Chapter XII: A Suspicious Act

Penny caught herself shivering. She decided that she had seen quite enough for one night.

She turned toward the door, but with her hand on the brass knob, stood tensely listening. Someone was tiptoeing along the hall. It occurred to her that the mysterious organist might have escaped from the music room by means of a secret panel which opened directly into the adjoining corridor. Even now he could be effecting his escape to the lower floor.

Crouching against the wall, Penny waited. She was startled to hear the footsteps coming closer. Then the door opened a tiny crack and the beam of a flashlight slowly circled the room.

"Penny!" an anxious voice whispered. "Where are you?"

Penny laughed in relief as she reached out to grip Rosanna's hand.

"Oh! How you startled me!" the girl gasped. "I'm so glad you're safe, Penny. You stayed up here so long that I was frightened."

"I had to wait for the ghost."

"I heard the music," Rosanna said in awe. "It broke off so suddenly."

"That was because I frightened the ghost away. At first I thought perhaps I had dreamed it all, but if you heard the music too then it must have been real."

"It was real enough. But it lasted only a minute or two."

"When the organist saw me I suspect he slipped out of the room by means of a secret panel," Penny reported. "But where he went is a mystery. You didn't see anyone as you came up the stairs to find me?"

"No, I'm sure no one was in the hall, Penny."

"I'm as certain as anything that this room has a secret entrance. Give me your flashlight and we'll see what we can discover."

"Not tonight," Rosanna shivered, pulling her friend toward the door. "We can come back in the morning."

"The room may be locked again then."

"That's so."

"Let's take advantage of the opportunity while we have it."

Rosanna handed over the flashlight and together they crossed the room to the big organ. They inspected it with interest and Penny ran her fingers lightly over the keys. However, no sound came forth.

"That's queer," Rosanna whispered.

"I think someone has to pump air," Penny said. "It's probably shut off."

She next turned her attention to the walls in the immediate vicinity of the organ. She could locate no hidden panel although in one place it seemed to her that when she rapped on a certain sector it emitted a hollow sound.

"It's too dark to see anything tonight," Rosanna protested nervously.

"I guess we may as well give it up until morning," Penny agreed.

The girls stole quietly down the stairs to the lower floor. However, an unpleasant surprise awaited them. As they opened the door into the main passageway they found themselves face to face with Mrs. Leeds and Alicia.

"So I find you here again!" the woman exclaimed. "I suspected before that you girls were at the bottom of these nightly disturbances. Now I have the proof."

Penny was too annoyed to even try to explain why she had visited the third floor. She would have ignored the woman and passed on to her own room had not Rosanna been so distressed by the ridiculous accusation.

"We've had absolutely nothing to do with the queer things which have been going on in this house," the orphan maintained indignantly.

"Then why were you upstairs at this time of night? Only a minute or two ago Alicia and I heard music."

"We were trying to learn what caused it, Mrs. Leeds."

"A likely story!" Alicia said with a toss of her head.

"You may believe it or not, just as you wish," Penny returned coldly.

"It seems to me, Miss Nichols, that you are taking it upon yourself to do entirely too much investigating," Mrs. Leeds said cuttingly. "This isn't your home and you're not a relative of Jacob Winters."

"And unless I'm sadly mistaken there are others here who are similarly situated!" Penny retorted.

"Do you mean to suggest that Alicia and I are not related to Jacob Winters?"

"I'm not suggesting anything," Penny replied evenly. "However, since you brought up the matter of an investigation, I might ask you about that paper which I saw you burn in the living room fireplace."

Mrs. Leeds' face changed color and she grew confused.

"Why, I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know well enough, but we'll let it pass for the time being. Come on, Rosanna."

The two girls walked down the hall and entered their own room, closing the door firmly behind them.

"You held your own with her that time," Rosanna chuckled. "My, I wish I could talk up to people the way you can."

"I talk entirely too much. But she made me provoked when she accused us of causing all the disturbance in this house."

"What did you mean by asking about a paper she had burned?" Rosanna asked curiously.

"Oh, I just wanted to throw a scare into her," Penny responded evasively as she snapped out the light and crept into bed. "I really have no proof of anything."

Long after Rosanna had fallen asleep she lay awake thinking. Proof! The word seared itself into her brain. If only she could secure some evidence which would aid Rosanna!

"The entire affair seems unreal," she mused. "Almost like a movie. It's obvious that someone is playing at being a ghost, trying to frighten the occupants of this house. But what can be the purpose behind it all?"

Although Penny had been careful to make no such admission to Rosanna, she was becoming increasingly troubled. Nor were her worries confined solely to the hide-and-seek organist. She feared that the time was fast approaching when Mrs. Leeds or Max Laponi would make a legal claim to the Winters' property.

"The chances are that Mrs. Leeds destroyed the will," she reasoned. "In that event, Rosanna may lose everything."

Penny felt baffled, yet she was unwilling to admit defeat. Certainly not until Mrs. Leeds had thrown all her cards on the table. Events were fast approaching a crisis. Penny sensed that from the woman's attitude of increasing hostility and assurance.

"I'm not defeated yet," she thought grimly as she closed her eyes and tried to sleep. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve!"

When Rosanna and Penny descended the stairs the next morning they heard a murmur of voices in the library. The door was closed.

"I imagine Laponi and Mrs. Leeds are having another one of their secret conferences," Penny commented. "They're up to some mischief."

"Why not leave this place today?" Rosanna demanded, "I don't care about the fortune any more. I'm so tired of all this plotting and scheming. I'd rather just go away and let them have it."

"Now don't look so distressed," Penny smiled. "The battle of wits has only begun."

"But I don't like to battle. It isn't my nature."

"I'm your appointed gladiator, Rosanna. You have no idea how much pleasure it would give me to see these grasping imposters exposed."

"We haven't any proof they're imposters," Rosanna said soberly. "After all, they had letters and keys to the house. I haven't even that much."

"It's too bad they were lost, but you mustn't let it worry you," Penny chided. "Right now I'm more concerned over another matter."

"The mysterious ghost?"

"Yes, although I wasn't thinking of that at the moment. It's Mr. Winters' photograph. Who tore it out of the album?"

"For all we know it may have been removed years ago."

"Yes, that's so, but somehow I have a hunch it disappeared at a far more recent date. If I don't find a picture of Jacob Winters, I'm afraid my little plan will fall through."

"You haven't told me much about this secret plan of yours, Penny."

"That's because I haven't worked it out clearly in my own mind yet. But unless I find the photograph there simply won't be any."

"We might search the house again."

"I intend to do that if we can ever find a time when Mrs. Leeds and Max Laponi are both gone. Just now I'm eager to make another inspection of the organ room upstairs. This is our chance while those two are closeted in the library."

Rosanna was not especially anxious to visit the third floor again, but she offered no objection to the suggestion. Penny led the way up the creaking stairs.

The door of the music room was unlocked as they had left it the previous evening. However, the window shades were all drawn and the room was dark. Penny raised the blinds to admit light.

Curiously, the girls gazed about them. Everything was covered with a thick coating of dust and cobwebs hung in misty veils from the corners of the room. Penny crossed over to the organ. She indicated the bench in front of it.

"I guess that proves whether or not our ghost was real."

"You mean the imprint on the dusty surface of the organ bench?" Rosanna asked doubtfully.

"Yes, you can see where the organist sat."

"Perhaps one of us brushed off the dust without realizing it. You tried to play a few notes on the organ, you know."

"Yes, but I didn't sit down on the bench, Rosanna."

Losing interest in the organ, Penny began to search for the secret panel through which she was firmly convinced that the "ghost" had disappeared. As her eyes moved swiftly over the smooth wall, she suddenly uttered a low exclamation.

"See, Rosanna! The imprint of a man's hand!"

The marking upon the wall was so faint that at first the other girl did not see it. But she too became excited as Penny pointed it out.

"How do you suppose it came to be there?" she asked in awe.

"I suspect our friend the organist was groping about in the dark searching for the secret panel. No doubt his hand was dusty and when he pressed it against the wall it left a faint imprint."

"If you're right, we have a valuable clue as to the location of the panel!"

Penny nodded eagerly. Already she was exploring the wall with her hand.

"It's funny," she murmured impatiently. "I'm as sure as anything that the panel is here----"

She broke off suddenly as her fingers touched a tiny round object which was hidden under the wall paper.

"I believe I've found it!" she exclaimed gleefully pressing the button.

The girls heard a faint click. But the panel did not open.

"The stubborn thing!" Penny cried impatiently. "Why doesn't it open?"

She pushed with both hands against the section of wall where she felt convinced the panel was located. To her own surprise and the horror of her companion, it suddenly gave way.

Penny plunged headlong through the opening. And before Rosanna could recover from the shock of seeing her friend disappear, the panel fell back into place.

"Penny, Penny," she cried anxiously, pounding upon the wall. "Are you hurt?"

For several minutes there was no answer. Then Rosanna heard a smothered little giggle.

"All my bones are still together I guess. But I seem to have tumbled down a flight of stairs. Come on in."

"I don't know how to get in. The panel slammed shut when you fell through."

"It's hinged at the top I think. Find the little button and press on it. Then when you hear a click push on the panel. Only push easy or you'll take a tumble the way I did."

In a minute Rosanna had located the button. She pressed upon it as she had seen Penny do. Then as the lock clicked, she cautiously pushed against the panel. Light as was her touch the sector of wall swung instantly back and she stepped through the opening. So concerned was she over Penny that she failed to hear the panel close behind her.

At first Rosanna could see nothing. Then as her eyes became accustomed to the gloomy interior she made out a long flight of stone steps leading downward into inky blackness.

She felt reassured when Penny grasped her hand.

"Come on, Rosanna! Isn't it exciting? Let's explore!"

"Oh, it's too dark!" Rosanna whispered nervously. "What if we should run into that dreadful man--the organist?"

"Well, perhaps it would be wiser to go back for a flashlight," Penny conceded. "Only we mustn't let Mrs. Leeds or Max Laponi suspect what we're up to. We must keep this discovery strictly to ourselves."

She returned to the head of the stairs but although she groped her hand carefully along the wall she could find no hidden button or spring which controlled the panel. By this time Rosanna had grown frightened.

"Don't tell me we're locked in!"

Penny forced herself to speak calmly. She knew that it would never do to let Rosanna realize that she too was alarmed.

"For the moment I'm afraid we are," she admitted quietly. "But don't give up hope. We'll get out of here somehow."