AN EERIE TWIN-TOWERED CASTLE of white stone on an ice-bound island on a frozen winter lake, a nearby English manor house haunted by a flute playing ghost who roams the halls at night accompanied by a wolf, and a mysterious kidnapped girl from the p...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The Dana girls followed the path back out of the woods into the gardens behind the old mansion. Jean pointed to the yew tree maze in back, surrounded by topiary gardens containing groupings of plants that had been trained to grow in various and unusual shapes.
"Shall we search the gardens and the rest of the estate?"she asked. "Or do you think we have sufficiently uncovered the method the 'ghost' uses to enter and leave the property?"
"I'm confident we have learned exactly how the 'ghost' operates," Louise replied. "And also that the 'ghost' is Lorraine Symington."
"But how does she get into the house?" Jean mused. "That's the million dollar question. Let's search the abbey. There may well be a passage from there into the house as Mirabelle suggested."
"It's the most logical explanation," her sister agreed. "Runaway slaves would not have been kept in the house. The chance of discovery would have been too great. But they could remain in underground chambers for periods of time and be safe from those who sought to capture them."
As they approached the abbey, the girls observed that it was approximately one hundred feet behind the mansion, which was situated on a rise that was slightly higher than the elevation of the chapel.
"An underground passage from this abbey would most probably lead into a sub-basement of the house," Louise said. "We must inspect the basement thoroughly if we find no passage on this end."
Jean shook her head in perplexity. "How could a man like Mr. Symington live all his life in a house such as this and not know if there are secret passages?"
Louise chuckled with amusement. "Everyone does not have the unusually curious mind of the natural born detective like we do."
Jean laughed along with her. "I suppose you are right. But if I had grown up in this house, I'm sure I would have looked for secret passages from a very young age."
"Perhaps Lorraine did exactly that," Louise said stoutly, "and found one. Let's hope we can find it too."
They walked to the abbey entrance and Louise pulled open the iron gates that guarded the front door. Behind them were a richly carved door of silver metal. It squealed in protest as Jean pushed it open and it swung inward, revealing the gloomy interior. Inside were several rows of pews with a wide aisle down the center that led to the altar. The stained glass windows on each side of the door and above the altar allowed only a little of the light outside to filter in.
Jean shivered. "It's colder in here than it is outside!"
Louise was looking at the tiled floor, but there was no way to tell if anyone had been in the building recently. But the girls continued to scrutinize every inch of the place as they made their way up the aisle.
"Here!" Louise cried excitedly, stooping down in front of the steps to the altar. "Wolf hairs, just like Mrs. Benson found in the house."
With her gloved hand she quickly swept a small area of the tile and picked up a half dozen or so strands of grayish hair. She got back to her feet and showed them to Jean.
