Read The Hidden Staircase for Free Online

VI
    The Gorilla Face
    “SOMETHING has happened to Helen!” Aunt Rosemary cried out fearfully.
    Nancy was already racing through the second-floor hallway. Reaching the stairs, she leaped down them two steps at a time. Helen Corning had collapsed in a wing chair in the parlor, her hands over her face.
    “Helen! What happened?” Nancy asked, reaching her friend’s side.
    “Out there! Looking in that window!” Helen pointed to the front window of the parlor next to the hall. “The most horrible face I ever sawl”
    “Was it a man’s face?” Nancy questioned.
    “Oh, I don’t know. It looked just like a gorilla!” Helen closed her eyes as if to shut out the memory of the sight.
    Nancy did not wait to hear any more. In another second she was at the front door and had yanked it open. Stepping outside, she looked all around. She could see no animal near the house, nor any sign under the window that one had stood there.
    Puzzled, the young sleuth hurried down the steps and began a search of the grounds. By this time Helen had collected her wits and come outside. She joined Nancy and together they looked in every outbuilding and behind every clump of bushes on the grounds of Twin Elms. They did not find one footprint or any other evidence to prove that a gorilla or other creature had been on the grounds of the estate.
    “I saw it! I know I saw it!” Helen insisted.
    “I don’t doubt you,” Nancy replied.
    “Then what explanation is there?” Helen demanded. “You know I never did believe in spooks. But if we have many more of these weird happenings around here, I declare I’m going to start believing in ghosts.”
    Nancy laughed. “Don’t worry, Helen,” she said. “There’ll be a logical explanation for the face at the window.”
    The girls walked back to the front door of the mansion. Miss Flora and Aunt Rosemary stood there and immediately insisted upon knowing what had happened. As Helen told them, Nancy once more surveyed the outside of the window at which Helen had seen the terrifying face.
    “I have a theory,” she spoke up. “Our ghost simply leaned across from the end of the porch and held a mask in front of the window.” Nancy stretched her arm out to demonstrate how this was possible.
    “So that’s why he didn’t leave any footprints under the window,” Helen said. “But he certainly got away from here fast.” She suddenly laughed. “He must be on some ghosts’ track team.”
    Her humor, Nancy was glad to see, relieved the tense situation. She had noticed Miss Flora leaning wearily on her daughter’s arm.
    “You’d better lie down and rest, Mother,” Mrs. Hayes advised.
    “I guess I will,” Aunt Flora agreed.
    It was suggested that the elderly woman use Aunt Rosemary’s room, while the others continued the experiment with the chandelier.
    Helen and Aunt Rosemary went into the parlor and waited as Nancy ascended the front stairway and went to Miss Flora’s bedroom. Once more she began to rock from side to side. Downstairs, Aunt Rosemary and her niece were gazing intently at the ceiling.
    “Look!” Helen exclaimed, pointing to the crystal chandelier. “It’s moving!” In a moment it swung to the left, then back to the right.
    “Nancy has proved that the ghost was up in my mother’s room!” Aunt Rosemary said excitedly.
    After a few minutes the rocking motion of the chandelier slackened and finally stopped. Nancy came hurrying down the steps.
    “Did it work?” she called.
    “Yes, it did,” Aunt Rosemary replied. “Oh, Nancy, we must have two ghosts!”
    “Why do you say that?” Helen asked.
    “One rocking the chandelier, the other holding the horrible face up to the window. No one could have gone from Miss Flora’s room to the front porch in such a short time. Oh, this complicates everything!”
    “It certainly does,” Nancy agreed. “The question is, are the two ghosts in cahoots? Or, it’s just possible, there is only one. He could have disappeared from Miss