The Mystery of the Emeralds

the house.
    “That one under the stairs must be it,” Jim conjectured, pointing to a door fastened with a big brass lock.
    Trixie pushed back the bolt, switched on the light inside, and started down the steps.
    “I’d say that bulb must have been one of Mr. Edison’s originals,” Mart observed as he looked over Trixie’s shoulder at the one small bulb casting a dim glow down the stairs. “Why didn’t we bring flashlights?”
    When Trixie got almost to the bottom of the stairs, she let out a loud eeeek and turned and grabbed Jim, who was right behind her.
    “What’s the matter, Trixie? The ghost?” he asked with a chuckle.
    “I don’t know what it was!” Trixie answered. “Something brushed my forehead!”
    Jim pushed ahead of her, holding his hand in front of his face. Almost immediately another light came on, and Trixie, realizing that what she had felt was only a pull cord, laughed with relief.
    “You and your ghosts!” Mart scoffed. “What next?”
    “Well, I notice you brought up the rear very bravely,” Trixie taunted.
    “Only my natural good manners,” Mart countered. “Women and children first, you know.”
    As the Bob-Whites edged their way farther into the shadows of the cellar, which still was not lighted well enough to be clearly visible, Trixie suddenly snapped her fingers.
    “I’ll bet there’s an outside hatch,” she said. “If we can find it and open it up, it would give us more light.”
    “I’ll go and see,” Mart volunteered, eager to make up for the ribbing he had given his sister.
    It wasn’t long before the Bob-Whites heard a rapping and saw a stream of light appear as Mart opened the double doors of the wide outside entrance to the basement.
    “That’s more like it,” Di exclaimed with a shiver. “Isn’t it funny how our imaginations work overtime in the dark? I could swear I heard a tapping sound a minute ago, but it’s gone now.”
    “Well,” Honey said plaintively, “I certainly hope it wasn’t the ghost!”
    “Nonsense,” Jim answered, trying to be reassuring. “There isn’t any such thing.”
    The walls of the cellar were built of stone, like the foundations they had seen at Rosewood Hall, and there were the same massive supporting pillars. The floor was dirt, but so hard-packed that it looked like concrete. It was quite evident that the room had been cleaned out fairly recently. Only a few large stone crocks remained, along with an old wooden cabinet holding an assortment of bottles and jars.
    “Well, someone has gone over this place with a fine-tooth comb,” Trixie said in an exasperated tone when they had finished a painstaking examination of the cellar. “There aren’t even any cobwebs left!”
    She stood in the middle of the chamber, hands on hips and elbows akimbo, looking around to be sure they hadn’t overlooked anything.
    “There’s just one more thing we’d better do,” she said slowly. “Let’s move that cabinet and see what’s behind it. It’s the only part of the wall we haven’t examined.”
    “And it’s on the side nearest Rosewood Hall,” Jim observed, starting to take the contents from the shelves and placing them on the floor.
    When the boys had moved the heavy oak case a few feet away from the wall, Trixie peered behind it.
    “Gleeps!” she exclaimed. “I was right! This part of the wall isn’t stone at all. It’s brick! And I’ll bet the secret passage is behind it!”
    “But why would anyone want to close up the entrance?” Honey asked.
    “And when was it done?” Jim wondered. “This looks like a fairly recent job to me.”
    Mart tapped the bricks with his knuckles, holding his ear close to the wall to see if it sounded hollow.
    “Can’t tell a thing,” he said despondently. “Do you think we should knock a hole in it?”
    “Oh, of course not!” Trixie cried. “At least not until we’ve asked Mr. Carver or—Jeepers! I’d forgotten all about Miss Bates! Maybe she’d know something about it. I wonder if Mr. Carver phoned her.”
    Just as she asked the question, the Bob-Whites heard the beep-beep of the station wagon horn. They nearly fell over each other as they raced up the hatchway steps to the driveway.

Two Feet of Space • 13

    DR. BRANDON and Brian were lifting Mr. Carver out of the station wagon as the girls, Jim, and Mart came up the driveway. Trixie sensed by the sound of their laughter that the doctor’s further examination had confirmed his earlier belief that Mr. Carver