Chapter X: 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.