother or father. He belonged to a Westminster Pack, but he spent all his holidays at his grandfather's house--a lovely old castle in Wales. Its weather-beaten walls reached out very near to the craggy cliffs, where the sea dashed up, white and foamy. Of course Eric longed for his holidays, and one day it struck him how jolly it would be to take three of the other Cubs with him. So he got leave from his grandfather, Sir David Stone, and then he invited the boys. He did not choose the ones he liked best, but the three chaps who would be likely to have the dullest holiday, and no fun at Christmas. That is how Donald Ford, number six of the Whites, came to have the strange adventure this story is about.

. . . . . . . .

It was Christmas Eve. The four Cubs had decorated the castle with holly and mistletoe. Now they were curled up on the great bearskin rug in the hall, before a blazing log fire. The dark winter afternoon had closed in, but the lamps were not yet lighted. Everything looked very mysterious; the fire-light danced in the dark corners, gleaming on the shining suits of armour and oak-panelled walls.

"Tell us a ghost story," said one of the Cubs. So Eric told them all the stories he knew about the castle, and the knights who had lived in it hundreds of years ago. "And now," he said, "I'll tell you something which is not just a story, but is quite true. Somewhere in this castle there is a _secret room_. You know in olden days people used to hide in secret rooms, away from their enemies. Well, there's one here, and it was always kept very secret: only the head of the family knew where it was. It opened by a spring, hidden in the oak panelling. But now nobody knows where it is; the secret has been quite lost for four hundred years, because they found it was very, very unlucky for any one to open the door or go in; it always meant a tragedy, or great shame on the family. I should love to find the room and so would grandfather. Of course it's all rot about its being unlucky."

"Oh," cried the Cubs, "how awfully exciting! Do let's hunt for it."

"Yes," agreed Eric, "we will, to-morrow. There's one side of the castle we don't use, because it is unsafe and may fall to ruins any day. The servants say that's where the secret room is. They wouldn't go there after dark for anything. In fact they say they hear footsteps there in the night."

At this moment there were steps in the hall and voices, and Eric's grandfather came in accompanied by his adopted son, William Mendel, a gloomy-looking man. Sir David Stone was a tall, soldierly looking old man, and devoted to Eric, for Eric's father (his only son) had been killed in the War. William Mendel was the son of a very old friend of his, who had died when William was quite a boy. Eric and the Cubs disliked "Uncle William," for he never lost an opportunity of snubbing them. They called him "the Professor" behind his back. He had rather long black hair, and a sullen, yellowish face. He wore large, round spectacles, and stooped badly. He had a nasty habit of peering about him in a suspicious manner.

"Hullo, kiddies!" said old Sir David, "what are you all doing in the dark?"

"I've been telling them about the secret room, grandfather," said Eric; "to-morrow we are going to have a hunt for it."

Sir David laughed. "All right," he said, "and a golden sovereign for the one who finds it--that's a bargain."

The Cubs were delighted.

But Uncle William was looking very cross. "I shouldn't have thought you would have wanted to find the secret room, Eric," he said with a sneer. "You know it is haunted, and brings trouble to whoever finds it."

Old Sir David turned in surprise. "My dear William," he said, "you don't mean to say you believe in that old wives' tale?"

William Mendel laughed an ugly laugh. "Do you take me for a fool, father?" he said. "I was only trying to frighten the children from going to the left wing of the castle. You know how exceedingly dangerous it is."

"I don't believe it's dangerous," said Sir David.

"Well, sir," retorted William, "there will be an accident one day if you let people walk about in those rickety passages."

Sir David shrugged his shoulders. It was not the first argument he had had with his adopted son about the left wing of the castle.

The Cubs were full of ideas about the secret room, and how to find it and earn the sovereign, as they went to bed that night.