The Second Girl Detective Megapack. Julia K. Duncan

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ of the large, rambling house which was set back some distance from the road, but that was sufficient to assure them that it was gloomy and forbidding.

      “Here you are,” Dave said briskly. “Nice place for a murder!”

      “Ugh!” Doris murmured. “You make my hair stand on end!”

      “I almost wish we hadn’t come,” Kitty said nervously.

      “Oh, everything’s all right. I was only joking.” Dave sprang from the car and went over to try the double gates which barred the entrance. “Just as I thought! Locked!”

      “Then how are we to get in?” Doris questioned.

      “There’s an entrance at the rear. Guess these gates are always kept locked. We’ll try the other gate.”

      Driving the roadster down a side street, he found the back entrance and helped the girls to alight. As he picked up their suitcases to take them to the door, Doris glanced again at the storm clouds. A streak of lightning flashed across the sky, and she knew that unless Dave started back at once, he would be caught in the rain.

      “Don’t bother to take us to the door,” she commanded. “Start for Chilton this minute!”

      “I don’t like to leave you here until I know everything is O. K.,” he protested.

      “It’s only a step to the door, Dave. Be a good boy and don’t wait.”

      “Well, since you insist, I will start, because it looks like a storm and the roads may get slippery.”

      Hastily the three said goodbye and Dave sprang into the roadster. He slammed the door shut and was gone before the girls had managed to unfasten the gate.

      “It does look spooky,” Kitty quavered.

      Doris laughed uncertainly. She managed to open the gate and it swung back on creaking hinges. A sudden breath of wind struck her face and went whistling through the trees.

      The house, half-hidden by shrubbery, was shrouded in deepest gloom, and no light glimmered from the windows. Doris hesitated as she picked up her suitcase. Kitty held back, and even Wags seemed reluctant to venture down the path.

      “Come on, Kitty,” Doris admonished, “Everything is all right.”

      As she spoke, a gust of wind whined through the trees, and to the girls it sounded strangely like the wailing of a human being in distress.

      “Oh, I don’t like it here,” Kitty murmured timidly. “I’m afraid.”

      “There’s nothing to be afraid of, Kit. Just follow me.”

      Carrying their heavy suitcases, the girls groped their way down the path. It was so dark now that they could not see where they were going and frequently brushed against shrubbery. Wags had disappeared.

      Suddenly, Kitty gave a frightened cry as she stumbled over the root of a tree. Catching Doris’s arm to save herself from a bad fall, she permitted her pocketbook to slip from her hand. It opened as it struck the ground, and the contents spilled in every direction.

      “Look what I’ve done now!” Kitty wailed.

      Doris set her suitcase down and helped her chum search for the things she had lost. They found a pencil, a compact and a number of bills, when another flash of lightning momentarily illumined the path.

      “Never mind the rest,” Kitty said nervously. “I’ve found everything except a quarter, and I’ll look for that tomorrow.”

      They continued on up the path and came to the old mansion. The place appeared dark and deserted and Kitty would have retreated, had not Doris gripped her firmly by the arm. Bravely, she lifted the old-fashioned knocker.

      Huddled together on the veranda, the girls waited. When no one came to admit them, Doris again knocked. Just as she was beginning to think that it was no use, they heard a heavy step. Then the door opened and a man, bearing an oil light, peered out at them.

      Before either Doris or Kitty could explain their mission, there came an unexpected yelp. To their horror, Wags, suddenly appearing from beneath a lilac bush, rushed past them straight at the man in the doorway, striking him with such force that he toppled him over.

      A heavy peal of thunder resounded as the man slumped to the floor in a queer sort of kneeling position which, at any other time, would have been provokingly funny to Doris Force and her chum. But this was serious business and such a dilemma!

      “Wags!” shouted Doris, “Come here, come here!”

      The dog bounded into the kitchen, around a table, sniffed at some cake placed dangerously near the table edge, madly rushed to a basket of potatoes throwing the potatoes in all directions over the smooth floor, and then at the call from Doris headed again towards the doorway with a dish towel playfully dragging between his teeth.

      “Here, puppy, here!” commanded Kitty, catching her breath and setting down her suitcase, while Doris tried to catch a corner of the linen as the dog jumped over the bewildered man, pulling the cloth over the man’s head.

      “Help, oh, ouch, help!” shouted the man. “Call your mutt off! Help! Let me get up!”

      “Wags, doggie, doggie, come here!” pleaded Doris, as she realized the man was now in no mood to be trifled with.

      She and Kitty decided that they now must command their new pet’s attention.

      CHAPTER VII

      A Strange Reception

      Frantically, Doris and Kitty called to Wags and in response to their commands he reluctantly returned to them. The man who had fallen scrambled to his feet, and stood glaring angrily at the girls.

      “Oh, I’m dreadfully sorry,” Doris apologized. “Wags isn’t really vicious. He was just playing.”

      “Playing!” the man snapped. “You call that playing!” As Wags again came toward him he raised his foot to kick him.

      “Don’t!” Doris pleaded. “I tell you it was an accident.”

      She caught the dog up in her arms and held him away.

      “What do you want here anyway?” the man asked rudely.

      The first drops of rain were beginning to fall and as a vivid streak of lightning flashed above the house, the girls cringed.

      “Please, may we come in?” Doris begged.

      Silently the man held the door open for them but he scowled as they passed through. They entered a large kitchen. Before they had time to take stock of it, a stout, slovenly woman who was mopping the floor, bore wrathfully down upon them.

      “You can’t come in here with that dog!” she told them. “Can’t you see I’ve just finished mopping up this big ark of a kitchen?”

      Chilled by this reception, the girls hastily backed toward the door.

      “What is it you want?” the woman asked, less harshly.

СКАЧАТЬ