CHAPTER III THE SHUTTERED WINDOW
"Nyoda, isn't there a secret passage in this house somewhere?" askedSahwah eagerly, pausing with the nutcracker held open in her hand. "Theregenerally was one in these old houses, you know."
Christmas dinner was just drawing to a close in the big, holly hungdining room at Carver House, and the merry group of young folks whocomposed Nyoda's Christmas house party, too languid after their strenuousattack upon the turkey and plum pudding to rise from their chairs,lingered around the table to hear Nyoda tell stories of Carver House,while the ruddy glow from the big log in the fireplace, dispelled thegloom of the failing winter afternoon.
It was a jolly party that gathered around the historical old mahoganydining table, which had witnessed so many other festivities in the onehundred and fifty years of its existence. At the head sat Sherry, Nyoda'ssoldier husband, still pale and thin from his long illness; and with along jagged scar showing through the closely cropped hair on one side ofhis head. He had never returned to duty after the wreck in which he hadso nearly lost his life. While he was still in the military hospital towhich he had been removed from the little emergency hospital at St.Margaret's where the sharp battle for life had been fought and won, therecame that day when the last shot was fired, and when he was ready toleave the hospital he came home to Carver House to stay.
Opposite him, at the foot of the table, sat Nyoda, girlish andenthusiastic as ever, with only an occasional sober light in hertwinkling eyes to tell of the trying year she had passed through. Alongboth sides of the table between them were ranged five of theWinnebagos--Katherine, Sahwah, Migwan, Hinpoha and Gladys, and in amongthem, "like weeds among the posies," as the captain laughingly put it,were Slim and the captain, Slim filled to the bursting point as usual,and looking more than ever like an overgrown cherub. Across from thesetwo sat a third youth, so slender and fine featured as to seem almostfrail in comparison with Slim's overflowing stoutness. This was JusticeDalrymple, Katherine's "Perfesser," now engaged in his experimental workat Washington, whence Nyoda had invited him up for her Christmas houseparty as a surprise for Katherine.
Agony and Oh-Pshaw, whom Nyoda had also invited to come over to the houseparty, were spending the holidays with an aunt in New York and could notcome, much to Sahwah's disappointment, who had not seen them since thesummer before. Veronica was ill at her uncle's home and also could not bewith them.
Enthroned beside Katherine in a great carved armchair that had come overfrom England with the first Carvers, sat Sylvia Deane, looking very muchlike a story book princess. With their customary open-heartedness, theWinnebagos had already made her feel as though she were an old friend oftheirs. The romantic way in which Katherine had found her appealed totheir imaginations and added to their interest in her. Beside that, therewas a fascinating something about her dark eyes and light hair that keptdrawing their eyes to her face as though it were a magnet. There was somuch animation in her voice when she talked that the most commonplacething she said seemed extremely diverting. Her eyes had a way of suddenlylighting up as though a lamp had been kindled inside of her, and when shetalked about other people her voice would take on a perfect mimicry oftheir intonations and expressions.
She showed not the slightest embarrassment at being thus transplantedinto a strange household, so much more splendid than anything she wasaccustomed to. She was entirely at her ease in the great house, and actedas though she had been used to luxurious surroundings all her life.Katherine was secretly surprised to find her so completely unabashed. Sheherself was still prone to make ridiculous blunders in the presence ofstrangers, and was still ill at ease when anyone looked critically ather.
They were all surprised to learn that Sylvia was eighteen years old,instead of fourteen as they had all thought when they first saw her. Herslender, childlike form, and her short, curly hair made her look muchyounger than she really was.
The animated talk that had accompanied the first part of the dinnergradually died away, as a sense of repleteness and languor succeeded toeager appetites, and conversation had begun to lag, when Sahwah stirredit into life again by asking if there was not a secret passage in CarverHouse. A ripple of interest went around the table, and all the girls andboys began to sit up and take notice.
"Haven't you had enough adventures yet to satisfy you?" asked Sherryquizzically. "Aren't you content with fishing a lieutenant out of theDevil's Punch Bowl the last time you were here, that you must begin againlooking for excitement? By the way, where is this young Allison?"
"Still across," replied Sahwah. "His last letter said he would be therefor six months yet. He's going on into Germany. He isn't a lieutenant anymore. He's a captain."
"Captain Allison?" asked Justice. "Captain Robert Allison? You don't meanto say that you know Bob Allison?"
"Does she know Captain Allison!" echoed Hinpoha. "Who sent her thatspiked helmet, and that piece of marble from Rheims Cathedral and thatFrench flag with the bullet holes in it, to say nothing of that packageof French chocolates? But, of course, you didn't know," she added,remembering that Justice had only met Sahwah the day before.
"Do you know Captain Allison?" asked Sahwah.
"Best friend I had in college," replied Justice. "He was dreaming offlying machines then. Bob Allison, the fellow you pulled out of thewater! It seems that all my friends, as well as my family, are going toget mixed up with you girls. It seems like fate."
"Wherever the Winnebagos come there's sure to be something doing," saidthe captain. "I wonder what the next thing will be. What's this aboutsecret passages now?"
"With so much paneling," continued Sahwah, "it seems as if there must bea hollow panel somewhere that would slide back and reveal a passagebehind it. Isn't there one, Nyoda?"
"There may be one, for all I know," replied Nyoda, "but I have neverfound it if there is. I have never looked for any such thing. It takesall my time," she proclaimed with a comic-tragic air, "to keep all theopen passages in this place clean, without looking for any more behindpanels."
"Do you care if we try to find one?" asked Sahwah eagerly. "I just feelit in my bones that there is one somewhere."
"Search all you like," replied Nyoda, with an amused laugh.
"O goody!" exclaimed Sahwah. "Let's begin right away."
She rose from the table and the rest followed, much taken up with thisnew quest, and the search began immediately. Upstairs and downstairs theytapped, peered, pried and investigated, but without success. One by onethey abandoned the quest and drifted into the library where Nyoda andSherry and Sylvia sat in a close group before the fire; Sherry smoking,Nyoda reading aloud, and Sylvia watching the images in the fire. Sahwahand the captain were the last to give up, but finally they, too, driftedin and joined the ranks of the unsuccessful hunters.
Nyoda paused in her reading and looked up with a smile as Sahwah and thecaptain came in.
"What have you to report, my darling scouts?" she asked gravely.
"Nothing," replied the captain, rather sheepishly.
Sahwah rubbed her fingers tenderly. "There are _miles_ of oak paneling inthis house," she remarked wearily, "and I've rapped on every inch of itwith my knuckles, until they're just _pulp_, but not one of those panelssounded hollow."
"Poor child!" said Nyoda sympathetically.
"You should have done the way the captain did," said Slim. "He used hishead to knock with instead of his knuckles; it's harder."
A scuffle seemed imminent, and was only averted by Sahwah's next remark."Nyoda," she asked, "where does that door at the head of the stairs leadto, the one that is locked? It was locked last summer when we were here,too."
"That," replied Nyoda, "is the room Uncle Jasper used as his study. I'vebeen using it as a sort of store room for furniture. There were a numberof pieces in the house that didn't quite fit in with the rest of thefurniture and I set them in there until I could make up my mind what todo with them. I didn't want to dispose of the
m without consulting Sherry,and as he has been away from home ever since we have lived here untiljust now, we have never had time to go over the stuff together. As theroom looks cluttered with those odd pieces in there I have kept itlocked."
"Your uncle's study!" exclaimed Sahwah. "Oh, I wonder if there wouldn'tbe a concealed door in there! It seems such a likely place. Would youcare _very_ much if we went and looked there?"
Nyoda laughed at Sahwah's eagerness in her quest. "You're a trueWinnebago," she said fondly. "Never leave a stone unturned when you'relooking for anything. I might as well say yes now as later, because Iknow you will never rest until you have investigated that room. You'reworse than Bluebeard's wife. I have no objections to your going in ifyou'll excuse the disorderly look of the place and the dust that hasundoubtedly collected by this time. I'll get you the key."
With the prospect of a fresh field for investigation the others revivedtheir interest in the search and followed Nyoda eagerly as she led theway upstairs and unlocked the closed door at the head. A faint, mustyodor greeted their nostrils, the close atmosphere of a room which hasbeen shut up, although the moonlight flooding the place through the longwindows gave it an almost airy appearance. Nyoda found the electric lightbutton and presently the room was brilliantly lighted from thechandelier. The Winnebagos trooped in and looked curiously about them atthe queer old desks and tables and cabinets that stood about. Sahwah'sattention was immediately drawn to the window at the far end of the room.She knew it was a window because it was framed in a mahogany casementlike the other windows in the house, but instead of a pane of glass therewas a dark, opaque space inside the casement. Sahwah ran over to it atonce, and a little exclamation of astonishment escaped her as sheexamined it. On the inside of the glass--if there was a pane of glassthere--was a heavy black iron shutter fastened to the casement with greatscrews.
"What did you put up this shutter for, Nyoda?" asked Sahwah wonderingly.
The others all came crowding over then to exclaim over the iron shutter.
"I didn't put it up," replied Nyoda. "It was there when I came here."
"But what's it for?" persisted Sahwah. "Is the window behind it broken?"
"No, it doesn't seem to be," replied Nyoda. "I looked at it from theoutside."
"Then what can it be for?" repeated Sahwah.
"I don't know, I can't imagine," replied Nyoda. A note of wonder wascreeping into her voice. "To tell the truth," she said, "I never thoughtanything about it. I noticed that there was an iron shutter over thatwindow when we first came here, but I was too much taken up with Sherry'sgoing away then even to wonder about it. The room has been closed up eversince and I had forgotten all about it. It _does_ seem a queer thing, nowthat you call my attention to it. But Uncle Jasper did so many eccentricthings, I'm not surprised at anything he might have done. We'll take theshutter off in the morning and see if we can discover any reason forhaving it there.
"Now, aren't you going to hunt for the secret passage after I've openedthe door for you?" she said quizzically. "There's still an hour or sobefore bedtime; long enough for all of you to complete the destruction ofyour knuckles."
Again the house resounded with the tapping of knuckles against hardwoodpaneling, until it sounded as though an army of giant woodpeckers were atwork, but the eager searchers continued to bruise their long sufferingknuckles in vain. The paneling in Uncle Jasper's study was as solid asthe Great Wall of China.