He found the four of them back of the boathouse one late afternoon enjoying the declining sun and discussing sports. They were seated on the boat runway and the little cadet sat down beside them. They greeted him genially.
“Well, what’s on your mind, kid?” said Terry.
“I want to tell you guys something,” returned Vench.
“Fire away,” invited Don.
“I want to tell you what I saw in Clanhammer Hall that night!” said Vench, unexpectedly.
They sat up in genuine interest. “I wish you would,” said Rhodes. “When you get through we’ll tell you why we are so anxious to know. Perhaps you can help us more than you realize.”
“I hope I can,” returned Vench, looking around to see that no one was within earshot. “Well, listen, here is the story. As you know, I said I was going to put on a dance that would make history in this school. We were going to start fixing the place up that night when that business came up in the library, the slashing of the picture and all that. We knew that there would be guards around the school and that it would be even harder to try a stunt like that, but I was determined to put it over, so I went ahead and made plans. And my biggest plan was to have it in Clanhammer Hall.
“At first I had planned to have it in the gym, the usual way, you know. But just about then I got the idea that it would add to the romance or thrill or whatever you want to call it by having it in Clanhammer Hall. Some of the fellows told me that it was strictly against the rules to go into that place, it was a sort of mysterious shrine, they said, but that made me all the more anxious to have it there. So we planned it that way and I asked if anybody knew anything about the outlay of the old place. No one did, so I decided to go in myself and look it over.
“Don was patrolling up and down when I slipped out of the side door and I waited until he got out of sight down along the lake front. Then I sneaked to the back of the old building and pried open a cellar window. I dropped down into the place and looked around—I had a flashlight with me—and I saw that it was an ordinary basement with old ash cans and a big furnace and coal bins, and whatever else goes to make up a basement. After a couple of minutes I found the stairs and went up to the top, where I didn’t have any trouble breaking open the door and getting into the hall. I flashed the light into a room or two downstairs, one an old office and one a classroom that was mighty small, and I decided that upstairs would be the better place to go. We’d be safer, I thought, and so I went up the stairs to the second floor. The thing that puzzled me was this, I smelled cooking in that old place!”
“What!” cried the others, in a breath.