There was no sound from above.
“Shall we go upstairs, or back the way we came?” she asked her chum.
“Let’s risk being caught,” Louise decided after a moment’s hesitation. “I’d rather be sent to jail for house breaking than to climb into that well again.”
Huddling together, the girls crept up the stairway. The landing was blocked by another door. Penny tested it, and finding it unlocked, pushed it gently open. Again they listened.
“The coast is clear,” Louise whispered. “I’m sure Mrs. Marborough isn’t here.”
Penny stepped across the threshold, tense with anticipation. Ever since Mrs. Marborough’s arrival in Riverview she had longed to see the interior of the grand old mansion. And now, through a strange quirk of adventure, her ambition was to be gratified.
Slowly she allowed the flashlight beam to play over the walls of the room. There were several pictures in massive gold frames, leading her to think that she had entered a library or living room. Systematically, she continued to move the light about in search of furniture. So far as she could see there was none.
“The room is empty!” Louise whispered at her elbow.
A board squeaked beneath their weight as the girls tiptoed to a doorway opening into a still larger room.
“This must be the living room,” Penny decided, observing a beautiful, circular stairway which rose to the second floor.