“Three beds!” exclaimed Jimmie, flashing his light along the wall. “And that must mean three ghosts!”
Sam proceeded to a corner of the room as yet uninvestigated and was not much surprised when the round eye of his electric revealed a rough table, made of wooden planks, bearing dishes and remnants of food. He called at once to the boys and they gathered about him.
“Also,” Carl chuckled, “the three ghosts do not live entirely upon spiritual food. See there,” he continued, “they’ve had some kind of a stew, probably made out of game shot in the mountains.”
“And they’ve been making baking powder biscuit, too!” Carl added.
“I don’t suppose it would be safe to sample that stew?” Jimmie asked questioningly. “It looks good enough to eat!”
“Not for me!” declared Carl.
While the boys were examining the table and passing comment on the articles it held, Sam moved softly to the doorway by which they had entered and looked out into the corridor. Looking from the interior out to the moonlit lake beyond, the place lost somewhat of the dreary appearance it had shown when viewed under the searchlights. The walls were of white marble, as was the floor, and great slashes in the slabs showed that at one time they had been profusely ornamented with designs in metal, probably in gold and silver.
The moonlight, filtering through the broken roof, disclosed a depression in the floor in a back corner. This, Sam reasoned, had undoubtedly held the waters of the fountain hundreds of years before. Directly across from the doorway in which he stood he saw another break in the wall.
On a previous visit this opening, which had once been a doorway, had been entirely unobstructed. Now a wall of granite blocks lay in the interior of the apartment, just inside the opening. It seemed to the young man from where he stood that there might still be means of entrance by passing between this newly-built wall and the inner surface of the chamber.
Thinking that he would investigate the matter more fully in the future, Sam turned back to where the boys were standing, still commenting on the prepared food lying on the table. As he turned back a low, heavy grumble agitated the air of the apartment.