Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: Whispering Walls by Wirt Mildred A Mildred Augustine
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 1285 lines and 33345 words, and 26 pages
tine symbols sewn with metallic beads.
Across the room, above the deep fireplace, two crossed machetes dangled from cords attached to the wall. Beneath the table was a small, crude wooden chest, and lying upon it was a rattle made from pebbles placed in a painted canister.
Salt shook the rattle several times. In the stillness of the room, the clatter of the pebbles seemed almost deafening to Penny's sensitive ears.
"Oh, please!" she pleaded.
"Don't you like it?" he teased.
Penny shook her head. With fascinated gaze, she stared at the flickering oil light.
"Do you suppose that thing burns all the time, Salt, or has someone just been here?"
"It couldn't burn very long, unless someone keeps refilling the shell with oil. Wonder what's in this chest?"
Salt stooped to raise the lid. As he did so, Penny, who stood close beside him, suddenly clutched his arm. At his look of surprise, she mumbled:
"I thought I heard something just then--like the rustling of silk!"
Salt listened a moment and chuckled. "That old imagination of yours is working overtime, Penny! Relax!"
"But I did hear a rustling sound as if someone were moving along the wall. Listen! There it is again!"
"No one could--" Salt began, and broke off. The queer look that came over his face told Penny that he too had heard the sound.
Then whispering began, and seemed to issue from the very cottage walls. At first the stunned pair could not distinguish a word. But gradually the words whispered in a throaty voice became audible.
"Go!" the warning voice commanded. "All is forbidden!"
Salt was the first to recover from surprise at the whispered warning. Convinced that someone must be crouching beneath the open cottage window, he strode across the room to peer outside.
No one was in sight.
"The voice seemed to come from the wall itself!" Penny murmured. She added jokingly, "Maybe this place has a ghost who is annoyed because we climbed in through the window!"
"That whispered warning came from a very human ghost," the photographer muttered. "We'll do a little annoying ourselves if we can find the bird!"
Salt jerked open the door. Penny followed him outside. Behind them, the door swung shut again, but neither noticed.
Quickly they circled the cottage. No one was visible in the clearing nor were leaves stirring in the bushes close by.
Salt, however, remained convinced the warning had been whispered by someone standing close to the window who then had quickly retreated to the sheltering shrubbery.
"The warning seemed to come from the very inside of the walls," Penny repeated.
"How could it? The walls are only average thickness, so the only place a person could hide would be outside. It's a cinch no one was in the room with us!"
"Lorinda might have crept close to the cottage and whispered the warning," Penny said thoughtfully, "but I doubt it very much."
"Lorinda?"
"Mrs. Rhett's daughter. She tried to prevent me investigating the cottage before you arrived."
"Then she may have followed us here."
"The whispering voice didn't sound like hers," Penny insisted. "No, I can't believe it was Lorinda."
Salt started back toward the cottage. "Whoever it was, let's not be bluffed out, Penny. We'll see what's inside the wooden chest."
The cottage door was closed. To the photographer's annoyance, it refused to open even when he thrust his weight against it.
"Now what?" he demanded. "Did you close the door when you came out, Penny?"
"Not that I recall. The wind must have blown it shut."
"Wind? What wind? Look at the trees."
Scarcely a leaf was stirring.
"Then I'm afraid it must have been the jungle ghost," Penny said with a nervous giggle. She glanced at her wrist watch. "Salt, it's getting late. We must go."
"Not yet," retorted Salt grimly.
Again he circled the thatched cottage, with Penny tagging none too happily at his heels. As they saw the window, they both paused.
"Why, it's closed now!" Penny gasped. "How did we leave it?"
"Open. The cottage door may have blown shut by itself and locked with a spring catch, but this window is a horse of a different color. It couldn't have closed by itself."
"Who could have lowered it? How was it done without our knowledge?"
Salt had no explanation. Lifting Penny so that she could peer inside the room again, he asked her what she could see.
"Not a sign of anyone. But it's so dark--"
"See anything now?" Salt demanded impatiently as her voice trailed off.
"The cocoanut shell lamp! It's no longer burning!"
"Sure?"
"I couldn't see better if I wore bifocals! The room is dark."
"An experience like this shouldn't happen to a dog," muttered Salt. "We'll find out what's behind it! Raise the window and in we go."
Penny tugged at the sill. "Locked," she reported. "From the inside."
Disgusted, Salt allowed her to drop lightly to the ground. "Wait until I find a rock," he instructed. "We'll get in!"
Penny caught his arm. "No, Salt! We've already overstepped our rights. We mustn't damage the Rhett property."
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page