Free The Hidden Window Mystery by Carolyn Keene Page B

is haunted, I’d have thought so myself.”
    “Now, Bess,” Nancy said with a grin, “you don’t mean that!”
    George gave her cousin a look of reproach. “You’ll sleep sounder than any of us,” she prophesied, “and in the morning you’ll take back those words.”
    Bess and George climbed into the canopied bed, since Nancy insisted that she would sleep on the cot. With the lights out, Ivy Hall seemed extremely dark and quiet. There was not a sound in the house, and outside only the chirping of crickets could be heard. Soon all three girls were sound asleep.
    About midnight Nancy was awakened by sounds of someone moving around in the attic. Listening intently, she could distinctly hear boards creaking overhead.
    Bess and George awoke too. There was no doubt that someone was walking in the attic.
    “The ghost!” Bess shrieked.

CHAPTER XII
    A Weird Disappearance
     
     
     
    “OH, it’s true!” Bess cried out. “There are ghosts in this house.” She dived under the covers and lay motionless.
    George turned on the night-table lamp and said, “Shame on you, Bess. We came here to help Nancy solve the mystery. Get up! Let’s go!”
    “You—you tell me about it later,” Bess said unhappily.
    Nancy was already up and putting on her robe and slippers. George donned her own, then put Bess’s slippers on her.
    As Nancy turned the doorknob she said quietly, “Never mind, George. The two of us can go.”
    “Oh, I don’t want to be left alone!” Bess cried out. “Wait for me!” She quickly put on her robe and followed Nancy and her cousin into the hall.
    Annette, in pajamas, was standing outside her own bedroom, a look of fright on her face. “You heard it, too?” she whispered.
    In a low voice Nancy said, “We’re going up to the attic. Want to come?”
    “Oh, you’d better not! Something might happen to you,” Annette warned. “I wouldn’t dare go, anyway. I promised Mother I never would.”
    Nancy quietly opened the door to the attic stairway. She looked on the wall for a light switch, then remembered there was none.
    “You’ll have to use a candle,” Annette said.
    On a small table in the hallway stood a glass candleholder with a short white candle in it. Annette picked up a packet of matches beside it and with trembling fingers lighted the candle. Nancy, meanwhile, chided herself for leaving her flashlight in the car.
    “Here you are,” Annette said, handing the candle to Nancy, who went at once to the stairway.
    The creaking sounds above had not been repeated. Bess, last in line, said in a shaky voice, “The ghost must be hiding!”
    The others did not comment. Reaching the top step they looked around cautiously. Several old curved-top trunks stood about, discarded draperies hung on lines, and large paintings in ornate gold frames were propped against the eaves.
    Nancy set the candle down on a table in the middle of the room and the three girls began looking behind various objects to see if anyone were hiding. They found no one. Next, Nancy started to open trunks to determine if the “ghost” were inside. As she lifted back the lid of the third one, Bess gasped and Nancy and George stepped back in horror.
    A little girl, her eyes closed, lay in the trunk!
    For a moment the three stared, horrified. Then suddenly they smiled. The figure was that of a very large lifelike doll! The rest of the trunks were examined but revealed no one hiding inside.
    As Nancy and George stood gazing about the attic, wondering if there were any other entrance, Bess became fascinated by a large painting at one end of the room. The picture portrayed a dashing cavalier, his waxed mustache perfectly groomed. The man’s turned-up hat was worn at a rakish angle, with a feather curled smartly over his shoulder.
    The cavalier’s eyes seemed to stare at Bess as she walked about. Drawn to it like a magnet, she went to the far side of the attic to examine the gallant gentleman’s face. It looked so real that it