Читать книгу Beverly Gray's Quest - Clair Blank - Страница 6

Table of Contents

They stepped out onto the road. The mud oozed under their feet and rain blew at them in great gusts.

“I’ll wait in the car,” Shirley said, climbing back inside.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Lenora laughed. “You own the car that ran out of gas, so you’ll come along!”

“Okay,” Shirley sighed and climbed out again reluctantly.

They left the road and started across a field. The wind whipped about them and swept them breathless.

“Hang the old car anyway!” Shirley grumbled. “Of all places to run out of gas. I don’t understand it.”

“We may not be daisies but we are certainly getting well watered,” Lenora added, brushing a drop of water from the tip of her nose.

“The house looks deserted,” Beverly murmured as they approached the gray frame building.

“It will be a shelter from the storm anyway,” Shirley said.

They mounted the broken, worn steps to the porch. Boards were rotted away and the girls moved slowly and cautiously.

“Let’s go inside,” Lenora proposed. “Anything will be better than standing in the rain.”

They approached the front door and it swung open untouched. The girls exchanged surprised glances and Shirley played the light from her flashlight over the threshold. Hesitantly they stepped inside. The door closed behind them and the damp darkness of the deserted house pressed close on all sides.

“I don’t like this,” Lenora said with a shiver.

“Like this!” It was an eerie echo.

“I think I prefer the rain,” Shirley said and hastily retraced her steps to the door.

“We are at least dry in here,” Beverly said. “We can wait until the rain stops and then go on to the next house.”

“Well—” Shirley conceded doubtfully as the wind howled about the house.

From somewhere came a loud banging noise.

“Complete with banging shutters,” Lenora said with a nervous chuckle. “What a house to haunt.”

“Let’s see how many other rooms there are,” Beverly proposed.

“You think of the nicest things!” Lenora grumbled, but nevertheless she closely followed her friends.

The three rooms on the ground floor were heavy with dust and deserted. They were about to go upstairs when Lenora called a halt.

“Sh-h-h!”

“What’s the matter?” Shirley asked in a startled whisper.

“I heard something.”

“Only the wind,” Beverly said calmly.

“Perhaps. I guess—no, there it is again!” Lenora cried. “Oh, me! We’ve done it again.”

“Done what?” Shirley wanted to know.

“Walked into another haunted house,” Lenora replied.

“You are the girl who said there weren’t such things as ghosts,” Beverly reminded. “Have you changed your mind?”

“N-no,” Lenora said at last. “But still—there it goes again.”

“I don’t hear a thing but the wind,” Shirley said with a frown. “You’re dreaming.”

“If I’m dreaming you are, too,” Lenora declared. “You’re with me.”

“Wait!” Beverly held up her hand. “I heard it that time—a sound as if chains were being dragged across a floor.”

“That settles it!” Shirley started toward the door. “Good-bye, girls, I’ll see you in California.”

“You’ve got to stay with us—you’ve got the flashlight.” Lenora firmly gripped her friend’s arm.

“Here—you can have it.” Shirley thrust out the flashlight and Beverly took it while Lenora maintained a clasp on Shirley’s arm.

There came to them the unmistakable sound of heavy footsteps.

“Uh-oh!”

“Sh-h-h!” Beverly warned.

She played the small circle of light from the flashlight hastily around the room. They stood in the center of what probably once had been the dining room. They had just come from the kitchen and beyond lay the living room through which they had first entered. All of them were deserted.

“Ohhhh!” A wail rose from somewhere in the house and the three girls shivered.

“Beverleee! Shirleeee! Lenorrrra!”

“Whoever it is knows our names!” Lenora said in startled surprise.

“Of course I know your names.” A deep, hollow voice echoed in the room. “I know everything,” it declared.

“What in the world——” Shirley began.

“Who are you?” Lenora wanted to know.

“I am a great spirit,” the voice continued. “Some call me a ghost.”

The words died into eerie silence while the three girls stood frozen in their places.

“You three are here today for judgment. One of you—indeed all three of you—have scoffed at the idea of spirits, voicing loudly your disbelief in the things of my world. Now you will see. Prepare yourselves——”

The light in Beverly’s hand danced hastily around the room. Certainly there was no one visible here in the room with them, yet the voice came from here—right beside them! Then, overhead, in the ceiling, she caught a glimpse of a small square iron grating. In old houses, she knew, these iron grill registers had been used in heating the houses. They permitted the heat to rise to the second floor from the first. There had been one like this in her grandmother’s house.

“Keep him talking,” Beverly whispered to Shirley and switched off the flashlight.

On tiptoe Beverly left the room and hesitated at the stairs leading to the floor above. If the steps creaked it would destroy her hope of surprising the “great spirit.” Taking the stairs slowly and keeping close to the wall, one hand out to guide her, Beverly slowly mounted to the second floor.

When Beverly reached the top of the stairs she halted and strained her eyes to see through the gloomy darkness. She had an impulse to switch on the flashlight and see what lay about her, but she knew that at the first ray of light the ghost would be gone.

For a few minutes there was silence; then came the sound of muffled laughter, faint but unmistakable. Someone was having a hilarious time. Guided by her hearing and the touch of her hand on the wall, Beverly moved toward that laughter.

She came to the room directly over the dining room and paused in the doorway. Two figures were kneeling in the corner. As Beverly watched, one of them put a small microphone to his lips and assumed the deep, dramatic voice of the “great spirit.”

“Thou art to——” he was beginning when the yellow circle of light from Beverly’s flash fell upon them. He and his companion sprang up.

“Girls,” Beverly called, “come upstairs and meet the ‘great spirit.’ ”

There were hurried footsteps on the stairs and Shirley and Lenora burst into the room.

“Boyd!”

“Gordon!”

The two members of the Lucky Circle bowed laughingly.

“Don’t shoot!” Boyd held up his hands in mock surrender.

“A trick! Of all the nerve—scaring us like that,” Lenora began.

“Last night you said you didn’t believe in ghosts,” Gordon reminded. “We were simply testing you. This was such a good spot we couldn’t resist it.”

“How did you know we would stop here?” Beverly demanded.

“We—ah——” Boyd looked inquiringly at Gordon.

“You didn’t by any chance drain some of the gasoline from our car?” Shirley continued.

“We followed you to make sure nothing happened to you,” Gordon pointed out. “We’re Chicago bound.”

“But something is about to happen to you,” Lenora declared. “In the next town you are going to take us to dinner. You scared an enormous appetite into me.”