CHAPTER XXIV--THE SECRET PASSAGE
Hastily donning robes and slippers, the girls gathered about Cora as sherang the electric bell which had been arranged to summon the boys in theother bungalow to the toy telephone. Meanwhile, Mrs. Floyd had arisenand dressed to let in the boys. The rumbling, trembling noise hadstopped.
"Oh, why don't they answer?" cried Cora, impatiently pushing theelectric bell button again and again.
Then, through the toy receiver came a faint voice.
"Hello! Hello, there! Is that you, girls? What is the matter?"
"This you, Jack?" Cora asked.
"Yes."
"Come over as fast as you can! Hurry!"
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Don't stop to question! Hurry over!" Cora begged. "It's that terriblenoise again. Can't you hear it?"
"No," answered Jack. "But we'll be right over. Come on, fellows!" Coraheard him call to Walter and Paul, as he left the telephone. "The girlsare scared."
"I guess he'd be too, if he heard that noise," Cora said. "Did you allhear it?" and she appealed to her chums.
"I did," affirmed Hazel. "It sounded like distant thunder."
"Could it have been?" asked Mrs. Floyd, who had joined the girls.
"The stars are shining," reported Belle, looking from a window, shadingher eyes with her hands from the light in the room. They had partlydressed and gone down to the living room. There they listened and waitedboth for a recurrence of the noise and for the approach of the boys.
The latter made their presence known first, fairly running along thegraveled way that led from their bungalow, over the rustic bridge, tothe girls' abiding place.
"What's all the racket about?" demanded Jack, as he and his two chumsentered, rather breathless from their run and their hurry in dressing,the hurry showing itself in the absence of collars and ties.
"It's that noise," said Cora, her voice trembling slightly. "We heard itagain, Jack."
"Was it so scary?" demanded Paul, looking at his sister.
"It certainly was--too scary for words!" answered Belle. "I'm not goingto pass another night in Camp Surprise!"
"It _has_ been a surprise with a vengeance," declared Bess. "Boys, can'tyou do something?" she appealed.
"What's to be done?" asked Jack. "We'll have to wait until we hear thenoise again, and then we can tell from which direction it comes.Suppose, while we're waiting, you girls just tell us what you heard."
They had all heard something different, it developed. At least, they allhad a different impression of the noise.
Cora described it as a "trembling roar."
Bess said it was a rumble, as though a heavy wagon had passed in frontof the bungalow.
Belle said it reminded her of a deep, heavy sound, such as she had onceheard in a blast furnace.
It was reserved for Hazel to describe accurately the noise, though noneof them knew her description was correct until afterward.
"It was like a factory or machine shop next door," said Paul's sister."It seemed to shake the bungalow as though heavy machinery wereworking."
"It must be the waterfall," decided Jack. "Only a large body of water,tumbling down into some chasm, could make a noise like that. There's nomachinery around here. Besides, the waterfall is bigger than ever now,on account of the rain. It must be that."
"It wasn't!" declared Cora, though when pressed for reasons to bolsterup her denial she could give none. "It wasn't that sort of noise atall," she affirmed. "It was more like----"
"What's that?" asked Belle so suddenly that the other girls jumpednervously.
It was the sound of a footstep on the porch, a firm, unhesitatingfootstep.
"I expect that's my husband," said Mrs. Floyd.
It was Mr. Floyd, and he was, greatly surprised to see the "whole familyup," as he expressed it.
"What's the matter?" he asked, looking around on the circle of ratherstartled faces, ending with his wife's. "Did you sit up to see how lateI got in? Strictly business, young ladies and gentlemen," he went on,smiling at them. "The committee had considerable to transact, and I hadto stay."
"This is a sort of surprise party," Cora told him. "Camp Surprise isliving up to its name," and she went on to tell about the noise, theothers adding bits here and there.
"Pshaw now! That's queer!" commented Mr. Floyd. "I have heard themrumblings myself, but I laid 'em to the waterfall. It's a curiouscataract at times."
"This noise," began Cora, "isn't like anything I ever----"
She paused midway in the sentence, and a strange look grew and spreadover her face, as it did over the faces of the others.
"There it is now," whispered Bess. "That--that noise!"
They all heard it, a dull, rumbling roar that made the bungalow trembleas when a heavy wind blows and vibrates the timbers of a house.
"So that's what it is!" exclaimed Jack. "This is my first experience."
"I heard it once, though distantly," said Walter.
"Listen!" cautioned Cora.
The noise seemed to increase.
"Say, that is curious!" commented Mr. Floyd. "I never noticed thatbefore. Where does it come from?"
Hardly had he spoken than the rumbling ceased, and there came a sharpcrash, as though wood had broken somewhere.
"The chimney's fallen!" cried Mrs. Floyd.
"Nonsense, Eliza," said her husband. "The crash would be up on the roofif the chimney toppled over. Besides, there's no wind, and the noisedidn't come from above, it came from--down there!"
He pointed to the floor of the living room, which was of bare boards,with rugs here and there.
"That's right!" cried Jack. "The crash was below us. It's under thisbungalow somewhere. Up with the floor boards! We'll get at the bottom ofthis!"
There was no doubt on that score. Every one in the room was sure thenoise had come from under the floor.
"But how could it?" asked Walter. "There's no cellar to the bungalow; isthere?"
"None that I ever heard of," said Mr. Floyd. "I didn't live here whenthe bungalow was built, but I've always understood it had no cellar."
"It hasn't," Cora affirmed. "At least none that you can find. There areno cellar stairs and the place seems to rest on piles."
"But the noise came from down there," and Jack pointed to the floor."The only way to find out is to take up the boards. May we, Mr. Floyd?"
"Why, yes, I reckon so. We've got to get at the bottom of this. It'sbetter to spoil the floor than to lose the renting of the bungalow byghosts scaring tenants away. Take up the boards. I'll get an axe and acrowbar."
And so, in the middle of the night, for it was close to twelve o'clock,the strange work of looking under the floor of the bungalow for thesource of the queer noise was begun.
"Where shall we start?" asked Jack, when Mr. Floyd had brought theimplements.
The caretaker considered a moment.
"If there is some sort of cellar, or space under this bungalow, it mustbe near the center of the floor, I'm thinking. We'll begin there. Don'tbe afraid of spoiling the floor. I'll take the responsibility."
Jack swung the axe vigorously, and, being aided by Walter, soon hadremoved two or three of the narrow boards. As they were prying onanother, a queer thing happened.
A solid section of the floor from the middle of the room suddenly sankdown, and then rolled back, exactly as a sliding door rolls, only thisdoor was horizontal instead of vertical. Back it rolled, leaving whatwas practically a trap in the floor, and as the light shone down this aflight of steps was revealed leading into darkness.
"Great bumblebees!" gasped Jack. "See what we've done! Uncovered asecret passage! Now for the solution of the mystery!"