Тайна загадочной лестницы [with w_cat] | страница 28

"Nancy! Wake up! Nancy! Come quick!"

[395] The voice was Miss Flora's, and she sounded extremely frightened. Nancy sped across the room, unlocked her door, and opened it wide. By this time Helen was awake and out of bed.

[396] "What happened?" she asked sleepily.

[397] Aunt Rosemary had come into the hall also. Her mother did not say a word; just started back toward her own bedroom. The others followed, wondering what they would find. Moonlight brightened part of the room, but the area near the hall was dark.

[398] "There! Up there!" Miss Flora pointed to a corner of the room near the hall.

[399] Two burning eyes looked down on the watchers!

[400] Instantly Nancy snapped on the wall light and the group gazed upward at a large brown owl perched on the old-fashioned, ornamental picture molding.

[401] "Oh!" Aunt Rosemary cried out. "How did that bird ever get in here?"

[402] The others did not answer at once. Then Nancy, not wishing to frighten Miss Flora, remarked as casually as she could, "It probably came down the chimney."

[403] "But—" Helen started to say.

Nancy gave her friend a warning wink and Helen did not finish the sentence. Nancy was sure she was going to say that the damper had been closed and the bird could not possibly have flown into the room from the chimney. Turning to Miss Flora, Nancy asked whether or not her bedroom door had been locked.

[404] "Oh, yes," the elderly woman insisted. "I wouldn't leave it unlocked for anything."

[405] Nancy did not comment. Knowing that Miss Flora was a bit forgetful, she thought it quite possible that the door had not been locked. An intruder had entered, let the owl fly to the picture molding, then made just enough noise to awaken the sleeping woman.

[406] To satisfy her own memory about the damper, Nancy went over to the fireplace and looked inside. The damper was closed.

[407] "But if the door to the hall was locked," she reasoned, "then the ghost has some other way of getting into this room. And he escaped the detection of the guard."

[408] "I don't want that owl in here all night," Miss Flora broke into Nancy's reverie. "We'll have to get it out."

[409] "That's not going to be easy," Aunt Rosemary spoke up. "Owls have very sharp claws and beaks and they use them viciously on anybody who tries to disturb them. Mother, you come and sleep in my room the rest of the night. We'll chase the owl out in the morning."

[410] Nancy urged Miss Flora to go with her daughter. "I'll stay here and try getting Mr. Owl out of the house. Have you a pair of old heavy gloves?"