CHAPTER 14 : A Ghost And A Mirror
TERROR CASTLE loomed in the darkness above Jupiter
and Pete. There was no moon, just a few stars to
relieve the ebony blackness of the canyon.
“It won’t get any darker,” Jupiter said, his voice
hushed.“We might as well go in.”
Pete carried the new, extra-powerful torch he had
bought out of his allowance. His old one was still
there, up in the library.
They walked up the broken steps and across the
tiled terrace. Jupiter limped slightly, favouring his
tightly taped ankle. Their footsteps seemed very loud
in the darkness. Somewhere a small animal was
frightened out of its hiding place and went streaking
away from the beams of their torches.
“Whatever that is, it’s a smart whatever-that-is,”
Pete said.“It’s getting out of here.”
Jupiter did not answer. He had his hand on the
front door and was tugging. It wouldn’t budge.
“Lend a hand,” Jupiter said.“The door’s stuck.”
Pete grabbed the big brass handle, too. Suddenly
something gave. The brass handle came off in their
grasp. Together they tumbled backwards and fell in a
heap on the files.
“Oof!” Pete gasped.“You’re lying on my stomach.
I can’t move. I can’t breathe. Get off quick!”
Jupiter rolled over and got to his feet. Pete stood
up, testing himself for broken bones or dislocations.
“I guess I’m still all here,” he said.“Except my
good sense. I left that at home.”
His partner was examining the brass door handle
under his torch.
“Look,” he said.“The screw that holds the knob to
the rod that goes through the lock came loose.”
“Been a lot of traffic through here the last couple of
weeks,” Pete muttered.“Maybe it just wore out.”
“Hmm.” His stocky partner’s face was set in a
thoughtful scowl.“I wonder if it could have been
loosened.”
“Who’d do a thing like that?” Pete asked.
“Anyway, we can’t get in so we might as well go
back.”
“I feel sure we can effect an entrance elsewhere,”
Jupiter said.“Suppose we try one of those french
windows down there.”
He moved along the front wall of the building. Half
a dozen tall french windows faced directly on to the
terrace. The first five were securely locked. But the
sixth was open half an inch. Jupiter pulled. It opened
easily, like a door. Behind it was impenetrable
darkness.
The darkness, however, was partially dispelled by
Jupiter’s torch. He pointed the beam in through the
open window, showing a long table with chairs placed
round it. At the far end of the table there were
apparently dishes.
“The dining room,” Jupiter said in a low voice.
“We can enter here.”
Inside, the beams from their torches roamed round
Pete half turned, and gulped in fear.
the room, showing fine carved chairs, a long
mahogany table, an elaborate sideboard and carved
wooden panelling on the walls.
“There seem to be several doors,” Jupiter
remarked.“I wonder which we should take?”
“As far as I am concerned――Ugh!” Pete let out
a strangled exclamation as he half turned and saw a
woman in long flowing robes looking at them. She
wore clothes such as Pete had seen in pictures painted
three hundred years before, and tied around her neck
was a rope. The unattached end of the rope fell down
across her robe to her feet. She had her hands tucked
into her flowing sleeves, and was looking at the boys
with an expression of sorrow.
Pete reached out and tugged at Jupe’s jacket.
“What is it?” Jupiter asked.
“L-look,” Pete stuttered.“We aren’t alone. We
have company.”
Jupiter turned and Pete felt him stiffen. That meant
he saw her too―the woman who was watching them,
not moving, not breathing, just standing there
watching. Pete guessed he knew who she was all right.
She was the ghost of the woman Mr. Rex had told
them about, the one who had hanged herself to avoid
marrying some man her father wanted her to.
For a moment the boys remained frozen. The
ghostly apparition neither moved nor spoke.
“Shine your light that way,” Jupiter whispered.
“When I say ‘now’... Now!”
Together they turned their torches towards the
standing woman.
She vanished, as silently as she had appeared.
There was nothing there now but a mirror, which
reflected the light back into their eyes.
“A mirror!” Pete burst out.“Then she must have
been behind us!”
He whirled around, zigzagging his light back and
forth. But there was no one there except for
themselves.
“She’s gone!” Pete said.“And I’m going too! That
was a ghost!”
“Wait!” His stocky partner gripped his wrist.
“Apparently we saw a ghostly reflection in a mirror,
but we may have been mistaken. I’m sorry we acted so
hastily. We should have taken more time to examine
the unusual phenomenon.”
“More time?” Pete yelled.“All right, why didn’t
you photograph her? You’re carrying the camera.”
“So I am.” Jupiter sounded chagrined.“And I
forgot all about using it.”
“It wouldn’t have shown anything anyway. You
can’t photograph a ghost.”
“Likewise, a ghost can’t reflect in a mirror,” Jupe
told him.“But either this one did, or else she was
inside the mirror itself. I never heard of a mirror
ghost. I wish she’d show herself again.”
“That’s your opinion, not mine,” Pete retorted.“All
right, we’ve proved Terror Castle is haunted. Now
let’s go and tell Mr. Hitchcock.”
“We have just begun,” Jupiter said.“There is much
to be learned yet. We must proceed farther. This time
I won’t forget the camera. I am very anxious to
photograph the Blue Phantom playing the ruined pipe
organ.”
His partner’s calmness helped to steady Pete. He
shrugged.
“All right,” he said.“But aren’t you going to mark
our route with the chalk?”
Jupiter gave another exclamation of annoyance.
“You’re quite right,” he said.“I shall repair the
omission at once.”
He stepped to the window by which they had
entered and chalked a large question mark on it. Then
he chalked a similar mark lightly on the dining room
table, being careful not to mar the surface. After that
he stepped to the big mirror on the wall to put The
Three Investigators’ special mark on it.
“So that if Worthington and Bob should come after
us, they will have their attention drawn to it,” he told
Pete as he pressed hard to make the chalk show on the
polished glass.
“In case we’re never seen again, you mean?” Pete
asked.
Jupiter did not answer.
Under the pressure of his hand, the tall mirror had
swung silently back, like a door. Beyond it lay a dark
passageway, leading deep into Terror Castle.
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