Roosevelt High School - Round Up Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 27 text:

through the barred skylight, but nothing except one chair and the table with the golden key on it were visible. Disappointed, they climbed down again, and after puzzling in vain over the code, they gave the matter up as a bad job and went out to play a refreshing game of 'fone ol' cat with Ted, a neighbor boy. Ted knocked the ball into the thick shrubbery surrounding the house, when his turn came to bat, and all three started a search for the elusive ball. Suddenly Ted cried, 'fCome here, folks! See what I've found! 'l CHAPTER V They rushed over to where Stan was peering into the bushes. What is it? cried Nancy. Stan held up a silver cigarette case with the initials UH. V. B. engraved upon it. With tense and trembling fingers, Stan snapped open the case, and in it was lying the slip of paper that had been in the rag doll- the slip with the secret code on it. H, V. B., mused Nancy. HI believe this case belongs to Von Burgen, and somehow he has taken our code- maybe he took it from the desk yesterday when he was here. He probably was snooping around the house when he dropped the case. I don't like the looks of this at all. That night as the Lawrence family were sitting at dinner the telephone rang. Hello! called Mr. Lawrence into the receiver. In a faint, hoarse whisper came these words, Watch out! Stay in your rooms. Danger tonight. 'fIt's probably a silly practical joke of some kind,'l Mr. Lawrence soothed his frightened family. At eleven o'clock nothing unusual had happened, so the family went to their rooms. Mr. Lawrence was just taking his automatic from a table drawer when Nancy hurriedly entered. 'fMother, daddy, she softly called, UI heard some- body moving around down in the cellar. At this instant the lights went off, and in the complete darkness that followed, stealthy footsteps could be heard ascending the stairs to the second floor. CHAPTER VI Mr. Lawrence gripped the automatic tensely, and Mrs. Lawrence bent forward, her eyes straining to penetrate the thick pall of darkness. Nearer came those stealthy footsteps, now they were at the top of the stairs, another second and they would pass the door. Mr. Lawrence raised the automatic. Stop! he commanded in steelly tones, Nor I fire! f'Dad, it's Stan! came the cry. 'tDon't shoot!', ' 'tOh, Stan, almost sobbed Mrs. Lawrence, 'tyour father might have killed you. What do you mean by creeping around the house that way in the middle of the night? You should be in bed and asleep? Sh, mother, implored Ben, patting her hand. ttListen! I was asleep when some- thing awakened me. I don't know just what it was, but something seemed to brush my face. I sat bolt upright in bed and pressed the light switch, but it wouldn't work. Our lights must be out of order. Then, I don't know exactly why it was, I remem- bered that I had left that cigarette case with Von Burgen's initials on it down on the library table, and I crept downstairs and into the living room after it. Did you get it? inquired Mr. Lawrence. No, dad, I didn't,H answered Stan, because it wasn't there. I ran my fingers over every inch of that table, and it wasn't there. Oh, daddy, broke in Nancy, who up to this moment had been too startled and upset to say anything, I think I'll go crazy if we donit have some light in this house. 'tI'll fix the light, 0. K., volunteered Stan. I know how to do it with a penny. We were told in a talk on Fire Prevention to put a new fuse in and never to use a penny, but I'd like to know what's a fellow to do when he hasnit any fuse, and it's midnight, and the fifteen-cent store isn't open. Tomorrow, I'll buy a dozen fuses l25I

Page 26 text:

was large, and had many unexplored nooks and corners. There proved to be nothing in the attic except a pile of old furniture. Antiques, sniffed Nancy, 'fand just look at the dust. It would take a month to clean this placef' Feeling a trifle disappointed, Stan and Nancy came down the narrow attic stairs. And there, built into the Wall at the foot of the staircase, was something they had not seen in their rapid trip up to the attic. It was a small door with a tiny, cob-webbed window in the upper portion. The door was locked, and appeared to be made of very heavy wood. Maybe mother has the key among the bunch that Uncle left, cried Stan. Letls go and seef, They found their mother with a letter that had been left by Uncle Ben, open in her lap, and a very perplexed expression on her face. fShe had been reading it aloud to her husband.J The children hurriedly told her what they had found. f'Well, that clears one thing up, replied Mrs. Lawrence. 'fThis letter says there is a locked room in this house. It contains something important for us. But Uncle Ben said we would have to find the key. Mrs. Lawrence produced a bunch of keys, and she, Mr. Lawrence and the rest trooped up to the locked door and tried one key after another, but to no avail. Not a key would turn the lock. Stan looked at it ruefully. 'fWe1l, Uncle certainly didn't make it easy for us, he said. Nancy rubbed the cob-webs and dust from the little window in the center of the door, and peeked into the room. Then suddenly she gasped. CHAPTER III When Nancy gasped, Mr. Lawrence took it upon himself to look into the matter. What he saw puzzled him. There, in the sunlight which shone on the table from a tiny barred skylight, lay a small golden key. 'fHow are we going to get in there? asked Stan, disgustedly. Hjust one little window, and that is heavily barredf' f'Maybe the code has something to do with it. Uncle Ben wrote it, and there must be some clue about the meaning of this room. I don't believe that key opens the door, it is too small, but there must be a key somewhere in this house that will open the door of the room. That night, when Mr. Lawrence returned from the office, the family was still talking about the secret room. ffHave any of you told anyone about this mystery? inquired Mrs. Lawrence. f'Why, yes, I have, answered Mr. Lawrence. UI met that queer old man, Mr. Von Burgen, who is so interested in antiques, and he asked me if Uncle Ben had left a message of any kind for us in his will, so I told him all about our discovery of the code and the secret room. 'LI feel you shouldn't have done that, said Mrs. Lawrence. Mr, Von Burgen is a very peculiar man, and somehow I don't trust him. The next afternoon the Lawrences had a caller W- Mr. Von Burgen in person. He expressed a desire to examine the door to the secret room, and cast a lingering look at the golden key on the table. He took his departure after a half-hour, leaving a vague feeling of uneasiness behind him. CHAPTER IV That night Nancy dreamed that Mr. Von Burgen was creeping up the stairs to the door of the secret room, with a key in his hand and a fiendish gleam in his eye. In her dream, she tried to snatch the key away, but he seized her in an iron grip and clapped a hand over her mouth. She awoke moaning, and it was daylight before she could shake off the horror of that dream. After breakfast, Stan and Nancy found a long ladder in the old barn, and prop- ping it against the side of the house, they climbed up one by one to take a peek l24l

Page 28 text:

to be prepared for any emergency, but tonight I guess the penny will have to do the job. Five minutes later the house was flooded with light, and Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence and Nancy gathered in the living room to talk over the events of the evening. There was no doubt of it - the cigarette case, and with it the secret code, had disappeared. Do you know, mused Mr. Lawrence, 'CI think that telephone message about somebody intending to kill us was all a fake? It was a trick to frighten us so that we would confine ourselves in our bedrooms and leave the downstairs portion of the house open to invasion. Probably Von Burgen, or somebody working for him, saw that cigarette case on the table through the window, and determined to get it. He has possession of that code now, but he's not much better off than we are, unless he can decipher it. I have a feeling that the code tells where the key to the secret room is. Perhaps if we hunt in every nook and corner of the house we can locate the key without the code, and beat him at his own game. HOh, daddy! l' burst out Nancy, 'twhy canlt we have him arrested? HOTI what grounds?'! asked her father. t'You canlt arrest a man just because you suspect him. What could we prove? Nothing! Ulf we only had some idea what he's hunting for, murmured Mrs. Lawrence. f'Whatever it is must be pretty valuable, remarked Nancy, 'tor he wouldn't be taking so many chances of being caughtf' f'Dad! Dad! Oh, dad! came a shout from the hall in a boyish voice, and Stan came racing breathlessly up the stairs. 'fWhat's the matter?'! called Mr. Lawrence. f'Look! Look! cried Stan, I found this in the fuse box. And he held up a silver key. CHAPTER VII 'fWell, I declare, said Mr. Lawrence in a gasp. The others were so surprised they could not speak. Nancy finally stammered, 'tQuick! tLLet's try -,H but before she could finish, Stan, who was still holding the key, pushed her aside and darted through the house to the locked room. Nancy was a close second, with Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence bringing up at the rear. Stan reached the door out of breath, and sank, gasping, on his knees before it. Please, please hurry, begged Nancy, t'I'm so excited I just can't wait. Well, give me time to get my breath. I'm as excited as you are, retorted Stan. He slipped the key into the lock, and while the rest of the family waited motionless, the sound of the doorbell broke the spell. Startled, they listened while a second summons pealed through the house. 'LNow, who can it be at this hour?'l asked Mr. Lawrence. The family went downstairs together, Stan still gripping the precious key which he had removed from the lock. Mr. Lawrence opened the door-and there stood a policeman! CHAPTER VIII MWell, began the policeman, 'Las I was walking past on my beat, I saw a young boy dart out of your bushes and across the street. When I caught him, I frightened him into confessing what had happened. He said that he was passing your house a while ago when a well-dressed man stopped him and told him that he had just been paying a call at your house, and he had gone off without his cigarette case and did not want to disturb you, so he offered to give the boy a dollar if he would slip through the French windows and secure the case, which was lying on the table. The boy wanted the money and did as he was asked. I thought maybe something was wrong, so I came up here to see you about it. Mr. Lawrence, who didn't want the police to know the story of the secret room, l26l