Free The Secret of the Mansion by Julie Campbell Page A

to a crouching position and, with Jim’s
    help, pulled at the overhanging boughs and vines until they could see the lower half of the door which was blocking their path.
     
    “It’s the summerhouse,” Trixie cried excitedly. “We’ve found it at last!”
     
    “I guess you’re right,” Jim said as together they tugged away at the heavy branches which covered the rest of the door. “And we’re in what once must have
    been
     
    a little arbor leading to it.”
     
    They tried the rustic door but it was locked, and the windows on either side were so thickly covered with dirt they couldn’t see inside. “The key!” Trixie
    suddenly shouted. “The brass key, Jim. I’ll bet it fits.”
     
    96 84 But Jim was already crawling back through the arbor, and in a minute or two he reappeared, making the passageway larger so that Honey could follow
    him. Honey winced away from the vines and was sure every time she put her hand down on a stick it would turn into a snake, so Jim had the door open by
    the time she joined the others.
     
    “I’m going in first,” Jim told Trixie firmly as she started across the threshold. “I brought some matches. It’ll be safer if I investigate before you girls
    come in.”
     
    Trixie opened her mouth to argue but even in that half-light she could see the stern, stubborn set to Jim’s jaw, and waited impatiently until he called
    out, “Okay. Nothing but spiders and a few old squirrels’ nests.”
     
    By the light of matches, they could see that the summerhouse was one long room with two large windows on each of the four sides.
     
    “It’s more like a detached sunporch than a house,” Trixie said. “But I imagine it was cool out here in the evenings when they had the windows open.”
     
    Jim nodded. “And it’s on a higher spot of the grounds than the main floor of the big house, so they must have had a good view of the river from here.”
     
    Honey, who was too afraid of spiders to venture far inside, said from the entrance, “I suppose your uncle let
     
    97 85 it get overgrown like this because he didn’t want to have anything around to remind him of the tragedy.”
     
    “I suppose so,” Jim agreed. “One thing is certain, nobody would ever have discovered it if Trixie hadn’t barged right into it. Say, that gives me an idea.
    This’ll be a swell place to hide if anyone comes snooping around here. The old latticework is so rotten and covered with vines nobody would ever guess
    there was once an arbor leading to the door.”
     
    “Do you think your stepfather may be looking for you now, Jim?” Honey asked.
     
    Jim shook his head. “Not yet. I know that guy. He’s telling everyone right now that I won’t have the courage to stay away very long, and he’s describing
    the licking I’m going to get when I do come cringing back.” There was a note of such grim determination in Jim’s voice that both girls knew that, no matter
    what happened, Jim would never return to Jonesy.
     
    We’ve just got to find that money, Trixie thought desperately. Aloud she said, “Well, there’s obviously no hidden treasure in here, and I’d better go home
    now and see if Mother needs me.”
     
    “I’ll go with you,” Honey said. “But what about that dog, Jim?” she asked timidly. “Won’t he come back?”
     
    “I don’t know,” Jim said as he crawled after them to 86 the clearing. “I got a good look at him just now, and I don’t think he’s got rabies. A mad dog wouldn’t
    have slunk away like that. Anyway, Queenie proved that he really is a coward, so I don’t think any of us would have any trouble scaring him away with a
    stick or a stone.”
     
    Honey shivered. “But there was such a mean look in his yellow eyes!”
     
    “That look,” Jim explained, “is really fear. The poor brute probably ran away from someone who treated him cruelly. It’s a funny thing,” he went on. “A
    wolf, unless it’s starving and is pretty sure you’re helpless,