Nancy Drew: 2 . The Hidden Staircase

Finally Getting to Experiment

"Wait, Nancy!" shouted Helen as Nancy dashed out into the yard. She groaned. "She's done that twice already!" She and the others dashed after Nancy. Nancy slowly turned around, surveying the grounds before moving. The others followed her towards the window where Flora had seen the apparition.

Nancy let out an exasperated huff. "He's gone!"

"Well, you really didn't think catching him would be that easy, now did you?' said Helen.

"No, but I was expecting to see him running away from the house, even if he was too far away for us to catch up to him."

Helen's eyes widened. "Wait, you mean . . ."

"I think this person Aunt Flora saw is the same ghost who had swung the chandelier. There's got to be a secret opening here somewhere!" Nancy took another look around the yard, but she wasn't seeing anything. Behind her, the others had huddled together, fear beginning to take over, fear that an unknown man had complete access to the house and they didn't know where he was hiding at that moment. And especially in broad daylight! Nancy glanced at them and her hands balled into fists. She was determined to catch this guy, but first, she had to find him.

She let out a huff before addressing the group. "Let's head back inside, he's obviously long gone. Let's get back into our positions and I'll see if I can recreate the chandelier moving. We've got to find a clue somewhere, and that chandelier's a good place to start."

Helen nodded. "Good idea." The others agreed as well. They followed Nancy back into the house, Rosemary bolting the door as soon as they were all in.

"But what I want to know is," said Izzy, "how did he find out about a secret passage?"

Nancy pointed at her. "That's a fantastic point. How does this guy know more about this house than the people living here?"

"Well, it's not like we actually looked that hard into the history of the house, much less the floor plans," said Rosemary as she helped Flora back to the sofa.

"But we did look at the floor plans," said Flora. "We didn't see any secret passages or hidden tunnels of the sort!"

Nancy rubbed her chin, thinking hard. "So, maybe not even the realtors knew? Or they didn't have the original floor plans?"

"Actually I bet the Caldwell brothers never told anyone about the secret tunnel, or put it in the floor plans,' said Flora. "They did build this and Lilac Inn around the time of the Civil War, and since they were helping runaway slaves, they figured it best that no one but they knew about it."

Nancy nodded. "That is true. But the question still stands, how did they find out the secrets of the house long before you did?"

Flora scoffed as she sat down. "Oh that's easy, they were determined to find it for their diabolical scheme, we weren't interested in looking for it in all the time we've lived here."

Rosemary nodded as she placed some pillows behind Flora. "Yes, there is that too." She turned to Nancy, determination in her eyes. "But now, it's our turn to find the secret tunnel and smoke him out."

Nancy nodded, smiling. "Exactly! That's the spirit, Aunt Rosemary! Now, everyone get back into position. We may find a clue yet!" Nancy, Ida, and Izzy sped out of the room and up the stairs while the others got back into position. Ida stood by the door and Izzy sat on the bed, but both were ready to spring into action.

"Ida, when I stop moving, you wait a second before going into Aunt Rosemary's room."

Ida nodded. "Got it."

She turned to Izzy. "I know Helen said that there was no way anyone went into the closet, but I want you to try and see if you can go through and make it look like no one went through."