CHAPTER XVIII
AN ELEVATOR CHAIR
The next day the girls were awakened by the sun shining in at their open windows; young calves in the near corral were calling to their mothers and the hens in the chicken yard at the back of the house were cheerily clucking as they busily scratched for their breakfast.
This was all so commonplace that the girls arose, laughing as they spoke of their fears of the night before. As soon as their morning meal had been finished, Betsy Clossen wished to visit the scene of her recent adventure, and so all together they entered the dark, silent front room.
There were heavy wooden blinds on all of the windows except the one through which Babs on the night before had seen a dusky face peering.
“Girls,” the little mistress of the Three Cross Ranch exclaimed, “since this is to be my home, I am going to frighten away the ghost by letting in the sunshine. Virg, will you help me unbar these wooden blinds?”
Willing hands assisted and soon the sunshine was flooding in, revealing the wonderful old mahogany furniture. There was dust deep in each of the carvings, while long deserted cobwebs stretched across corners and they, too, were dust laden.
“It is all very fine, I’ve no doubt,” Babs began, as, with arms akimbo she looked about at her new possessions, “but I certainly do wish that the Spanish Don to whom all this grandeur belongs would return and claim it. I’m like Mrs. Hartley, I would just love to have this long, big room furnished in the cozy, comfortable way to which I am accustomed.”
“Well, I certainly would take those paintings down from the wall,” Margaret declared with a shudder. “I would rather have any number of ghosts than those foreign folks watching every move I made. Honest Injun, they give me the chilly shivers staring at one the way they do.”
Virginia laughed. “Where’s Betsy Clossen?” she suddenly inquired.
While the other girls had been busy removing the wooden blinds, that maiden had been experimenting with her “elevator” chair. As Virg spoke, the girls heard a gay shout and turned in time to see Betsy’s head disappearing below the floor. They ran in that direction and reached the spot just as the trap-door closed and snapped into place.
Babs shook her finger at the spot as she declared: “Mysterious chair, this is the very last day that you will operate. I’m going to make this wonderful long room livable and I surely don’t want chairs that will carry some unsuspecting guest down to the cellar.”
Margaret laughed merrily.
“Wouldn’t it be amusing, though, if one did have a solemn, serious caller, a deacon or someone like that, who happened to sit on this chair and suddenly disappear? You had better keep it, Babs, it may come in handy.”
But the little housekeeper vigorously shook her head. “No, my mind is made up once for all. Every bit of this foreign furniture is going to be stored in an outhouse until the rightful owner claims it, and I am going to Douglas when you girls return to V. M. Ranch and buy just the things that I would enjoy having.”
“I wonder why Betsy doesn’t come back,” Margaret remarked. She had been intently watching the trap door to see what would happen next.
The three girls knelt and called in chorus: “Betsy! Are you down there? Why don’t you bring the elevator chair up again?” There was no reply. Not a sound from below could they hear. The girls tried to open the trap-door, but the contrivance that secured it was underneath the floor.
“What if the machinery doesn’t work?” Margaret said, looking up in sudden dismay, “Betsy might smother down there.”
“Who is talking about me?” a merry voice called. The astonished girls sprang to their feet and whirled around. There was the laughing Betsy standing back of them.
The other three crowded about. “Did you make any new discoveries? Tell us what happened!”
“Well, when I reached the cellar,” Betsy began, “I hunted about to find the other knob, the one that would lift me again to this room, but lo and behold, it appeared to have lost its magic. I pulled on it and pushed, but the chair did not move. I could hear you calling to me, although your voices sounded faint and far. I replied but I was sure that you could not hear. Then I sat for a few moments thinking what I ought to do next. Of course I knew that you would soon call for help if I did not return and that Peyton would break open the trap. When my eyes became accustomed to the darkness, I thought I saw a door at the far side of the room. Groping my way toward it, I found that it opened easily. Just beyond was a spiral stairway which I ascended. At the top was another door, but it was locked. I was about to pound upon it, when I happened to touch a key which I turned and here I am.”
“Oh!” Virginia exclaimed. “I remember that door. It is the one I tried to open last night when the candle blew out, but I found it locked. Peyton said he supposed that it led into a store room but he had never been curious enough about the matter to investigate.”
Babs was opening the windows, letting in the cool morning breeze. “I’m going to ask Peyton if we can’t have these bars removed,” she declared as she stood peering through them. “I feel as though I were in a jail looking out between bars this way.” Suddenly she uttered an exclamation which took all of the girls hurrying to her side.
“What is it, Babs? What do you see? Why are you staring so intently at the ground?” were the questions hurled at her. Babs whirled about and faced them, her eyes wide with excitement. “This is the window through which I saw a Mexican last night peering in at us,” she said.
The others nodded. “You all laughed at me and declared that I was letting my imagination run riot.” Then she added, exultingly, “Follow me, young ladies, and you will discover that I, too, am a very fine detective.”
Much mystified, the girls trooped out of the kitchen door and around the house. Babs, in the lead, stopped and picked up something from the ground not far from the barred window. Turning she held aloft a peculiarly shaped key.
“This probably will solve the mystery for us,” she declared. “Good, there is Peyton. Hail him, Betsy, will you?”
The lad mounted, was about to start with several peons for the valley pasture when he heard the girls calling. Whirling his horse and bidding the Mexicans wait his return, he galloped up. Dismounting, he asked Babs what was wanted of him. He listened to her story, almost believing that she had been imaginative until she produced the strangely shaped key as evidence that some one had been there.
“Brother, did you ever see that key before?” Babs eagerly inquired.
The lad nodded. “Yes,” he replied. “I saw it lying on Trujillo’s bed yesterday morning when I went to his bunk early to ask his advice before beginning the work of the day. I picked up the key at the time and examined it because of its queer shape, but I made no comment as the matter I had called to discuss was much more important. However, I cannot believe that my trusted overseer would spy upon the actions of my sister and her guests. There must be some other solution of this mystery,” he said. Then he added: “Please say nothing concerning it and I will try to find out the truth about the whole matter.”
Peyton slipped the key into one of his coat pockets and lifting his hat to the girls he rode away.